Headquarters Battery, 455th AAA, 1 Sept. 1945

HQ Battery started out under Command of John "Father" Hines, pulling stumps, cleaning the area, building new buildings, and in general, getting ready to make the stay at Camp Stewart as 'pleasant' as possible. The stay was pleasant in many respect, but the work was extremely hard. All of the officers and men put in long hours with very little time off. Even then we were pointing toward overseas and Capt. Hines, being color blind, was replaced by Captain Milton "Jungle" Hartnick. We always had wondered why everyone called Capt. Hartnick "Jungle". Some of the Rabbs would ask different officers but the only answer they could get would be a smile. We even went so far as to ask Captain Hartnick himself, but he was reluctant to tell us. Later we heard that in some manner he had obtained the name "Jungle" while delivering ice through the jungles of Panama.

Compared to Camp Stewart, Fort Benning was paradise. We worked hard but we had lots of time off and the stay in Benning was thoroughly enjoyed. Another feature about Ft. Benning was that it was close to our homes. That made it a little hard for some of us to come back to the Army after being home on pass or furlough.
Finally the day arrived - alert orders came through and we boarded a train for Camp Shanks. The engineer of the train must have been from Georgia, for he gave us a very scenic ride through Georgia - back and forth through the State - three times in all. We all enjoyed this very much as in the course of the trip we went through most of our home towns. Our stay at Fort Shanks was very short, and most of us were disappointed in that we didn't get to see New York - the town that we had heard so much about.
After landing in England the work of building and training started all over again. After only a short time in Watton we had everyuthing under control, with several Nissen huts and concrete sidewalks and parking lots built. A large share of the credit for this should go to Sgt. Squeaky Vomero with his able assistant 1/Sgt. Thomas Cost. This period in England found all sections working very hard.

The Supply Section, with T/Sgt. Hill and S/Sgt. Buck, worked very industriously procuring equipment such as trucks, radios, concrete, steel, and other items which were very hard to obtain. Capt. Hartnick assisted in this. As a matter of fact, he did such a good job in procuring that he was appointed S-4 of the Bn. and Capt. Burroughs replaced him as Headquarters B.C.Upon drawing our equipment and vehicles, the maintenance section was kept very busy. Trucks immediately started giving trouble as most of them were used and very much in need of repairs. Some of the old-timers in this section were M/Sgt. Pfleiger, Tec. 4th Hewitt, Tec. 4th Blakeman, S/Sgt. Danelly, and Tec. 5th Fraunfelter. After a short time this section had all the vehicles in perfect shape. An inspection by Brig. Gen. Hines was made and a rating of "Superior" was given the motor transportation. it was also during our England stay that several of our mechanics were sent to Bideford to a waterproofing school where they learned to waterproof vehicles and were finally graduated from the school by driving the vehicles through the surf from an LCT.

During this stay in England our Communications section also worked hard and became masters of the radios and signal equipment. They were on duty 24 hours a day plotting enemy planes over England. In the event the planes plotted were enemy, they immediately alerted all batteries for firing. This was a very tedious job which required being constantly alert. Some of the old-timers in this section were Sgt. Gilbert, Tec. 4th Alexander, Sgt. Dauksha, Tec. 5th Reeves, Tec. 5th Grin, Cpl. Chalifoux, and Cpl. Exline.

The Operations section was very active at this time in the coordination of the AA protection of the Snetterton Heath and Watton airdromes. Some of the old-timers in thios section were Sgt. Stone, Sgt. Ochocinski, Sgt. McNulty, Sgt. Carleton, Tec. 4th Berry, and Tec. 5th Watkins.

After training at Blandford and Stiffkey and protecting other airdromes, we felt that we were ready.

We landed on Utah Beach 8 July 1944. Several of the batteries had lost equipment in landing and consequently the job of supply started again. The maintenance section immediately sent out to inspect various batteries at their installations. The first crew of Bloomer, Blakeman, Ludwigsen and Hollister immediately found that there was a war going on. In the inspection of 'D' battery, 88's started coming in and consequewntly the inspection wasn't too successful. Sgt. Pfleiger was found to be the fastest man of the crew when it came to diving for a fox hole.

The Operations section became even more important after we hit France. The work changed from just day work to 24 hour duty, including encoding and decoding messages, keeping track of the different assignmend of the batteries, making reports for higher headquarters, checking overlays and supplying maps. Also, the communications section was extremely busy at this time. We finally found out that radios were the most important means of communications that we had. Our communications section was a prize. They worked under very difficult conditions and were always able to satisfy the demans.

During the gas shortage near Verdun, our third B.C., Capt. Burroughs, was made B.C. of 'D' Btry., being replaced by Capt. Sindon. Our morale was extremely high and aone of the main reasons was our mess section. Under the very capable leadership of Sgt. Brown with Tec. 4th Kuhn, Tec. 4th Constanzo, Tec. 4th Leichtman, Tec. 5th Botts, and Pfc. Fountain, our meals were always tops.

The history of Hqs. Btry. is not complete until we have mentioned our stay in Bouzonville. Our stay there was long but it was a much needed and well deserved rest for all sections of the battery. During our happier moments we had time for pleasure with the very lovely French mademoiselles of the town. But all was not perfect in Bouzonville. The heavy bombardment of the town by German 380 mm guns caused us all to lose many hours of sleep. But in spite of all the shells thrown into the town, we didn't suffer one casualty. Those French cellars are really deep! In the early days of March we were on the move again, and this time it was the Saar-Moselle triangle.

The first stop in Germany was Perl. From Perl we began our sustained march eastward. The rat race that followed was reminiscent of our trek across France. We crossed the Rhine at Mainz on 31 March 1945 and then proceeded to chase the Krauts all over Germany. The end of the war found us sitting peacefully on the banks of the Inn river. Shortly after V-E Day we moved to Pocking and for the next six weeks our home was that huge hangar on the airfield. It was here that the fourth Hqs. Battery Commander fell by the wayside. Next to take command was Capt. John "Horse" Matlock.

The latter part of June, the brass decided we didn't have enough female companionship, so we moved again - this time to Eggenfelden, where we began our occupational duties. Our stay in Eggenfelden was short, but again very sweet. Leaving Eggenfelden we proceeded to Dingolfing. This was our last stop in Germany as occupational troops. Our first impression of Dingolfing was misleading, and our departure will cause many a heart to be broken.

In August 1945, the Bn. was alerted for return to the States and it was at this time that the Personnel Section came into its own. With the rapid change of personnel, this section was forced to work extremely hard. It is this section that cuts orders, keeps every man's record up-to-date, and in general does the paperwork for the Bn. Amonfg the old-timers are M/Sgt. Montague, T/Sgt. Roberts, Tec. 4th Kidwell and Cpl. Snyder.

Throughout the past two years the morale of Headquarters Battery has been excellent. This was largely due to the fact that everyone respected the other fellow's job and worked unceasingly on the job he was assigned to. Hqs. Btry. has more or less been a family, each section representing a member of the family. We have had many laughs and also many disappointments but the common feeling was that "If I have to be in this Army, I would rather be in Hqs. Btry. of the 455th than any place I know."