On To Europe

Toward the end of training at Camp White, the men of the 300th Combat Engineer Battalion understood that an invasion of Europe was inevitable. Germans occupied almost all of Europe. The occupation included 58 German divisions, half of which were somewhat weak coastal defenses, while the remaining ten armored and 17 infantry divisions were ill-equipped and under-manned.

Not knowing where or when, the 300th suspected the time was close when they left Camp White by troop train. There was some good spirit among the men. Although they knew little of where they were headed, they did know they were headed east which told them they were not headed to the South Pacific but instead they were likely to be heading to Europe. They could not have imagined the grueling and dangerous times ahead.

The train trip was long and tedious. Under threat of court-martial, they rode with the window curtains closed most of the time. The troop train traveled from Camp White to Portland, Oregon and then through Washington, Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, Iowa to Chicago, IL. On the outskirts of major cities, the train would stop long enough for the men to detrain for simple calisthenics and a few moments to loosen up. Contact with civilians was forbidden except the simple courtesies of hello, thank you and goodbye as German spies were believed to be in the States and looking for any intelligence they could gather. The train then went into Canada at Detroit and down the Hudson River to Camp Shanks, New York where the 300th stayed more than a week before shipping out. Camp Shanks was on the Hudson River just a few miles north of New York City.

They boarded a ship at Pier #92 that they later learned to be the Queen Mary on December 3, 1943 bound for England. Captain Bisset was the Ship Commander with a British crew of 1,087 and 11,907 troops aboard. Hitler offered a one million Reichs-Mark reward to the U-Boat commander that sank the Queen Mary. Obviously, the reward was never collected. There was a coin toss aboard the Queen Mary between Major John Burfening, the commanding officer of the 207th Engineers, and Major Riel Crandall, commanding officer of the 300th Engineers deciding who would have MP (military police) or KP (kitchen police) duty. Crandall won and chose MP duty which mostly involved keeping the troops moving toward the chow line and then returning to their bunks or sleeping location. With nearly 12,000 troops aboard, kidney stew, brussel sprouts and bitter marmalade was standard fare. The Queen Mary zigzagged her way across the Atlantic Ocean changing course every seven miles. She averaged 26.98 knots and covered the 3,540 mile trip in five and a half days arriving on December 9, 1943 in Gourock, Scotland near Glasgow. The 300th boarded troop trains for an all night trip to Reading, England and finally moved by truck convoy to Devises, England, a town about 50 miles southwest of London, arriving on December 12.

300th Engineer Warren Chancellor describes the trip to England:

We took a short train trip from Camp Shanks to the docks in N. Y. Under complete secrecy, we boarded our ship. We were not able to see the ship until we were on board and then we discovered it was the Queen Mary which had been converted into a troop ship

Our unit was selected to serve as Military Police for the voyage. Food was terrible (British), lots of kidney stew and a very bitter orange marmalade. We were given only two meals a day. There were over 11,000 troops on the ship and it took all day to serve two meals to that many troops. The ship went unescorted and five days and nights later we dropped anchor just off the coast of Grennock, Scotland. We went ashore on "tenders" and boarded a train. Some 24 hours later, we arrived at Devizes, England, not far from London. We were there for only a short period of time and spent Christmas there, however I think that most of us did not even realize that it was Christmas [1943].

Combat engineers had high moral. They considered themselves, rightly so, specialists. But they also could, and later did, act as infantry; especially in the Battle of the Bulge. Engineer special service regiments had skilled construction personnel and assigned heavy equipment. They also were specialists in topography, water supply and railway.

The 300th was attached to the 1110th Engineer Combat Group while in England. Other units attached to the 1110th were: 148th & 207th Combat Engineer Battalions; 631st Engineer Light Equipment Company; and the 989th Engineer Treadway Bridge Company. The 1110th, under the command of Lt. Col. Daniel Spengler, was headquartered at Sonning, Berkshire, England.

The 1110th, including the 300th, had specialized training in building Treadway and Bailey bridges and erection and removal of bridges in all kinds of weather conditions during the day and at night. They also had training in road construction and maintenance, use and maintenance of power equipment and in laying and removing minefields.

The 300th moved to various locations in England constructing a camp at Bristol, a gasoline station at Westbury and a railhead at Sparkford. They also built and maintained roads for a station hospital at Haydens Park.

In May of 1944, the men and equipment of the 300th were divided into three groups. Each group was made up of men from Company A, B and C along with Headquarters and Service Company. They were divided up in the event that if an LST was lost, no one company would be incapacitated. Thus began the wait for the journey across the English Channel and the inevitable invasion of the German-occupied territories in Europe.

Donald Richter, 300th veteran, recalled his memories of the days before the Normandy invasion. The battalion was quartered in a tent camp near Swindon, England where they had trained primarily in bridge building and laying and clearing mine fields.

In mid-May, I believe, we were assembled with all of our trucks loaded with men and equipment. We were told that we would receive assault landing training in preparation for an invasion somewhere in Europe. We waited and waited and finally were ordered to dismount since we would not be receiving assault training as the assignment had gone to our sister outfit, the 299th. We were relieved but somewhat disappointed.

Each night we witnessed aircraft taking off pulling large gliders and later returning. We assumed that this was training for an invasion on the continent. The number of aircraft towing gliders was much greater on the night of June 5th and the aircraft returned without their tows [of gliders]. This was a sign to us that the invasion had begun without us. Later in the morning, radios in the company area carried the address of General Eisenhower telling his troops in England that D-Day was indeed at hand and that a huge armada of ships along with airborne troops had begun to invade France. He said that all of us would soon be joining in the battle to free Europe from the control of Nazi Germany.

Most of us, I believe, had mixed feelings. While we were relieved at not having to participate in the initial landing on D-Day, we were also just a bit let down for not being called upon to participate in the greatest military assault in the history of mankind.

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