Memories of Lawrence P. Belmont, A Battery — Part IV Where did you leave for Europe from? "Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. We received orders to report there and left by train from Camp Davis. While we were at Kilmer, day passes were issued, meaning you had to be back at midnight; some Italian guys from Brooklyn never came back. We left Camp Kilmer for Staten Island at night, where we were put on a ferry to cross over to Manhattan, Pier 90, for loading aboard the Queen Mary. The movement was made at night since all such troop movements were considered top secret (there were plenty of spies who were interested in any troop movements). [Note: the image of the meal ticket below, good for a steak dinner, was provided by Rich Heller, whose web site is a treasure trove of unpublished photos from WW II taken by his father, a combat photographer. At right, a Navy launch churns the waters of New York harbor sometime in 1943.]

Tell me about the voyage. "Well, the food was pretty bad, which was funny considering the mess halls were converted from the fancy dining rooms. I remember eating some greasy, undercooked pork chops, which made a lot of us sick combined with the rolling of the ship. It was common to see guys throwing up at dinner. Some of my unit were sleeping in the Jewish Chapel, and, sure enough, they were throwing up in there. The mess halls were serving pretty much around the clock, from four in the morning to 11 at night. The lines were so long. I remember looking up and seeing a big map of the Atlantic. Normally, there'd be a little crystal Queen Mary that marked her position from day to day. It wasn't there when we were on." "Also, just like in peacetime, the sleeping quarters were divided ... you know, officers and nurses only above a certain deck. We slept in the nursery one night. Another night we slept on the promenade deck, which was exposed on the side. When the Queen performed one of her zig-zags (done every 7 minutes to ensure that U-boat captains could not plot a torpedo solution, which took 7 minutes), some of the men rolled all the way to the railing." "One of things that was a bit unsettling was that if the Queen was ever in danger of sinking, it was common knowledge that there was only enough lifeboat space for 1500 or so. We had about 10,000 aboard on our trip. We had a lot of faith in the fact that she was the fastest ship afloat and no U-boat could ever catch her." "I came up on deck one day because I was on a garbage detail and had to dump some stuff over the side. On the North Atlantic in December, you didn't spend too much time on deck if you could avoid it, so I figured I'd dump the trash and get back inside. Well, when I got outside, I was startled by the sight of land in the distance. It was the greenest land I'd ever seen, made greener somehow by the steel color of the water. Of course, it was Ireland." Gourock Harbor, 1997 Greenock Harbor, 1997 "We arrived in Gourock, Scotland on December 28. The Queens (Elizabeth and Mary) usually either landed there or in Greenock. We then proceeded into Port Glasgow. I was on a detail with three other guys, commanded by Lt. Nick Sparks, to help unload the Queen Mary. The batallion went on ahead to Southern England, so we spent New Year's Eve in Glasgow. We really didn't do much, since a Port Battalion was doing most of the unloading. At the time, the Army was still segregated and this Port Battalion was made up of all Negro troops." (Webmaster's Note: Modern views of both harbors appear above; in the photo below, a tugboat from Gourock approaches the Queen Elizabeth just outside the harbor in the River Clyde sometime during the 1940s. For the record, the 225th's crossing was designated 30E (eastbound) and is officially dated 12/23/43 to 12/29/43. 3,662 miles were covered in 5 days, 10 hours, and 30 minutes, and the ship averaged 28.1 knots. There were 11,990 troops on board and 1,087 crew. Captain Bisset was at the helm.) What did you do for the first few days in Scotland? "Since the Port Battalion was doing the hard work, we spent a lot of time down on the docks, drinking coffee, keeping warm, and talking with the Merchant Marines who were loading supplies on ships that made the Arctic convoy runs to Murmansk, Russia. I guess the four of us were assigned to unload stuff since we were sort of known as the batallion screwballs. It doesn't sound too flattering, but that was the truth."

What do you remember most about the voyage? "We had the biggest laugh when we heard FDR broadcast his vow that no American troops would be on the high seas on Christmas Day. Well, we all said to each other, ole FDR forgot about the 225th and the other 10,000 joes on the Queen."

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