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Aspirant US Ranger to British Commando!
G W McCurdy, Golden, Colorado, USA
 How one US soldier's war was changed by a late night
in a Belfast city pub! The personal reminiscences of an aspirant US Ranger, who
became a
British Commando.
Background
I was 20
years old when I sailed
from New York to Belfast, Northern Ireland on HMS Duchess of Athol
in Feb, '42. Our base
with L Company,
133rd Battalion, 34th Division, lay between Belfast and Londonderry.
The daily routine soon had me looking for more adventure and I volunteered for Darby's
1st Rangers, who were based near Carrickfergus.
[Photo; 'Mac' McGurdy, centre].
The US Rangers
Two weeks
into our training, my buddy and I were delighted to receive passes to Belfast. We were determined to make the most of them! Looking back, it's clear our
enthusiasm for sampling the local brew in as many pubs as possible caused us to
miss the last train out of Belfast... but in mitigation, we did catch the
first one out in the morning!
We arrived back at base out of breath and,
unfortunately for us, in the middle of morning roll call. An unsympathetic 1st Sgt told
us in no uncertain terms "You're too late, go pack your bags boys, you are
gone". We had to return to our unit and face the taunts from some of the guys we
left behind - "ha, too tough for you guys huh?", "couldn't take it huh?" When we
were later offered the chance to volunteer for the British Commandos, we resolved
not to mess up a second time!
 The Commandos
So we
found ourselves attached to the British No 6 Commando. We moved from Northern
Ireland to the River Clyde area in Scotland. We wore British
uniforms but had a US flag patch on one shoulder and a Combined Operations patch
on the other. I
suppose there were 50 to 100 of us, who were accepted to go in with the
Commandos, all of us under British officers, who were super people.
[Map of Northern Ireland & Central Scotland,
courtesy of Google, 2019].
The picture above left, was taken at 90, West Princess St in Helensburgh, Scotland, where we
were "billeted" while training with No 6 commando. I'm the guy in the middle. Us
yanks made extra money for our service and we found board and room in private
homes from June through August '42 at least. Three of us stayed with Mrs Donaghy, who treated us like her own sons. There was a lovely young daughter
named Peggy, with whom we were forbidden to "fraternize" on pain of being sent
back to our outfits. I often wondered about her life.
We had many an enjoyable night in the Red Lion pub in Glasgow.
We did our training
around Helensburgh on the Clyde and Inveraray on
Loch Fyne. In the early stages, there was
a physical fitness
test in the form of a 5 mile trek, which I completed in 37 minutes. The incentive to
succeed was great, since stragglers suffered the ignominy of being returned
to their units, or RTU'd as it was known. I was 7th and made it. Over the
succeeding months, we were trained in hand to hand combat, night manoeuvres using
compass bearings, Thompson machine gun practice, use of plastic explosives,
amphibious landings and so on.
North Africa
 Before we
sailed for our first tour of duty in late October, 1942, on HMS Awatea,
General Isenhower and
Mountbatten, head of the Combined Operations Command, came aboard. Ike said "I can't tell you men where you're going
nor what you're about to do but the world will hear and read about you and you
can be proud". Wow! I think I grew an inch taller!
The voyage itself took
28 days, because we joined a convoy out of Newfoundland. There was safety in
numbers, since U-boats were active in the north Atlantic and the Mediterranean at
the time. On
the
evening of Nov 6th, I was on guard duty on the officers' deck when Col McAlpine,
in his kilt, approached. After a salute, he asked me how I was and "is your heart
up to it son?" I replied emphatically "YES SIR, thank you". Many years later, I
read a story in Readers Digest about him and wish I'd saved it. We must have been at sea
about two weeks before we were told that we were
part of the invasion force of North
Africa, which we now know started on Nov 8, 1942.
We disembarked into
LCAs (landing craft assault) in the dark and set down on a beach outside
Algiers. We were the first to arrive on our beach and, after overcoming minor resistance, we took Fort Du Pere
(?). Us Yanks were left behind as the British Commandos marched away playing
their bagpipes. It was a highly emotional occasion and most of us were very young.
Many of us wept tears.
The next day we went
down to the docks and boarded two British destroyers and we were soon reunited
with our respected Commando colleagues. We sailed to Bone, where we secured an
airfield for the use of Spitfires operating in the area.
