Troops in France perform many tasks amid hazards
By Master Sgt. W. A. Johnson
Somewhere in France –
Since D-Day, colored soldiers here have been making vital contributions to the fight for victory as they perform their manifold jobs amid dangers from artillery and shellfire, bombs and exploding mines.
Along the shorelines, DUKWs (2½-ton amphibian trucks), manned by a driver and his assistant, shuttle supplies between the cargo vessels and the central point ashore where the cargo is transferred to waiting trucks.
The convoys of trucks, loaded with men, food, ammunition and equipment, protected by anti-aircraft artillery units, proceed along the road to the ordnance depots which receive, sort, store and issue supplies to the units.
Ammunition protected
The ammunition depot, operated by Tech. Sgt. M. C. Darkins, whose wife, Mrs. Beulah Darkins, is a Baltimore schoolteacher, is carefully concealed and protected by the barrage balloons which prevent strafing and precision bombing.
Also seen along the road are Signal Corps members repairing disrupted lines of communication and establishing new ones. A Red Cross flag indicates the location of a dispensary operated by members of the Medical Corps.
All of these men, the engineers who repair the bridges in record time, and others, when questioned, declare one thought foremost in their minds: the end of the conflict and a speedy return home.