It was here, too, that I finally got a home. I was assigned to the Company C, 2nd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. I no longer was a replacement, for I had joined an outfit. During this time, I was asked if I could drive a Jeep. Sometimes you hesitated to say “yes,” because they might give you a wheelbarrow to wheel around. But, in this case, I decided it was legitimate and said, “Yes, I have experience driving.” So an officer took me out in a Jeep, and we did some driving around the countryside. When we got back, he issued me a government driver’s license for Jeeps and light trucks. From then on, I drove a Jeep with a 37mm cannon behind it. We would go on practice trips up onto a mountainside, unhook the cannon, swing it around, and prepare to fire. We became proficient at it. We had targets on the side of the hill (old junk tanks from the Italian army) that we would shoot at.
It was around this time of the year that Italy had been invaded. We were glad that we weren’t involved in that ourselves.
One day we got a notice to move to the airport at Gela and to take up guardpoints and checkpoints. It was rumored that some “big-wigs” from the Italian government were to meet with some of the Allied generals at this airport, and they needed our protection. After about four days, nothing had taken place; and we were relieved and went back to our place at Licata.
We were there until about the 22nd of October, when we were loaded on trucks and trucked by Mt. Etna to the port city of Augusta in Sicily. There we boarded a British transport ship named the H.M.S. Stratheden. After boarding and taking on some Sikh troops and Gurkhas from India that belonged to the British army, we left Sicily; and on the 25th we stopped at Algiers. There we left the British troops and took on some more American troops; and on October 27th, we left Algiers and started back through the Mediterranean through the straits of Gibraltar and out into the Atlantic. There we went westward to avoid detection by German planes from France that might alert bombers or submarines. As it turned out, we made it all the way to Scotland and landed November 5th. Then on the 6th, we boarded a train in Glasgow traveled on through Scotland and through England to the channel coast at a village named Swanage. Some of the houses in Swanage had been evacuated so that American troops could use them while preparing for the invasion of Normandy.
Things went along pretty well there. I remember at Thanksgiving time that the turkey was tainted, so our Thanksgiving dinner was postponed. We had C rations or K rations that day.
It was around this time of the year that Italy had been invaded. We were glad that we weren’t involved in that ourselves.
One day we got a notice to move to the airport at Gela and to take up guardpoints and checkpoints. It was rumored that some “big-wigs” from the Italian government were to meet with some of the Allied generals at this airport, and they needed our protection. After about four days, nothing had taken place; and we were relieved and went back to our place at Licata.
We were there until about the 22nd of October, when we were loaded on trucks and trucked by Mt. Etna to the port city of Augusta in Sicily. There we boarded a British transport ship named the H.M.S. Stratheden. After boarding and taking on some Sikh troops and Gurkhas from India that belonged to the British army, we left Sicily; and on the 25th we stopped at Algiers. There we left the British troops and took on some more American troops; and on October 27th, we left Algiers and started back through the Mediterranean through the straits of Gibraltar and out into the Atlantic. There we went westward to avoid detection by German planes from France that might alert bombers or submarines. As it turned out, we made it all the way to Scotland and landed November 5th. Then on the 6th, we boarded a train in Glasgow traveled on through Scotland and through England to the channel coast at a village named Swanage. Some of the houses in Swanage had been evacuated so that American troops could use them while preparing for the invasion of Normandy.
Things went along pretty well there. I remember at Thanksgiving time that the turkey was tainted, so our Thanksgiving dinner was postponed. We had C rations or K rations that day.
