“Destination — Berlin!” is a small booklet covering the history of the Transportation Corps. This booklet is one of the series of G.I. Stories published by the Stars & Stripes in Paris in 1944-1945.
“Behind the invasion headlines lay the “miracle” of the Normandy beaches. Miracle? No! Just blood and sweat. No miracle to the
port battalion men who unloaded tons upon tons of material for the D-Day buildup! No miracle to that single battalion which worked 102 straight days and nights without time off! No miracle to another, which in a single night unloaded 1226 tons of hellish cargo! But if it was a miracle, the men of the 334th Harbor Craft Co. made it permanent. During August 1944 alone they performed 1403 channel operations. These army sailors towed 150 vessels and 288 barges into harbors, made 117 ferry trips, and threw in five salvage expeditions for good measure.”
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Gable, Rudolph A., 33779744, Bugler
From CGJ Orders:
334 Dennis James E. Pfc 37657692 9-Feb-44
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Obituary
Philip J. Spear, 98, of Gainesville, Fla., retired entomologist and trade association executive, died Aug. 28, 2013, at Shands Hospital, Gainesville. Spear was born Sept. 5, 1914, in Springfield, Mass., but spent his boyhood on a small general farm in Charlemont, Mass. The early years on the farm with his father, a self-taught naturalist, were often mentioned as among the more important parts of his total education. He did attend public schools in Charlemont and, in 1937, earned a bachelor’s degree in entomology from the then-Massachusetts State College.
Before and after WWII, he worked in New England and California in termite control. In 1948, he returned to the University of Massachusetts for graduate study in entomology leading to a Ph.D. in 1953. During this time, he was also director of the laboratory of American Aerovap, Inc., which investigated vaporization of insecticides. Byproducts of this work included two U.S. patents and a bibliography for the Army.
During WWII, he was commissioned in the Army Corps of Engineers and served about a year as platoon leader in the 594th Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment. At the end of February 1944, he was transferred to the Army Transportation Corps as commander of the 334th Harbor Craft Company. A month later, that company began movement overseas where it trained briefly at Liverpool and Portsmouth, England, before moving successively to Omaha Beach, Isigny-sur-Mer and Rouen, France. After the war, he had duty as entomologist in a research and development group of the Medical Service Corps, Army Reserve, from which he retired in 1957 with rank of major.
