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Camp Beauregard -- Before Pearl Harbor
The 3rd Armored Division traces its history to 14 April 1941
when 600 officers and 2000 men departed Major General George
S. Patton's 2nd Armored Division at Fort Benning, Georgia, and
entrained for Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, where they were to
form the nucleus of a new armored unit. Brigadier General Alvan
C. Gillem, Jr., was designated commanding general. A former commander
of the 2nd Armored Brigade, he was known to be a shrewd tactician.
At Camp Beauregard the machinery of organization of the new
division was first set into motion. Activation meant rigid training
of cadremen to act as instructors for the schooling of trainees
yet to join the new outfit. Courses of instruction were designed,
and 20 early model, light "Mac West" tanks were assigned
to the various units, many of which were busy changing their
number designations and adopting new tables of organization.
The new division's component units, after the number redesignations
of May 1941, were the 32nd, 33rd, and 40th Armored Regiments,
the 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, the 54th Armored Field Artillery
Battalion and the 67th Field Artillery Regiment, the 83rd Reconnaissance
Battalion, the 23rd Armored Engineer Battalion, the 46th Signal
Company, the 3rd Armored Division Trains, and the attached 703rd
Tank Destroyer Battalion.
Camp Polk and the 3AD "Bayou Blitz"
The division left Camp Beauregard for Camp Polk, Louisiana,
which was still under construction It was designated as the training
base for the new division, and by 14 June 1941, the transfer
was accomplished. Thousands of new recruits were forged into
the 3rd Armored Division by the original Fort Benning nucleus.
Seven thousand recruits joined the "Bayou Blitz,"
as the Division was first nicknamed, during the month of June.
By the end of July, the Division had received the majority of
its trainees. The remainder of the summer was devoted to 13 weeks
of basic training, field problems, and training expeditions and
to learning the finer points of the General Lee and General Grant
tanks, which represented the best of the armored might at the
time.
Although almost 300 men were lost to the Division in September
1941, through the provision of nuclei of trained tankers for
the 7th, 8th and 11th Armored Divisions and the release of draftees
over 28 years of age (many of whom returned to their units after
Pearl Harbor), the "Bayou Blitz' proved itself, just six
months after activation, a power in American armored force. Competing
with the older 1st Armored Division on a field problem late in
October, the 3rd flashed ahead to secure objectives on the Calcasieu
River in Louisiana. "Ride to win" was the spirit on
the Calcasieu which was to later mark the Division's drive across
France and Germany three years later.
The advent of 1942 brought extensive changes to the 3rd Armored
Division. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S.
's declaration of war, new trainees to replace those lost under
the over-age ruling poured in from across America. The brigade
command was abolished in armored force organization and two combat
commands were established to replace it. This prefaced a far-reaching
regroupment of units within the Division, including the deactivation
of the 40th Armored Regiment, its tanks going to the 32nd and
33rd Armored Regiments; the separation of the 67th Field Artillery
Regiment into the 67th and 391st Armored Field Artillery Battalions;
the activation of the 3rd Armored Maintenance Battalion; the
redesignation of the 15th Quartermaster Battalion as the 3rd
Armored Division Supply Battalion and the 46th Signal Company
as the 143rd Armored Signal Company; the enlargement of the 23rd
Armored Engineer Battalion; and the formation of a Train Headquarters.
On 17 January 1942 Major General Gillem was named to Command
II Armored Corps and was replaced as division commander by Brigadier
General Walton H. Walker.
During the spring of 1942, the "Bayou Blitz" continued
to supply trained personnel to new armored units. The 7th Armored
Division, brought into existence at Camp Polk, was a direct offspring
of the 3rd, which not only provided the cadre for the new division,
but also trained the entire group of recruits.
Mojave Desert Maneuvers
In mid-July orders were received for the division to move
to the Mojave Desert in California for more intensive training.
Thirty trains were used to transport the Third to California.
After a four-day journey, the troops stepped down from the relatively
cool interior of the railroad coaches into a brilliant expanse
of sun, sand, and jagged rock. While the thermometer registered
well over 100 degrees, the Division launched a series of desert
maneuvers.
