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Connie's Web |
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Cristobal crossing the Atlantic 10-6-44 to 10-18-44 |
The following narrative regarding the Cristobal is from the Army publication
“The Story
of The 357th Antiaircraft Artillery Searchlight Battalion United States Army
"
LET THERE
BE LIGHT" , 10-28-45.
An hour's ride and the train stops. It's Jersey shore and end of the line. Haul that stenciled dufflebag out and hoist it to your shoulder! ...
Shuffle along, unseen and unseeing, playing follow the leader. We cross a ramp and then discover we're on an oily smelling little auto ferry, two long, stained sides of a Hudson River ferry loaded with troops, headed for strange land beyond the seas! ...
It's cold and windy on the open-faced deck. The lights of America play unbridled along the shore. Suddenly, the dark of this October midnight, vessels loom to port and starboard, huge, grim shapes, war-fanged and war-scarred, patiently silent.
The dirty little ferry nudges up to a mole, the gangway drops, and - welcome to Staten Island, brother! Lug that dufflebag across the sighing ramp as a colored band seated inside the huge dock warehouse blares out. ...
Look at those mountains of crated jeeps and other material around us. Down the aisle wander beneficent Gray Ladies, dispensing hot coffee, donuts, candy, and that "Oh what nice young men!" look. We really appreciate their kindness.
Abruptly the line lurches forward. A ticket is shoved into your free hand, then a last name is bellowed out, and the owner answers with his first name and middle initial.
There it is, looming up ahead, the cold, gray side of the transport. No turning back now, soldier! One more step and you've left America for a long time. We struggle up the gangway and onto the noisy deck. Those glaring floodlights help.
We squirm through the maze of steel passageways and between the tiers of bunks. Watch the high step of that doorway. Careful in those steep, narrow hatchways! Throw your stuff into your bunk and crawl in on top of it so the guy behind you can get through!
Noon - and sailing time ! The USAT "Cristabal" backs out into the channel and turns her bow east to join the gathering convoy. With 167 other ships in the Atlantic's greatest single convoy, our vessel leaves the United States on October 6, 1944, while desperate Nazi troops were ejecting Patton's forces from Fort Driant.
Fourteen days on the water, with a deck-loaded jeep carrier plowing along on our port and a pregnant tanker lunging precariously to starboard. Astern a giant transport doggedly tails us and a destroyer escorts play vigilantly between us and on the near horizon.
Long days and short nights! Canvas bunks and rolling decks, while poker cards wear thin. A thousand thoughts and dreams of whom we've left behind on the receding shore and conjectures of what lies in wait on the approaching one.
We sweat out a stinking mess hall and peel oranges on the spray-swept decks. Scurry up the hatchway at boat drill and stand in a PX line for candy bars and cigarettes.
Along the rail at night we watch the bobbing vessels cut a silvery wake across the hostile sea. Face the Stars and Strips astern as Retreat sounds at eventide, puff serenely on a precious cigarette as the sun drops into ageless waters and night claims the 'Cristobal' and her sisters of the war-bound brood.
October 18, 1944 --- and we drop anchor, welcoming the outline of the hills and cliffs of England, where lights show furtively in quick flashes. Then comes morning, and the green hills, dotted with white sheep, are in sharp, friendly contrast to the seemingly infinite blue. Small boats cavort about the 'Cristobal' and a large warship cruises majestically into the channel, passes through the minefields into the great port of Plymouth.
Our ship swings in a wide arc, itself passes through the harbor nets and edges up to a wharf in the bomb-battered city of southern England.
"Stand by, 5815-V! Assemble on the forward deck!" Stand in the drizzling rain and pull that collar tight! Then over the side, down the gangway to good solid ground again, before an amused audience of colored Transportation Corps troops.
March across the quay and climb into the compartments of the toy-like English train, then slip impatiently out of your pack...
Through the bombed-out areas and low British hills, soft and tranquil,, the train speeds. Then, stop in Bristol for coffee and donuts. But in Bristol the coffee turns into tea and we can't buy the available sandwiches because we have, if any at all, only American money!
Four in the morning and the engine grinds to a stop in the small Midland town of Leek, Staffordshire. Coaches eject heavily-laden troops, and GI trucks swallow them immediately. Cold and rainy, a tour of winding hills , and then a sharp right turn into a maze of Nissen huts and composite board barracks. This is Site One, Camp Blackshaw Moor, operated by he 111th AAA Group.
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The below was saved from http://www.20thengineers.com/ww2-cristobal.html which is no longer available.
