Leek on Blackshaw Moor

On the 29th of June the coast of Ireland came into view and we entered the Firth of Clyde, finally dropping anchor off Greenock, Scotland. This was a major port that served Edinburgh. It was obviously a popular place as we were surrounded by vessels of all types. The Queen Mary was there along with hospital ships, submarines, aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers. As it turned out, we could enjoy the sight all evening since it wasn't until the next morning that we were loaded onto a ferry and transported to shore where a British train was waiting for us.

The train was certainly different than anything we had experienced in the States. Each car was divided into several compartments; each with two facing seats, and the corridor was on the side of the car, not in the middle like in the U.S. Also, the windows were clean! We could watch the rolling Scottish countryside as the train zipped past miles of stone fences and little stone cottages with thatched roofs.

It was night when we reached our destination at a place called Leek on Blackshaw Moor. Trucks were standing by to whisk us, without lights, through the inky blackness to a barracks in Leek. The beds there offered us new experience. They were handmade wooden frames criss-crossed with steel strapping on which was a white tick filled with straw on which you could spread out your sleeping bag.

In the morning our equipment began arriving and everyone was busy with solvents and rags cleaning off the cosmoline that coated every piece of metal for weather protection during shipment.

On July 9, our jeeps, trucks and half-tracks were ready to roll and we convoyed south to a place called Blandford. Here we lived in tents for than two weeks as continued to receive and process supplies and equipment such as tools, gasoline, rations, ammunition, camouflage nets and paint.
The paint was for putting a distinctive name on each half-track such as Fighting Lady, Berlin or Bust or Kasserine Pass in memory of one of the Army's first battles in Africa.

In the evening we played softball until after midnight. Because of our northern location, double British summer time, and the longest days of the year, the sun did not go down until after midnight.

There was a military hospital near our location and several GI's from the 101st Airborne Division who had been wounded on D-Day came over to visit with us and recount some of their adventures. They didn't mind taking off their shirts to show us the bullet holes in their backs and chests. Thanks to sulfanilamide treatment they had healed well and the holes were now just half-inch pink circles on their white skin. The presence of the Purple Heart winners was a grim reminder of what we might face in the days and weeks ahead.