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593rd FA in Germany
Bill Daniel

After completing basic training at Ft Ord, CA and Ft Bliss, TX, I was sent to Camp Kilmer, NJ for shipment overseas. On March 14, 1955, I sailed on the General Leroy Eltinge for Europe. I arrived in Bremerhaven, Germany on March 24 after a rough 10 day crossing. I went by train from Bremerhaven to Zweibrucken arriving late in the evening. The following morning I was assigned to the 593rd Field Artillery Battalion with an MOS of 1844, Cannoneer. On March 27th I went from Zweibrucken to Babenhausen, home base of the 593rd. On March 29th I was assigned to Battery A, 3rd Gun Section, overseen by SFC White. The 593rd was equipped with 8 inch self-propelled howitzers. They were the old World War II style and had to be loaded by hand. The projectiles weighted 201 pounds and were carried on a tray by four men. The projectiles (projos) were pushed up the loading ramp by at least 6 men on the rammerstaff.

My first job was #4 man on the rammerstaff. On April 4, 1955, I was sent with an advance party to Grafenwohr to set up a camp for maneuvers. We experienced heavy rain and winds. Most of the tents blew down as fast as we set them up. On April 8th, I went with a work party to draw ammunition for the maneuvers. Hauling 201 pound projectiles in the rain was no fun. On April 9th, worked at setting up the officers’ tents, the mess hall and installing coal fired heating stoves in all the tents. April 10th, the rest of the battalion arrived, received all of my back mail from the states. On April 11th, I fired the big guns for the first time. My hearing has not been the same since. We stayed in Grafenwohr until April 30th, moving and firing from various locations. (The motto of the 593rd is "Move and Fire"). We fired the battery test on April 29th scoring 93.8 out of a possible 100. On April 30th we returned to Babenhausen by train and proceeded to clean all our gear and equipment. May 1st was my 21st birthday. Took a couple of pictures on the front steps of the barracks and sent them to my folks and girl friend. May 7th, I received a 3 day pass to go to Nuremberg to sing at the Hillbilly Jamboree before 1200 GI's. Sang four popular country songs of the time, "Who Me?, "You Just Better Not Do That", "Wondering", and "Always Late". Anybody remember any of those oldies? On May 10, 1955, the 593rd was moved from Babenhausen to Budingin. It was a nice move to a smaller facility, in old stone German barracks. We had a nice maintenance yard, plus an ammo dump and small air field for spotter aircraft. We were housed for a while with one battalion of the 4th Infantry Division and I remember their "Ivy" patch. I also have a picture taken of buddies at the front gate, showing the 593rd and 83rd Recon Bn, 3rd Armored Division, nicknamed “Spearhead”.

The mission of the 593rd was to place artillery fire on the Fulda Gap in case of invasion by the Russians. It was generally assumed we would last about one day before being overrun. We received a lot of training on escape and evasion and classes with maps showing us withdrawal routes. Also about this time the occupation of Germany by allied forces ended and everything changed in regard to our relationships with the German countryside. Now when we moved the guns on alerts or practice dispersal sites, we had to clear it with local German officials first. No more cutting across corn fields and tearing up cobblestone streets with our tracked vehicles. On June 15th I was promoted to PFC and made Number One man on the gun. That meant that I was the one who set the elevation of the tube for firing. It also meant that I was even closer to the muzzle blast - another reason why I don't hear high pitched sounds too well. October 17 20, 1955, I was selected to attend training at an interesting little facility in Kircheimbolanden, Germany. It was a group of eight from our battalion including the battalion commander. I have the certificate from the Fort Sill Artillery and Guided Missile School, showing successful completion of the T 317 Assembly Course. We learned how to assemble nuclear rounds for the eight inch howitzers. As a result of receiving the best score in the group, on both the written test and the assembly and disassembly of the practice shells, I moved from an unknown in the back ranks to being known by the battalion brass. Sometimes, that is good and sometimes it is not. Also, as a result of the training I had received, my duties now changed. For the next year, whenever we went to the field, instead of being on the gun crew, I went to a "clean room", a camper-type room on the back of a truck, and practiced preparing the nuclear round for firing. To the best of my recollection we had a total of 4 nuclear rounds. I worked most of the time with a dummy practice round, but, on occasion would clean and inspect the four "live rounds". The nuclear rounds were the size and shape of our normal high explosive rounds but much lighter. Instead of being solid steel, the screw off nose cone was of a lighter sheet metal-type material. A cylinder of uranium, about the size and shape of a thermos bottle sat in the base of the shell. Above that were two more rings of uranium. The rings sat on detents in the wall of the shell. When the round was fired, the rotation caused the detents to retract allowing the rings to fall down over the cylinder creating a critical mass. The fuse in the nose was laced with plutonium, and when it fired, blew the plutonium back over the critical mass producing the nuclear explosion. The maximum range was 12 miles and the blast size was one mile. Most of the above dates and activities are documented in a small journal I kept from October 1954 to June 1955. Information from here on is based on my sometimes faulty memory. An interesting thing about the above mentioned Kircheimbolanden facility was the security. It had a high double fence separated by about a 10 foot space. The space was patrolled by German Labor Service personnel carrying carbines and escorted by K9s. At the front gate was a gun emplacement made of concrete and logs. There was a machine gun emplacement and about a squad of GI's on duty. In overall command of security seemed to be a group of Special Forces soldiers, I assume perhaps an A Team.

