The World War I Memoirs of Robert P. Patterson: A Captain in the Great War

The Ocean and England

The Ocean and England I Our company left Camp Upton on April 12th, 1918. The train took us to New York and without stopping to Boston, where we embarked on S. S. Karoa on the 13th.1 On board were the Headquarters Company, E Company, Supply Company and Machine Gun Company of our regiment, and also all four companies of the 306th Machine Gun Battalion. The Karoa was a small East Indian ship which ordinarily plied between India and Australia. The ship’s officers were British and the crew was Hindu. The cabins for us officers were comfortable, but the quarters for the soldiers down below were fearful. This was my first sight of the hardships of war. The overcrowding was beyond belief. Rough tables had been knocked together and placed in the lower decks. The men slept on these tables and under them on the floor, and as many as possible slept in hammocks.2 There were no bunks of any sort, nor was there sufficient room in the hammocks and on the floor for all of them to lie down. The air down below could be cut with a knife. The Karoa was so small that it rocked and tossed continually, which added to the sad state of affairs below. We sailed from Boston to New York where we lay two days off Staten Island, waiting for the rest of the convoy. Naturally no one was allowed to leave the boat. The convoy consisted of fully a dozen ships, with a battleship in front for protection. The ships were of all sizes, ours being one of the smallest. They were about half a mile apart and sailed at the same speed, each ship keeping in the same position. This made it appear as if all were standing still and gave a strange effect. The ships were camouflaged with broad streaks of paint zigzagged up and down their sides. It was hard to believe that this made them less visible at a distance.3 II I shared a cabin with Captain George F. Gaston of the 306th Machine Gun Battalion. Every morning a Hindu brought in black coffee and oranges. 18 The World War I Memoirs of Robert P. Patterson Then we dressed and had breakfast which was quite a hearty meal. The other meals for the officers were on the English plan, too—lunch at noon, tea at five o’clock, and a big dinner at eight-thirty. During the day we had frequent boat-drills, going up to the small boats and rafts on the top deck. Two days out from Liverpool a fleet of torpedo boats met us and cruised in and out on the watch for submarines. We did not see any “subs,” although two of the torpedo boats dropped depth bombs. Whether there were submarines there or whether it was a false alarm we never knew.4 After fourteen days on the water we landed at Liverpool. It was a bright Sunday in April, and people on the ferry boats waved and shouted to us. American soldiers were a strange sight to them.5 We spent the day waiting on the wharves and finally boarded a train. The ride lasted the better part of the night. At the stations we saw many British soldiers who were home on furlough. At one station I recall a wounded “Tommy,” who was drunk and was shouting: “I’ve killed thousands and thousands.” We left the train at Folkestone on the Channel, and spent a day there. I bought a trench coat with a detachable wool lining. The wool lining disappeared when the French rifled our baggage in August, but the coat stayed with me through the war. I slept in it every night and it proved to be most useful. After Folkestone we went to Dover and were put aboard small channel steamers. The voyage across to France took only three hours. It was very rough, however, and for the first time I was seasick. We landed at Calais on April 30, 1918. A convoy at sea. (Signal Corps. 31017.) From National Archives. The Ocean and England 19 The 77th was, as I recall it, the seventh American division to reach France. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 26th, 32nd and 42nd had preceded it. The first three were Regular Army outfits, and the last three were from the National Guard. The 77th was the first of...