The maneuvers in the Mojave during the summer probably did
more to toughen the division and prepare it for actual combat
than had all previous training. Stripped to bare essentials,
the tankers and supporting arms took to the wide open spaces
in mock battle. Pitted against superior "enemy forces,"
they never failed to turn in a creditable performance.
On the desert, the Third first became a part of the VII Corps,
an association which resumed later in the European campaigns.
Brigadier General Walker left the Division in mid-August to
assume command of the IV Armored Corps and was replaced by Brigadier
General Leroy H. Watson. About the same time, Major General Gillem,
who had become commander of the Mojave Desert Training Center,
re-christened the Third the "Always Dependable" division.
Africa, No -- Pennsylvania, Yes.
After concluding two-week maneuvers in late September and
early October, it looked like the Division was ready to move
possibly to Africa, but instead its destination was Camp Pickett,
Virginia.
In contrast to the wide, cloudless desert. Camp Pickett was
crowded and damp. But in spite of this, the men of the 3rd Armored
Division shook it off and began a vigorous schedule of work and
instruction. The latest in ordnance items were issued to the
several units, and command post exercises, road hikes, and range
firing occupied much of the soldiers' time during the last months
of 1942.
In mid-January 1943, the much-traveled division moved once
more; this time to beautifully laid out Indiantown Gap Military
Reservation, a former Pennsylvania National Guard camp located
in the rolling hill country of south-central Pennsylvania.
Indiantown Gap: The Pain, The Pleasures
There was no diminishing of training at the new camp; in fact,
an accelerated program was put into effect. Road marches and
command post exercises went on as usual, tankers learned the
fine points of indirect fire, and the pine-clad slopes of the
Blue and Center Mountains echoed to the rumble of artillery fire.
In complete disregard of deep snow and bitter cold, gunnery,
maintenance, and physical conditioning were the touchstones to
progress. It was here that division personnel gained the winter
weather experience that was to help them through the hard Ardennes
struggle two years later.
As spring and then summer came, the division engaged in battalion
tests and a host of training exercises, including the laying
and detecting of minefields and booby traps, platoon combat firing,
indirect artillery firing, and street fighting. Physical fitness
tests were prescribed for all personnel, both officers and enlisted
men alike groaned through the prescribed 33 push-ups and the
25 mile hike with full field equipment.
Although the training at Indiantown Gap was extremely hard
and comprehensive, troops of the division found their seven month
stay there the happiest of all training periods. The camp was
close to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Since
transportation was better than at the other training sites, the
men were able to spend many weekends in these cities as well
as in the surrounding Pennsylvania Dutch towns nearby.
Finally - OVERSEAS ALERT!
It was in early August 1943, that the 3rd Armored Division
was alerted for overseas service. An advance party left Indiantown
Gap on 9 August and proceeded to Fort Hamilton, New York. Its
ultimate destination a closely guarded secret.
The remainder of the division left Pennsylvania two weeks
later for Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and the overseas port of embarkation
at New York. They remained at Fort Kilmer eight days, during
which time they received injections, heard talks on censorship
and security, saw battle indoctrination films, and received final
physical examinations of the type; "He's warm -- He's in."
For the first time in the division' s experience, each letter
mailed bore the censor's stamp and was made out "In Care
of Postmaster."
Early on 4 September, the units moved out of Camp Kilmer and
boarded trains for New York harbor. On the pier, a few hours
later, the long lines of soldiers waited patiently, then struggled
up the gangplanks into the John Erickson, the Capetown
Castle, and the Shawnee. On the next morning the Division
was on the high seas, still destination unknown.
Spearheaders in North Africa
Before the American invasion of North Africa in November 1942,
the 3rd Armored Division sent a small party to observe the British
in their fight against Rommel; among the party was Lieutenant
Colonel Lawton F. Garner, executive officer of division artillery.
