722 nd railway operating battalion Company c, Operating battalion My experiences in ww 11, Chester L . Saeger. I was inducted into the service the 17 th day of August, 1943. Went to the board to get some gas stamps so I could travel to see all my friends before going to camp. Had a rubarb with the ration board , so told them I didn’t need their rations. So I went to a friend in Geneva, N.Y and he gave me all the gas rations I wanted and more. Entrained on September 7 for temporary camp on Long Island. Was there around 10 days to get clothing, shots and rules and regs of the service. Spent a day on fire patrol as there was a forest fire near the camp. Entrained to Camp Plaushe in New orleans, La. ( also a temporary camp ) Took basic training there and then they started another basic as the outfit I would be sent to was in the process of being formed. I didn’t want to go thru another basic, so went to work for a captain in office on the base. I enjoyed all the guys from all over the country while there. There was a strike of dock workers at the time, so soldiers were sent to the docks to break the strike. On the truck going to the docks, we were warned by dock workers with us not to get in front of anything moving. There were dock workers in the tempory camp. After numerous accidents , the government decided to end the strike and all were glad of that. I finally got my orders to join the 722 nd in Fort Sam Houston and my captain told me he wanted to keep me and would have me attached to him. I told him I had made up my mind to go whereever the army sent me and I would do the best job I could while in service. I later saw him in Northern Europe and had a nice talk with him. We started a bacic training after the Battalion was complete. I was surprised that there were a few people in the outfit from my division on the New York Central. Anyway, had an extensive basic training with a lot of training in firearms of all kind. We got used to each other and enjoyed the experience of hikes and camps in the desert near the fort. Nearly everyone in Company C, ( the operating company ) had worked on railroads in the country, so had a lot in common. In the spring of 1944 we entrained for Fort Benning in Georgia for what they called technical training on the Central of Georgia Railroad. (On the trip, [had an impacted wisdom tooth and wanted to go to a hospital along the way. The Dr. Told me no way would I leave the train till we arrived at Benning. When we pulled into Benning , there was an ambulance waiting to take me to a dental surgeon. Was about a week getting over that dpetation. ) We went on trains with the regular crews and for the most part, did ‘the work . On the runs to Birmingham Alabama , we stayed at the big air base when on that end of the and saw a lot of the countryside. In early August weentrained for the P.O.E in New Jersey. Had a pass to New York City and spent the whole time trying to phone Marian who was in Strong Memorial Hospital for observation . Never did get thru. On 11 th August we boarded ship and the next morning was at sea with another convoy from Boston. Didn’t think there was that many big ships in the world. We were escorted by navy ships and it was an uneventful trip except for a few instances of activity by the escort . I presume that was anti sub activity. Landed in Liverpool , England, and entrained to South Hampton where we were in tents in a park for maybe 30 hours. Boarded ship and sailed overnight for Utah Beach in France. While going down the rope ladders into landing craft, Lt. Barnet fell into the landing craft and sustained injury to his hip. He refused to go to England for an operation and stayed with the outfit. Had to find a field hospital every morning for treatment. Landed on the beach and hiked inland a few miles. The beach area hadn’t had the mines remaved , so had to hike along a marked path. Finally entrained to Le Mans by, | think, the 720 th. Stayed in barracks that the Germans had used. After a couple of days, I was detached with over 100 men to , I think, the 720 th. Trains had started to move supplies to the front and, I guess, that outfit needed more crews. We settled in fox holes in an orchard and very soon was on the road. Due to my experiance of flagman on home R.R., I was assigned as flagman on a crew with a conductor named Leo Murphy from the New Haven R.R. On our very first trip we stalled on a hill and Murph went up to double the hill. I , of course went back to flag and about daylight, flagged a following train. As I was walking to my train, a French lady at a crossing indicated that she would give me breakfast. Sat down and had almost finished the poridge when I heard a long whistle and then a big crash. Hurried to the head end of our train and the conductor and the engineer were having a discution. The conductor is saying “ didn’t you mark the place where we stalled. “ of course it was dark when they doubled the head end of the train and the engineer replied that he had and the cow must have moved. I guess there was about 4 cars wrecked and rations all over the place. French people probably had good eating for awile. We trucked back to our base and soon got another train. A big R.R. crane cleared the site and trains resumed. From then on, the days an¢ nights merged into one and we had very little sleep and sporatic food. Always tired and hungry and finally, in November, my crew had all gone to the hospital and I was religated to being a person showing new crews