The
40th - Their Own Story
Pt 1 of 6
" The Battle
of Ardennes" did it. You call it "The Bulge" or "The Breakthrough".
It means the story of days already history that were days of
work, of movement and ceaseless work, days that sometimes left
you a bit scared when there was time to think. Then the men
were separated from the boys. And in one Signal outfit, they
were all men. That was the 40th Signal Construction Battalion.
But no one knew that back in September of 1942. No one knew
that the new outfit then forming would have a proud string of
"firsts" to its credit and a history of difficult jobs well
done in the defeat of Nazidom. Not too many know it know. But
some of those who do are generals and such people who have access
to all the facts.
The War Department activated the Battalion on 21 September 1942
and then used a good army formula to give it body. They picked
Camp Campbell, Kentucky, in which to mix fifty cadre-men from
the 29th Signal Construction Battalion and selectees from Fort
Dix, Fort Sam Houston, and Camp Robinson. The officers transferred
from other outfits,from civilian communication posts, and from
OCS.
The men thought that they would never forget those early days.
There are little things to remember; the dates, the drunks,
the games. One day they will not remember for sure. That's the
day they actually became soldiers. Because that happened gradually,
through day after day of class and drill and a lot of what seemed
like damned useless work. Of course, there was some time to
relax around the PX, shows, a Saturday
night of Hoptown.
Major WJ Merrigan commanded a bunch of men until one day, perhaps
it was on Tennessee
manoeuvres, he discovered he had a bunch of soldiers. And it
was not a
group that Major McNeal took overseas but a battalion. The organisation
now lived a life of its own. And then men that made it could
be proud to belong.
This then, is a story of a battalion.
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