The Future ALCO museum in Schenectady

Duncan W. Fraser, President of ALCO (left) and S. E. Skinner, President of Oldsmobile inspect a welded patch on an M-4 tank in Nancy, France, December 1944. Courtesy of the National Archives.

A reader of this blog tipped me off to the fact that the future American Locomotive Company museum has found its space at 1910 Maxon Road, Schenectady. They are currently in fund-raising mode. My grandfather was an ALCO worker before joining the Army in 1943. He welded tanks and the secret M-7 mobile howitzer. This is discussed in the first couple chapters of my book.

The museum will focus on the company's locomotive production, but I hope they are able to acquire an M-7, M-4, or an M-36 for display. To learn more about ALCO's wartime efforts see my series of posts on Schenectady in WWII.

ALCO workers tending to an M-7, 1943.

Happy ALCO workers with a completed M4 Sherman tank.

An M7 being tested, perhaps at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.

1945 Christmas Menu, WWII Belgium

William Kelly was a friend of my grandfather from the 304th Port Company. William saved a 1945 menu, which was given to GIs on leave in Belgium for Christmas. His daughter Lorraine was nice enough to scan it so I could share it here. I love the illustration on the front (check out the rabbit and turkey in the pots!).

Cortland's Christmas, Antwerp 1944

517th Port Battalion guards posing on the snowy top of Tampico Flats apartment building, December, 1944. Photo courtesy of Jack Haren. His father John Haren is pictured on the left.

Around this time in 2010 my grandfather Cortland gave my sister a short account of his Christmas in 1944. This was after I published the book, so I'm happy to post the story here.

"Every night I was in Antwerp we slept on straw... like Jesus," Cortland chuckled. "On Christmas Eve we had a service led by the chaplain in a building with no windows [Tampico Flats]. It was happy until we were getting bombed. The bombs were dropping and the chaplain would get quiet and would hold his breath, but then he kept going. I was too scared to remember the message. I was so scared I didn't know my own name. Some people were sad. They'd rather be home—me included. We didn't get bombed on Christmas, and we had turkey. Roosevelt said everyone should get turkey if they could. The turkey was better than what we'd been eating."

As a member of the 519th Port Battalion, Cortland had been serving in Antwerp, Belgium since departing Normandy in mid-November. He was there to unload and guard supplies for the US Army. For most of this time the Germans were launching V1 and V2 rockets into the port city. During the Battle of the Bulge (December 16th to January 25th) there was a surge in the number of rocket attacks. The 519th and another port battalion were stationed in an apartment building by the docks. After months in the field they were thankful to be sheltered indoors, yet there were still discomforts. The window glass had all been shattered by explosions, the rooms lacked mattresses, and there was the ever-present anxiety of a direct hit by a v-bomb.

In 2010 and 2009 I wrote two other posts about Christmas for the port battalion men in WWII Belgium: A GI's Christmas in WWII Belgium, 1944 and GI Christmas Party in Antwerp, 1945

P.S. I looked through my National Archives records and found this quote in the 494th Port Battalion's historic report. It refers to Christmas, 1943 in Liverpool, England:

"The 494th Port Battalion in conjunction with the 490th Port Battalion were hosts to the British children in a pre-Christmas party which was enjoyed by the children as well as both battalions. The gala occasion took place a few days before Christmas."

The M1 Carbine, by Leroy Thompson

As Army service troops, the men in my grandfather's port battalion were all issued the M1 Carbine. To better understand his war experience I have been meaning to I read-up on the weapon he carried. Lucky for me Osprey Publishing just published a book on the M1 this week.

Thompson's book The M1 Carbine details the rifle's use from WWII to Korea to Vietnam. My interest is limited to WWII, which is the main focus of the book. The M1 Carbine was developed specifically for troops who's hands were mostly occupied with non-combat tasks, but were still in a combat zone. It was thought these men needed a weapon more powerful than a pistol, but not as bulky as the standard infantryman's rifle, the M1 Garand.

The Army invited weapons manufacturers to submit designs based on a set of criteria for this light rifle. Thompson details the process and shares some interesting observations. For instance, one of the several companies that was awarded a contract to produce the carbines during the war was the Underwood company. So, a company clerk in the field may have typed reports on an Underwood typewriter, while his Underwood carbine leaned against the desk!