I did not think much about it at the time but now know that it would have been fairly early in the development of the post-WW II SF concept. One of the side events that came out of the stay at Kircheimbolanden was a friendship between the SF officer and one of our battery officers. As a result of that, he and I attended about a week long training session at a Special Forces training location in, I believe, Baumholder. We received basic instruction in explosives but mainly with anti tank and anti personnel mines and training in setting up defensive positions and fields of fire around our artillery position. I believe this took place in early December 1955. The LT and I had a couple of training sessions with the other 2 batteries in our battalion to pass on what we learned. As I recall there what never much practical application of this training. In theory, when the battery went into firing position, the clerks, cooks, mechanics etc, would take defensive positions with rifles, 30 caliber machine guns and 3.5 rocket launchers to protect the unit from "Russian Armor". In practice, the mechanics were always busy fixing something, the cooks cooking, etc., so there were very few people manning the defenses. One memorable event was when we had opportunity to replace our basic load of ammunition. Several of us took a five ton truck of small arms ammunition to a range a proceeded to use up the entire truckload of .30, .45 and .50 caliber ammunition plus boxes of AP and WP 3.5 Rocket Launcher rounds. I recall 2 old tanks and a couple of other vehicles that we shot to pieces. The .30 caliber was for our M 1 rifles, and .30 cal air-cooled machine guns. The .45 caliber was for pistols and a sad weapon nicknamed the grease gun, carried by truck drivers. etc. The .50 caliber was for .50 caliber machine guns ring mounted on the maintenance and mess trucks. I can recall many adventures in the winter of `55 `56, moving our vehicles, wheeled and tracked on snow and ice. An icy hill makes a great bobsled run even for tracked vehicle. We learned to only send one vehicle at a time up or down an icy hill so if it slid down, it would not collide with other vehicles. We found it was nearly impossible to dig a fox hole in frozen German ground and would go looking for holes dug by others in previous years. We also found it difficult dig the mines into frozen ground and would lay them on top and cover them with snow. We learned that gasoline poured in a # 10 sized can full of dirt, made a good "stove" for warming hands and feet, making coffee and such. One of the good things about the 593rd's self propelled guns was that they had aircraft engines. One of the mechanics told me they were like old B 17 engines from WW II. The net result was they threw off a lot of heat and a seat near the twin exhaust pipes were much sought after when we were moving from position to position or just sitting idling by the side of the road waiting for instructions. Also that winter, I learned to carry a "G.I. hand warmer" and a can of lighter fluid for nights we spent in the woods on alerts or maneuvers or just walking guard duty. At 21, I was one of the older guys in the unit. Many were 18 or 19 years old. Most of them had received artillery training at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas. Several had gone through basic training and shipped over together. Still there were men from all over. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arizona and at least one Canadian that I can recall. Only a couple of us from California. In the spring of 1956, 3 others and I rented a `53 Chevy from an "RA" in the outfit and went on a tour of Europe. Austria, Italy, Spain and France. Two of us got dysentery and ended up in the army hospital in Frankfurt, the other 2 guys completed the tour of Holland and Belgium. We carried two 5 gallon gas cans in the trunk of the car and could get gas for 25 cents a gallon at army facilities in France and Italy. In August 1956, I was introduced to army paper work when both battery clerks received early release to return home and attend college. To my frustration, I became the battery clerk for two months prior to shipping home. During this time, I received the "full court press" to re enlist. The First Sergeant, a World War II vet named "Rocky" Borders, took me home to Sunday dinner with his family, took me skeet shooting, and even loaned me his car for a day. When I told him I had a girl friend waiting at home, he offered 30 days’ leave to get married and an additional stripe when I returned to Germany with my bride. I declined all offers and sailed for the ZI towards the end of September. We sailed into New York harbor, were put on a train and headed west. We arrived at Ft Ord and I was mustered out on October 14, 1956. I married the girl friend in 1957 and we are still together after 46 years. Unfortunately, I did not start collecting patches until 1985. Since I had long since disposed of my GI clothing, I had few of my own insignia remaining. I do still have one set of Class A’s just as I wore them home. I also have a German bevo-made pocket patch for the 593rd. The patch is the same as the DI that I purchased it in the PX in Budingen. I do not recall many of the men wearing this patch but do recall a couple of officers who wore the pocket patch on their fatigues.