The US Army Transport Cristobal embarked the 20th Engineer Regiment at New York on 1 November 1942, then sailed on 2 November. The Cristobal transported the regiment to its first campaign in North Africa, landing in Casablanca on 19 November.
One of three sister ships constructed for the Panama Canal's
Panama Line by the Shipbuilding Division of Bethlehem Steel in Quincy, Mass, the
S. S. Cristobal was launched March 4, 1939, and sailed out of New York on
her maiden voyage to Panama the following August 17.
The S.S. Cristobal was requisitioned from the Panama Railroad Company by the
U.S. Army on January 11, 1942 and was redesignated the US Army Transport
Cristobal (USAT Cristobal). Twelve days later -- her trim lines muddled with
camouflage paint, and partially converted so every valuable inch could be
utilized -- the Cristobal sailed from New York with troops and supplies bound
for New Caledonia. However, political relations between the Free French, the
Vichy French and the United States were not yet clear, so the convoy with which
the Cristobal was traveling was diverted to Australia. There the ship reloaded,
picked up field artillery guns and proceeded to New Caledonia.
Arriving at Noumea, New Caledonia, the first part of March, 1942, the troops
disembarked by using the ship's lifeboats. For days, these troops sweated over
the unfamiliar and back-breaking job of handling all cargo by hand. There were
no facilities ashore at New Caledonia. Our war was three months old.
The Cristobal was next ordered back to New York. As she drew near the Atlantic
Coast, there was no rest for the officers and crew. The coastal waters were
known to be infested with enemy submarines. None was spotted until the Cristobal
was off Cape Hatteras. There the dark dripping snout of an emerging sub was
sighted. She hulked out of the water as the men on the Cristobal waited tensely.
The men on the submarine were evidently just as amazed at finding an enemy ship
so close by, and the submarine submerged.
Back in New York the Cristobal was further converted to carry 2,300 troops. She
next headed for Belfast, Ireland. Then, on to Scotland for British troops, and
to join a convoy of British and American ships. On Memorial Day, 1942, the
Cristobal sailed fur Suez. The long voyage, via Freetown, West Africa; Capetown
and Durban, South Africa; and Aden, Arabia, was made safely, and the Cristobal
reached Suez July 23, 1942. Once there, her days seemed numbered, for she was
exposed nightly to fierce air attack, particularly from the ships' deadly enemy,
the torpedo plane.
However, the Cristobal's luck held, and the gallant ship started the long trip
home unscathed. On this trip, her passengers were Italian prisoners of war from
North Africa bound for Durban. And this time she sailed without military escort.
Thirty-one days later the men on the Cristobal thankfully eased the ship into
New York Harbor, having stopped for only one day in Durban, where the Italian
prisoners disembarked, and one day in Capetown to pick up fuel oil.
The USAT Cristobal at Sea
in WW2
At the end of October, 1942, the 20th Engineer Regiment
embarked upon the Cristobal and the vessel left New York again -- destination
unknown. After several days at sea the captain was directed to transport the
troops to French Morocco for the invasion of Casablanca. After debarking the
20th Engineers pierside, in the space of eleven days the Cristobal was filled
with wounded service men from action at Casablanca ... 1,300 of them ... who
were brought back to New York.
For the duration of the war in Europe, the Cristobal made trips back and forth
to the Mediterranean, North Africa and Italy with occasional trips to England
and Iceland. After the invasion of Normandy, she landed elements of the 104th
Infantry Division on 7 September 1944 at Utah Beach, and other units later at Le
Havre, France; Marseilles, France; and Port Said, Eqypt, the Mediterranean
entrance of the Suez Canal. On 30 March 1945, in the North Atlantic, the
Cristobal collided with an Allied tanker ship, the Crow Wing. Both ships
were damaged, but continued with their missions.
When the European conflict ended, the Cristobal brought back troops from Italy,
France and England. She carried a great many sick and wounded, being
particularly well fitted for use as a hospital ship.
In January, 1946, the ship underwent another partial conversion -- this time for
the comfort of the bride and diaper trade. The Cristobal carried a vast number
of war brides and children from England, France, and Port Said without a single
casualty. By the time she made her last war-service voyage, the stately
Cristobal was quite used to the maze of diapers and dainties hanging everywhere.
On her last trip she carried American dependents to Bremerhaven, Germany, and
returned with war brides from France and England.
After completing 4 years and 5 months service with the Army, on 14 June 1946,
the Cristobal was returned to the Panama Line, where she continued
passenger/cargo service between New York and Panama until April 1961. In June
of that year the Cristobal made her first voyage between New Orleans and Panama,
a route she was to ply until her last voyage on September 19, 1981.
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