where the pitfalls were on our pike. We had many slow orders and no headlights , so had to direct by feel. My last job before going into the hospital was a hospital train and when I got off the train after sun up , the Dr. In charge of the train told me they had a good trip. I signed in and the Sargent took one look at me and called a truck to take me to a nearby tent hospital. I don’t remember much except a Dr. Looking in my eyes andsaying, (hospital this man , don’t do anything with him but feed him twice a day.) I was unconsious for days, and finally one morning, I woke up and felt good. When the shift changed, the nurse told me that I was a mess and she was going to give me a bath . Finally let me go for a shower connected to this big squad tent. She watched me like a hawk as probably thought I might faint. After a few days I felt good and ready to join my outfit again. The day before thanksgiving the Dr. Checked me and said I was good enough to be discharged but he was keeping me over the holiday because the thanksgiving meal was special and I needed the extra food. At that time another outfit had taken over the division we were working, so we joined our outfit east of Paris. That division ran from east of Paris to a place in eastern Belgium. At this time the outfit was short of firemen, so they asked me to go firing. I was assigned a very good engineer and was told I didn’t have to fire for anyone else. It was a great crew. Ran that division for awile and Paris got low on coal, so a few crews were assignblew up . ed to take trainloads of coal from the coalfield in northeast France to the west end of our division near Paris. Can’t remember how many trains we ran but finally ran our regular division. At this time we were being straffed by german planes and many times we didn’t know we were being strafed because of the noise of the train. Got called one night with other crews to go to a amunition dump that a plane had bombed and it was burning. A couple of crews got some cars out before the place blew up and the track in was destroyed. They had taken our dogtag information, as if we were caught in an explosion , there would be nothing much left. I have no idea how many people were killed, if any, But was ordered to another place to pick up some empty cars and was probably strafed as when we pulled into the yard , a French passenger train pulled into the station and they took the fireman off with a shoulder wound from strafing.. We ran all kinds of trains to the outfits on the front in Belgium Our head quarters was in a huge boys school in Erqueline, Belgium. The German air force had used the school and every once in awile, a german plane would strafe the building as if to say they knew we were there. Never dropped a bomb, tho. Stone walls were very thick and built to last for centuries. One night during the bulge, our crew ran to a yard near by, and had dined and the Lt. Told us we had to take a train back toward Paris, Engeneer told me to go out and check the engine. The place was blacked out so had to acustom my eyes. As I reached for the grab handles, a guy shoved a automatic in my stomach and asked me where did I think I was going. Finally got on the engine and it was two deisels and a special train. Don’t know whose special train it was, but our orders said to proceed at 30 m.p.h. and there was a test train ahead and the whole line was cleared of traffic, same as for a hospital train. That was the only diesel I ever worked on over there. A few crews were given the duty to bring English trains from Laon to the front.These English troops had been in Italy. These troops were from all over the English empire. We were provided with English engines and I liked that. I am left handed and the engines were all reverse to ours. It made firing easy for me. Also the engines had stationary grates and they provided special coal to use. Some of these troops were from places that were very scarey and they were always sharpening blades of every kind. I was always glad they were on our side. Also the trains were run at certain times as the trains pulled into sidings at tea time and everyone detrained and were served tea and cakes. English ladys served. These troops were moved for the final push on Germany. I might add that there was always buzz bombs from Germany to this area of the war. As spring approached, I was one of about 16 men that were trucked to germany to get the R.R. ready for when the R.R. bridge was restored. The pontoon bridge was in and traffiic of all kinds were using it to get into Germany. Our first night in Germany was spent in German barracks ,and the next day we traveled to Warburg. On the way we saw hundreds of troops on each side of the road walking west . They were fully armed and trying to surrender so they could get something to eat. No one would take them prisoner as then they could demand food. Finally arrived at Warburg and to a big engine house with all kinds of engines. Some of the engines were booby trapped , so we found a German who worked in the place and told him he would be hired by the army to work there, He was very happy about that and told us which engines were booby trapped. We got the good engines steamed and started clearing the R.R. so that when the Rhine R.R. bridge was in, supplies to the front would resume. At first no coal was available, so we used paper brickets for coal. Very difficult to fire engines with such fuel, but even households used paper brickets for heat and