In preparation for the Pip Park Private Battle later in the month, this weekend sees GI 44-45 head off to Bushey Hall, the WW2 HQ of the USAAF Fighter Command, where we will be displaying at their annual 1940’s weekend event. In keeping with the theme for Pip Park, we will be portraying the US 88th Infantry Division, representing the time period of December 1943 when the division was camped at Magenta, Algeria, undergoing a period of training and preparation for their eventual deployment into combat…. “After having completed intensive training back in the US at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, and participation in the Louisiana manoeuvres during the summer of 1943, the US 88th Infantry Division set sail for overseas, landing in Casablanca, North Africa in November 1943 with the expectation that they would soon be deployed into combat for the first time. Plans to close in the entire division at the Oran staging area were changed with the arrival of General Sloan and it was decided to move the unit to a larger training area approx. 4 miles south of Magenta, Algeria in December. Division HQ in the field was set up here and as the various increments landed at Casablanca and Oran they were routed to the new area. Here a rigid training program was instituted with emphasis on mountain climbing, demolitions, mines, marksmanship, physical hardening and the operations of small units at night. In the cold, rocky hills the regiments climbed and fought mock battles. The pressure was on. Favourite Division sport in Africa, which came under the head of training, was the almost daily Arab round up conducted by MP’s and infantrymen to clear bivouac areas of the peddlers and camp followers infesting the Division area. Training however was not the only activity. For one thing there was parties and celebrations on New Years Eve - lacking the colour and glamour of a Times Square blowoff but nonetheless noisy and moist! No matter what the book said, Africa was cold. It was cold sleeping on the ground in those pup tents and the men started supplementing gasoline fires with internal warmth in the form of a French drink wistfully named Eau de Vie, a highly volatile beverage which burned like kerosene when thrown on an open flame. It tasted like it too! In a few pup tents, unconvincing voices insisted that the 88th would remain in Africa to police up. Another latrine rumour had it that the whole Division was to be converted to MP’s. But with the Fifth Army in Italy begging for replacements and with the 88th the first fresh Division to come over since the invasion of Italy, most men realised the score and knew that time was running out…”
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 20:50:05 +0000