HISTORY of the 736th FABn Courtesy of Ken Roll (Page 2)
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The Takeoff On the 10th of June, 1944 the 736th assembled at a Fort Ord railway siding and climbed aboard a transcontinental troop train for a joinery through the northern part of the United States. Left behind on the platform were members of the 183rd Field Artillery Group which had been activated much earlier and had expected to go first. After 5 days the train arrived in New Rochelle, NY on the 15th of June. After deboarding from the train the Battalion hiked to the pier on Long Island Sound and sailed out to Fort Slocum. Processing of the Battalion began on the morning of the 16th and ended the evening of the 17th. Passes were then issued to those whom wanted, to go to New York City. On the 20th of June 1944, the Battalion went on their next boat trip, those who easily got seasick, were much relieved that it was only down Long Island Sound to where the Brigadier General William E. Horton, troop ferry, would carry them through the East River to the pier on the Hudson River where the ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth lay. The Battalion was put in charge of feeding troops on board, which proved to be an enormous task. On June 22, 1944 the Queen Elizabeth pulled out of the harbor and began zig-zagging her way across the Atlantic to Scotland. She went full tilt all the way and everyone tried to see a submarine but failed. Seasickness was not much of a problem as the Queen was so large (it carried 12,000 troops) that it didn’t rock. After 7 days sailing, on the 29th of June, the Queen dropped anchor in the waters of Scotland. Now the Battalion boarded a small river boat on the Clyde - The Queen was too large to tie up at a wharf - and started the trip down river to Greenouch, a town a little over one-half mile away. This voyage was completed in an hour and a quarter. Here everyone got a chance to see small mine sweepers and corvettes with their sterns blown off, the first wreckage of war the Battalion had seen. At Greenouch, the Battalion boarded a train and took off through Scotland, down through western England to the tiny town of Wooferton, not far from Leominster, Herefordshire. Here The Battalion was quartered in a tent camp on a large estate called, Berrington Park. On July 1, 1944 the Battalion received some of its first vehicles and on July 4 the first M4 tractors arrived. General Slack visited the Battalion on July 7. By July 21 word was received that our howitzers which were on a cargo ship, that was anchored off the coast of Wales. The narrow, winding roads of Britain began to take its toll on vehicles and drivers. On the way back from picking up the howitzers, one of the tractors ran away down hill and plunged through a brick coal shed. Going out by plane to settle the claim by the owners of the shed, Major Peter Fox and Lt. Ernest Wagner found the landing field a bit too short for a successful take off and clipped out a neat chuck of hedge. The plane was dismantled, folded up and loaded into a 2 1/2 ton 6x6 truck, Major Fox and Lt. Wagner were not folded up and returned to Battalion Headquarters. Once again the narrow roads claimed some more victims, on July 27 near Kidderminster, Pvt. Richard Bottine T/5 David Hill and Cpl. John Bobrowski were involved in a collision, luckily no serious injuries occurred. The next day, July 28, another accident occurred near the town of Tenbury. Pfc. Clifford Kerr, 1st/Sgt. Douglas Holmgren “HQ” Battery, T/Sgt. Thompson, S/Sgt. Boyd Garrett, T/4 Dale Kemp, T/4 Maaters, Cpl. Miller, Pfc. Walter Swofford, Pfc. Drewek, Pvt. David Brown and Pvt. Charles Pincik were in a 3/4 ton truck which turned over. No injuries were reported. On July 29 the Battalion suffered its first fatality when T/Sgt. Woerner was killed in another road accident. Also injured were 1st Lt. Holt, T/4 Meyer and T/4 Frank Banowitz. They were badly burned when the vehicle caught fire. Pvt. James Adkins suffered shock. They were accompanying the Battalion Commander, Col. Stocks, to a school in the south of England, when they slid into a 2 1/2 ton truck on a curve. The gas tank had been crushed, throwing burning gasoline on the men. On August 1, 1944 the orders came down to prepare to break camp. August 3, the Battalion left Berrington Park for the POE (Port of Embarkation). The Battalion arrived at the marshaling area in the County of Dorset near the town of Portsmouth, England. On the 5th of August the Battalion was issued life belts, left the marshaling area and loaded aboard two LST’s and one LCT, which carried the M4s and howitzers, plus other vehicles. It now became very real that the 736th was going to war.
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