cooking. Then followed days and nights that ran into each other till the surrender. One place that we had a fuel and water station and a place we could get something to eat was next to a long tunnel. Patton had run around a lot of German troops on the mt. And there were men up there just waiting for the end of the war for them. We could hear them hunting deer to survive, but the tunnel had big tubes to take the engine smoke out and it would be easy to drop charges to blow up the tunnel. With no engine headlights, we always told each other bye before entering. They never sabatoged the tunnel b ut one time the train went into emergency brakes. So grabbing our rifles, we walked back and finally heard voices and realized it was the brakeman and conductor coming from the rear of the train. An air hose had broken and when that was replaced, we continued on our way. We ran trains all over that part of Germany with many experiances. At dawn the day before the Germans quit, A plane traveling really low passed overhead. We had our pistols and discussed weather we should fire on it. We didn’t, but have always wondered who was flying under radar. The day theGermans quit, we were relieved from manning trains and had the job of controlling the movement of the german personell that were told to resume running their trains.Our whole 722 nd moved to Breman and Bremerhaven to be there to see to the delivery of supplies to our troops when the port opened. This was in the English zone and the English were very good to us. The men of our outfit were spread all over this part of Germany to take a german crew out on the RRs to pick up anything that was different for shipping back to the states for testing. This lasted till the ports opened and then we ran shotgun on trains manned with German crews with supplies to our occupieng troops in the south. We had good duty there and had lots of free time to enjoy the area. I ran trains with German crews to the German sub pens and where they launched rockets( v- weapons) during the war. As time went on and we knew we would ship to the pacific to run trains in Japan after the landing that fall, all were given furlows anywhere we wanted to go. I and a few others chose Nice , France and entrained to Paris on the way. When we pulled into the Paris station, we knew something big was happening as everyone was raising the devil. Asking a G.I. on the platform, he told us the Japaneze had quit and our next trip would be home. We got hotel rooms and enjoyed three days there, and then finally entrained to Nice on the meditranean coast. We had such a good time we overstayed our leave and finally got back to the outfit. I reported us back and apologized for being late. The Lt. Said it was o.k. and forget it. So I then asked if we could go again and he told me to get the $%#& hell out of there.From then on we lived high with dances and good food and lots of time to see the town. Everyone added their points we had accumulated in service and the highest pointers went home first. In December I was sent to Nancy , France for a bit before going to southern France to ship home. At Nancy I got a furlough for a few days to travel to Erquilenes, Belgium to see friends I had made while stationed there. He had been in the underground as a explosive expert and had been captured and was to be executed. His buddies broke him out and he spent the rest of the war blowing up things. An officer was going the same way so he took me in his jeep to near my destination and I took the train back to Nancy. Finally shipped to a tent camp above Marselle to wait for a ship and my trip home. After a few days, we boarded ship and during the night the french tug crew pulled us out of the slip and due to high winds and waves , lost control of our ship and we ran into another ship or a dock. Anyway, it tore a big hole in the ship. We were told we were going to go back on the hill and wait for another ship. Some ship repairers were on board and they said if given lights and equipment, they would repair the ship in 36 hours. The port finally floated a raft with all the equipment and these guys went to work . When finished , the U.S. coast guard inspected the work and said the shp could leave for the states. Wesailed and everyone was very happy. After passing Gibralder we entered the Atlantic and experienced a terrible storm and at first we thought we had struck a mine that had got loose. One day I visited the head and a guy was wrapped around a toilet. He told me he was afraid he was going to die. A day later he told me he was afraid he wouldn’t die. Terrible trip to New york Harbor and was so glad to see the lady with the lamp. We were greeted by a harbor ship with blowing whistles and lots of music. Entrained to a camp in New Jersey and a few days later I was discharged and on my way home. Marian met me at Syracuse station and we went to Red creek , and then I went to Canandaigua. I can truthfully say that I was very fortunate in ww2. Everyone was so happy that the Japaneze quit as it saved tens of thousands of lives on both side. Before they quit we had our shipping date to go to the pacific and our word was San Francisco and the golden gate in 48 if we survived. Thope this sheds a little light of one man’s time in ww 11 and the Railroad transportation corp. The Military Railway service was formed for this one war, and these men served all over the world. More about Korea later as I served in that country in 1950 and 1951in the 714 th R.O.B.