Postcard of Cannes circa 1945

Thousands of men were shipped back to the United States, my Father and his battalion amongst them, on a ship that I can only identify as the "Sea Robin".

It appears to be the last issue of an onboard newspaper called the "Robin Egg", written by men aboard the ship as they headed home towards Boston. The newspaper was acknowledging the men who had contributed and worked on the paper on this last leg of their journey home to their loved ones.

On the 30th of August 1944, the 40th battalion stepped aboard to prepare for the journey home. They were the first unit to pull KP, and guard duty as the the other troops were assigned to the ship. Not long after V-J Day, they received a gag "will" of the Emperor Hirohito. Some may find this offensive, but I think it does express the mood at the time. Click on the image to read Emperor Hirohito's "Will"

My Father was a 1st Lieutenant of the 40th Light Signal Construction battalion; they were among the first who went aboard the Sea Robin on the 30th August in preparation for all the other men.

He was known as Fred by most of his friends at the time. The paper conveys many thanks of gratitude towards my Father's battalion for pulling KP duty aboard the ship as well as the results of a football game where my Father's Battalion were whipped by 394th Fighter Squadron 18-11.

When the battalion returned, they were assigned to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, where it was inactivated on 25 January 1946.

Between April and June 1945, the 40th was assigned to various duties cleaning up and supporting the US Forces in Germany until they were stationed down in Marseilles, France.At the end of World War Two, the armed forces of the ETO thought that they would be heading out to the Pacific, and at the last moment, this was called off by the unconditional surrender of Japan in early August of 1945.

A description of this can be found in a an article called "Sweating it Out" in the Stars and Stripes August 5th 1945. (The day before American forces dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima)

"Out on the dusty, rolling fields of the Champagne Plain in northeastern France one of the most tremendous tasks in military history is being pushed along at high speed and gaining momentum every day. Here is the place where the cream of America's military might in the ETO is being collected, shaped up and readied for the final crushing blows against the remaining enemy- Japan.

It's a hurly-burly, rushing process that appears to have no system and yet, paradoxically, is all system, finely worked out to the last detail.

In less than two months the giant Assembly Area Command has taken more than 170,000 troops, whisked them through its network of redeployment camps, and sped them on their way to the United States and the Pacific. The sprawling redeployment tent cities of the Assembly Area sometimes seem like rip-roaring boom towns, with battle-hardened soldiers in combat boots crowding PXs and drinking beer, while off in a corner somebody tinkles out hillbilly music on a banjo. Other times the camps seem like small-time college campuses, some men playing baseball, others loafing in the sun. all waiting to be processed.

Basically, there are only two things common to all the redeployment camps the routine processing of all the troops passing through, and the dust that rises from the roads as trucks roll along in almost endless convoy.

As far as the average GI being redeployed is concerned, the camps themselves vary widely even though the tents, food and general accommodations are the same. The contrast arises out of a little matter known as chicken. Sometimes units quartered side by side in ones camp will provide a striking contrast. One unit will be having a rest cure, devoting its time exclusively to getting processed and taking it easy. Another will be drilling, marching, standing formations."