The book goes on to describes the use of the carbine in battle. It was employed most notably by Army paratroopers in Europe who benefited from the weapon's compact size and low weight. In the Pacific the M1 carbine was valued for it's resistance to corrosion, and it's size made it well-suited to close jungle fighting. I especially appreciated page 39 which discusses the M1 Carbine's role in the Army engineer companies. All the port companies taking part in the Normandy invasion were attached to Engineer Special Brigades. Men like my grandfather unloaded supplies with the M1 Carbine slung on their backs.

In addition to numerous photographs Osprey adds two specially commissioned double-full-page color illustrations and a third single-full-page illustration by historical artist Peter Dennis.


Here's a shot of my Grandpa Corty in Normandy posing with his M1 Carbine. During the chaos of D-Day my grandfather actually lost his carbine and spent the day with an M1 Garand. He said that during the November 1944 train ride to Antwerp someone knocked over some jars of jam that were shelved above their stack of guns. The carbines were literally "jammed." He fired his carbine only once, while guarding a supply train heading to the front lines in Belgium. That anecdote is described in my book.

A Short History of the 494th Port Battalion in WWII

After speaking with veteran Dr. James Baker I requested the 494th Port Battalion historic report from the National Archives. I got a roster of men in the battalion, which is unusual, and I got a five-page written history detailing the time in the UK. Frustratingly, it cuts off just before the Normandy invasion! I would have been very interested to read what the battalion officers wrote down about that event and the time in Europe. Luckily, my conversations with James and his memoir can fill in the blanks.

In the UK

The battalion crossed the Atlantic aboard the HMT Queen Elizabeth, arriving in Gaurock, Scotland on October 19, 1943. The next day the 494th was transported by train to Maghull, Lancashire in England. The men were quartered in Deyes Lane Camp and Poverty Lane Camp. The companies all moved to Race Course Camp, Manchester, Lancashire in February, 1944. They worked the docks in the port of Liverpool until March, 1944.

You can read a fully detailed description in the pages bellow. In addition to a report of the ships unloaded these pages talk about the troops' interaction with the British. For instance, men from the 494th joined Liverpool's local Home Guard unit for a Memorial Day parade. Along with the 490th Port Battalion, the 494th co-hosted a children's Christmas party. (click for a larger view):

In Normandy

The 494th Port Battalion was attached to the 6th Engineer Special Brigade and landed on Omaha Beach in the first wave of the Normandy invasion on D+1: June 7, 1944. Read James' account of that day. In 1944 the Army Transportation Association Journal published an article "158 Days of Hell" by Captain Albert Simmons. He mentions the 494th:

"It is said of Port Battalions that they can't ever win a war but they sure as hell can lose it! One such Port Battalion, the 494th, was operating on Omaha Beach in June of 1944. On D-plus 1 the 494th was the first to hit the beach. [Earlier in the day they sat out there in the [English] Channel a few thousand feet off the shores of France, waiting, pleading, begging for the chance to go to work. And then they got it! They started discharging cargo that day, and on D-plus 158 they were still going strong.

Yeah! They are a pretty tired bunch of men right now--off loading thousands of thousands of tons of precious cargo [most by hand] every minute of every hour of every day, twenty-four hours a day for 158 days straight! [Can you imagine] standing out there in the black of an invasion night, with Jerry overhead, and tracer bullets cutting a beautiful, horrible pattern of death around you? You are seeing, feeling, sensing, the hundreds of ships out there in the channel just off the beach, loaded with tanks, guns, ammunition, gasoline, oil, chow, trucks, jeeps, and all the supplies and implements of war? You know that you and your buddies will have to unload every last ton of it...

Yes, the GI's of the Infantry are facing quick and sudden death daily, but their admiration for what the Port Battalions did during those invasion nights is expressed in the words of one Infantry Division platoon sergeant just back from the front.

"God, that took guts."

When they left finally left Omaha it was quite peaceful; and they wonder what lies ahead. But what ever it is, they'll do it again. Successfully, because they are the best stevedore battalion ever activated, and because they've already done it once on Omaha Beach."

In a recent phone conversation 494th Port Battalion veteran Robert Robinson told me about a frightening encounter he experience within hours of first coming to shore. "We waded in, and went up the hill. We just flopped down 'cause it was getting late. I just dropped down under a tree, and I was sitting with all my equipment, all wet and tired. It just happened that a sniper was up in the tree. Naturally we couldn't see him because of the leaves." Robert expected that the Germans in the trees (there were a couple) were waiting until nightfall to make their escape. "Night approached and we didn't realize there was any danger. There was a field artillery unit nearby. They spied the Germans in the trees and started firing their guns. One fell right across my legs! The thing that saved me was I reached for his weapon and took it away." Robert unarmed the wounded German before who soon collapsed from his wound.

