THE RAGTAG CIRCUS - From Omaha Beach to the Elbe
Ex-Regimental Commander,
329th Infantry
83rd Infantry Division

VANTAGE PRESS
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All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form                     Copyright, 1969, by Buckshot Crabill                   Published by Vantage Press, Inc.               120 West 31st Street, New York, N.Y. 10001              Manufactured in the United States of America

THE RAGTAG CIRCUS  (THE BEGINNING)  

The reader can imagine from the title that the subject, the 329th Infantry Regiment, was not an elite outfit. It had neither the professionalism of a Regular Army unit, the publicity backing of the Marine Corps, nor the prestige of such half-military, half-social organizations as the Richmond Blues of Virginia. Its officers were chosen from those who were left in the pool after higher priority units had picked over the available supply. Its soldiers were a handful of enlisted men from the Cavalry, and the rest were the product of the draft.  

The six Regular Army officers, from colonel to lieutenant, did not even know each other when they were assembled at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, in May of 1942, and ordered to organize and train, for World War II, a regiment of infantry, the 329th Infantry Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division.  

The start was not propitious. Twenty-five National Guard and Reserve officers reported for duty to command the nineteen companies of the regiment, and to fill the few specialist vacancies. Of these a few were outstanding: Major John Mauldin, the regimental surgeon; Lieutenant Haley Kohler, the supply officer; Lieutenant Granville Sharpe, who later became the battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion; Captains Orvil W. Shelton, Ralph Hartgraves, and Horace Crowder, all of whom were killed in the hedgerows of Normandy; and Lieutenant Art LeBeau. Most of the others had two faults in common:      they weren't competent, and  they were too interested in being promoted.  

The  Regimental Commander curbed the latter ambition by telling them that they would be promoted when they demonstrated their ability to command a company. (They were all lieutenants when they reported.) This action wasn't too satisfactory, and most of them were given the "bum's rush" when the regiment was called upon to furnish a cadre for another outfit.  

The next increment was 140 second lieutenants from the Fort Benning Officer's Candidate School. These lieutenants had come up the hard way. They were enlisted men when they reported to Fort Benning, and knew that they would become officers if they made the grade, but would revert to enlisted status if they didn't. The instructors at Fort Benning hadn't spared the horses. The candidates were at it day and night -- double-timing from one exercise to another -- and those who made the grade were tough and reasonably competent; at least much more competent than the National Guard and Reserve officers. After their arrival the prospects of building a regiment were better.

Next to come was the cannon fodder -- 3300 draftees, who arrived by rail, a few hundred at a time. Many of them were celebrating their last liberty and were pretty noisy. They were met at the trains by the lieutenants and had the noise quickly jarred out of them by the "hup-two-three-four" of the march to camp.

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