ourselves very educated as to what a good soldier should and should not do. After five days of this word was finally received that the advance detail had left. With a band playing songs that were supposed to live in our memories while we were "over there" we took off. Finally we got to the boat via train and ferryboat ride. Numbers had been marked on our helmets so we could be kept track of more easily. We were just so much cattle that had to be shipped. Things were pretty quiet loading up, we were wondering when we would be walking back down the gangplank again. The name of our ship was the "Dominion Monarch" a former luxury liner of the British. She took us safely to our destination, Liverpool in England.
That was a big day for us when we tramped up the gangplank and on board the ship. We were leaving the shores of the good old U.S.A. for some time to come. Little did we know that inside of six months we would be engaged in one of the greatest struggles of mankind.
The ship was crowded to the scuppers, with four hundred of us in two small rooms we swore wouldn't hold more than a hundred at the most. Still they got us in there in short order. A couple of the boys no more than got on the boat before they began to get that certain feeling. Those poor "Joes" didn't leave their bunks during the whole trip. We sure had a time trying to string up those ham-mocks the first night. All during the night an occasional thump could be heard as someone would attempt to turn over and go tumbling down on somebody beneath him. When we finally got more or less used to the hammocks something new came up to bother us. About the third day at sea we ran into heavy weather and the ship started to rock a little. There was always a line waiting out-side the latrine door with horrible noises issuing from within. Come to think of it our complexion was none too healthy looking about that time either. Just a little bit on the green side! One day not too far out to sea we had our first real war scare. The public address system suddenly blared out a warning that one of the ships of the convoy had just been sunk. After that nobody had to be reminded about his life-preserver. Speaking of life-preservers remember how we had to go rushing up on deck once a day in the lifeboat drill? When you got caught without your jacket it was really cold standing on the windswept deck.
The chow, let's not forget the chow! It was fish for breakfast, fish for dinner, and fish for supper. How on earth do the British manage to survive on it!
The good old AA always pulls duty even when at sea. They gave us the job of manning the AA defense of the ship and on top of that we also were the Military Police on board ship. Always on the job, that's us!

Jolly old England! So this was Liverpool! Nearly everyone was disappointed at first. All that was discernable was a soupy haze with eerie looking buildings in the background. After getting our first look at England we settled down to wait for debarkation orders. There was no sleep for us on the night of January 9th instead we were ordered to pick up our duffel bags and get a move on. We were going ashore! So we staggered down the gangplank under our burden of duffel bags, full packs, rifles, plus a few odds and ends. It was drizzling and we had to walk what seemed like a thousand miles to the railroad station. Once there it was really a relief to flop down and just take a break. That night the American Red Cross was really appreciated. They gave us hot coffee and donuts and cheered us up in general.
Our first station in England was Camp Blandford, Dorset down near Bournmouth in the southern-part of the country. It's there that we started drawing equipment and so forth. We also had our first passes to Bournmouth from Camp Blandford. Life was not particularly exciting with blackout restrictions and all, so for the most part we become a bunch of "stay at home boys." Then we moved lock, stock, and barrel to Camp Checkendon where the 440th really started to operate
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