[Photo courtesy of 'Mac' McCurdy shows a group of
Americans attached to No 6 Commando. It was taken in North Africa probably in
November or December of ’42. Four of them were volunteers from L Co of
the 133rd regiment of the 34th “Red Bull” Infantry
Division. Additional information below the photo provided by David Kohnen].
We were strafed almost
every day by either Necci 202s (?) and/or ME 109s. They didn't have it all
their own way, however, since one was shot down with a 40 mm Bofors gun. It was hit as it
strafed our positions, looped and then came straight down to earth. The pilot
ejected way too late and his parachute failed to open.
Back to the USA
On Nov 22, we boarded some flatcars of a train.
Along the line, we were strafed by an ME109 and I was wounded by 20 mm
shrapnel. That was the end of my service with the Commandos, as I ended up in a
British manned hospital overlooking Algiers. I was then, and still am, very
proud to have been associated with such an elite, respected group of men.
I spent about six weeks in hospital and, in March
1943, returned to the USA on the USS Grothaus with a load of German prisoners.
My guard post was to the rear of the officer's mess, in the gangway on the deck
just above the prisoners. On one occasion, they watched, in some envy I have to
say, as I finished off
a turkey carcass and tucked in to some fresh ice-cream! What a treat!
I became an instructor but found it boring, so once more
I volunteered for active service.
After several months, it seemed my request had disappeared into the military
bureaucracy, so I planned a different future. I cancelled my request and married
my high school sweetheart. About a month later, I received orders to ship out
and in September 1944 reported to Fort Meade, Maryland, my port of embarkation.
2nd Tour of Duty
For my
second tour of duty, I sailed to England on the Mauritania and later to
France on HMS Cutlass. I suffered a lot from seasickness, and being an
enlisted infantryman, was always in the lower decks. The steam from boiled
potatoes made the smell of mutton linger and it was too much to handle and I
would lose it pretty quick! We kept ourselves amused as best we could and one
yarn concerned the naming of ships in the various navies - in Britain, Royal Navy ships are called
'His Majesty's Ship', in
our navy they are 'US Ship' and in the Italian Navy they are 'Thatsa My Boat!'
This time, I was sent as a replacement to an
Infantry Company of the 104th Timberwolfe Division in Germany. We passed through many towns, including Duren and
we saw the bombed out
streets of Cologne. We crossed the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen, in Mar 1945 and dug in on a high ridge overlooking the river. After a
few days avoiding German artillery shells, we climbed aboard tanks for the final
push into the German heartland. A major event was meeting up with the Russians.
I was wounded again
on April 1, this time by
shrapnel from a Panzerfaust (a hand held anti-tank weapon) fired by an SS trooper.
The tank, about 15 metres behind me, was hit, killing my sergeant. I spent a month in hospital
and returned to the USA in September, 1945 and the end of my military service.
There was no way of knowing in advance how my
war would turn out but, in many cases, survival was a matter of luck, good
fortune or the passage of a split second. In hindsight, being
kicked out of the Rangers probably saved my life, because they later suffered
casualties at Dieppe, Tunisia and particularly Anzio, in Italy, where virtually
all of the 660 men were captured, killed or injured.
Post War
After the war, I had a varied career, including:
3 years electronic engineering in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during which time we also
raised chinchillas; photographer; pool hall and tavern owner in
Iowa; fishing resort
owner in northern Minnesota; electronic technician in an iron ore plant;
instrumentation job at a ramjet missile testing facility in Utah; followed by a
similar job at the Titan missile site at Moses Lake, Washington; then to Toronto,
Canada as a instrumentation design engineer (mining equipment) and finally, for
18 years, until my retirement in 1985, an instrumentation and controls design
supervisor in Golden, Colorado.
In between times, my wife and I raised two
daughters and enjoyed a good outdoor life. I continue a lifetime's devotion to a
little Scotch Whisky but these days its for medicinal purposes only!!
Further Reading
There are around 300 books listed on our
'Combined Operations Books' page which can be purchased on-line from the
Advanced Book Exchange (ABE) whose search banner checks the shelves of thousands
of book shops world-wide. Type in or copy and paste the title of your choice or
use the 'keyword' box for book suggestions. There's no obligation to buy, no
registration and no passwords. Click
'Books' for more information.
Operation Torch
Acknowledgments
Written by
G W McCurdy, Golden, Colorado, USA.
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