Attacks by German aircraft were an almost nightly occurrence for at a week or two after D-Day. James Baker explained the best way to dig a foxhole to avoid being shot by the incoming planes: "They'd have us lie straight [parallel to the coastline], because if they come strafing the beach if you're lying straight you have less chance of being hit than if you were crosswise. You could see the tracer bullets coming down, and they're hitting all around you, and you just pray your name was not on the next one."

In November of 1944 the 494th left Normandy for LeHavre, France where it would continue unloading supply ships until the end of the war.

P.S. The SS Inventor was the first supply ship unloaded in Liverpool. I'll list all the ship names mentioned in the hopes that ship enthusiasts find this post: It was followed by the SS Modera, the Liberty Ship SS Abraham Lincoln, SS Santa Barbara, SS Elmer A. Sperry, SS Tombocktou, SS Gateway City, SS Apshun, SSFR Stockton, SS Eugene O'Donnell, the Mahlon Pitney, the Sheridan, the H. Watterson, the William McKinley, the John Phillip Souza, the Samana, the Seapool, the Losado, the Clan Murdock, the M/C Progress, the Elijah White, the Scottish Monarch, the City of Christinia, the Charles Robinson, the James Wetmore, the Bendoran, the Hove, and the James Duncan.

George Taylor of the 502nd Port Battalion

George Taylor (on left), William Downes, and Leonard R. Roane at Camp Kilmer in NJ in January 1946.
This month I found two articles about George Taylor. He was company carpenter serving in the 502nd Port Battalion. He speaks in this video and he is interviewed by the Culpeper, VA Star Exponent in this article.

I sent George a copy of my book and we talked today on the phone. He and several friends from his hometown of Culpeper, VA joined the 502nd Port Battalion in 1943. They trained at Camp Miles Standish, just as my grandfather's battalion had. While the 519th Port Battalion was in Bristol, George's 502nd was working up in Glasgow. He was surprised to hear that my grandfather's battalion was white. It's true that most of the Army Transportation Corps was made up of segregated black units, but there were some white comapnies as well (25% of the corps).

George's battalion hit Omaha Beach in the afternoon of June 6th. "We had to wade over dead bodies of the guys who didn't make it. The water was red with American blood." With German snipers, artillery attacks, and aerial bombing, the Normandy experience was sobering and dangerous for the support troops as well as the combat soldiers. There were some casualties, including the battalion commanding officer, L. Col. James T. Pierce.

He talked about how impressive it was to see all the ships, trucks, and supply activity on the beach. "The next day after D-Day the beach looked like New York harbor." As a company carpenter George constructed buildings and crated equipment for transit. After the Normandy beaches shut down supply work in the fall of 1944 his battalion moved on to LeHavre, France where they unloaded American supplies until the end of the war.

WWII Port Company Reunions

From September 22nd to 24th WWII veterans and their families will be attending the 1st Engineers Special Brigade Association reunion at The Hope Hotel at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. These former 1st ESB men served in Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, Holland, Belgium, Germany, and even Japan. They have been meeting regularly since the war.

490th Port Battalion veteran Charles Sprowl attended this reunion back in 2007. The 490th was attached to the 1st ESB for the Normandy invasion. My grandfather didn't do much more than exchange letters and Christmas cards with his old Army buddies, but many of the other veterans I speak to frequently met each other at their own informal reunions. For several different WWII Army units I have come upon 1945/46 documents listing men with their home addresses. It seems that these were put together to that the GIs could keep in touch after the war.

The 2007 1st Engineer Special Brigade Reunion

304th Port Company reunion, 1995 in Madison, WI
A groups of friends from the 304th Port Company met every few years. My grandfather was in this same company, but he didn't know these guys. From left to right: Tom Gardner, Bob Calfee, Jack Shireman, Ray Sonoski, Dick Justice, Matt Marvin, Dave Weaver, and Bruce Kramlich. I have spoken to all but to two of these veterans.

(click photo to see large version)
Gaetano Benza sent me a most impressive photo of a 1948 reunion at the Hotel Piccadilly in Brooklyn. He served in the 279th Port Company, which was attached to my grandfather's 519th Port Battalion for the Utah Beach invasion. They had some very well attended reunions for years after the war.