It is remembered they reported on their return that they were
not impressed with British vehicle maintenance, a point stressed
on our troops with each driver being responsible for primary
maintenance on his vehicle. With the North African invasion,
the 3rd Armored sent an advance party in November 1942 consisting
of Lieutenant Colonel Harvie R. Matthews of the G-3 Section,
Lieutenant Colonel Theodore A. Seely from the 36th Armored Infantry
Regiment (AIR), Tech Sergeant Robert F. Sylvester from the I
& R Platoon of Headquarters, 36th AIR, 1st Sergeant Massey
from the 83rd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, and from the
G-3 Section, Sergeant Jones, afterwards known as "Africa"
Jones to differentiate him from another sergeant with the same
name.
In a 35 ship convoy on a troop-filled ship, they arrived at
Oran, Algeria, after 14 days at sea. The party found North Africa
cold and wet at that time of year. After they picked up a truck,
they visited 1st Armored Division at Oran, drove to Algiers,
then to the front with the 6th Infantry. They saw some British
with their 6th Armored Division, went on reconnaissance with
U.S. infantry, and spent a lot of time in the mud.
The advance party's return stateside was by plane via Ascension
Island and Brazil, arriving 25 January 1943 when the division
was at Indiantown Gap.
Well-protected Trans-Atlantic Convoy
After eight days at Camp Kilmer, we of the 3rd entrained for
Staten Island and on 5 September boarded ship -- these being
the John Erickson (formerly the Kungsholm), the
Capetown Castle, and the Shawnee.
While we did not know it then, we were a part of a historic
convoy. Samuel Eliot Morison in his book The Atlantic Battle
Won, May 1943-May 1945, volume ten of History of U.S.
Naval Operations in World War II, wrote that the Queens-The
Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth, Mauretania, Acqitania,
Pastuer of the French Line, and Canadian Empress of
Scotland had handled the build up of troops to Europe with the
Queens carrying 15,000 troops each, and able to maintain a steady
speed of 28 1/2 knots, they did not need escort vessels.
"By September 1941 the Queens and their consorts,"
Morison wrote, "could no longer cope with the increased
stream of American troops," and a new series of all American
convoys departed New York for the United Kingdom.
"These convoys, designated UT, traveled at 14 or 15 knots,
which in itself was almost enough to escape submarine attack.
For even better protection they were given a strong escort of
American destroyers, fast minesweepers or destroyer escorts,
with a battleship added on the chance that a German raider might
get lose. So fast and well protected were the troop convoys that
their crossings were almost completely uneventful."
UT-2, second of these troop convoys, left New York on 5 September
1943 for a ten-day passage to the North Channel between Ireland
and Scotland. The convoy consisted of 20 transports and troopships
escorted by nine destroyers, four fast minesweepers, a destroyer
escort, and the battleship Nevada. Rear Admiral Carleton
F. Bryant was the escort commander.
The conditions aboard ship during the crossing was Spartan.
Two meals a day were served, and the men slept in shifts. One
soldier on leaving his berth and routed on deck with his A bag
was told by a lieutenant to clear it away from the rail in order
to make a passage. He did so by heaving it over the rail! It
is understood that the cost of his equipment came out of his
pay. This was no cruise ship. No lights were allowed on deck
after dark and this included cigarettes. One staff officer playing
high stakes poker found the cost of the crossing for him equaled
peacetime first class.
Not one submarine contact was made. However, early one morning
depth bombs were dropped for practice, but the troops did not
know that. The practice created a stir among the troops in the
convoy who did not know it was for practice.
The John Erickson and Capetown Castle landed
safely at Liverpool. While the Shawnee went on to land
at Bristol. Many of the 3rd Armored boarded trains at night for
Wiltshire and Somerset.
Even though the landing received no headlines, the passage
was indirectly mentioned in Parliament by Winston Churchill who
announced that for the four months which ended on 18 September,
no merchant vessel was sunk by enemy action in the North Atlantic
nor any allied ships sunk by U-boat action in any part of the
world for the first 14 days of September.
Next Chapter: Preparation in England
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