Jack Kirkwood
Jack Kirkwood
Age: 85
Residence: Indian Wells
Military branch: U.S. Army, 601st Military Police Battalion
Years served: December 1942-December 1945
Rank: Staff sergeant
Family: Wife Adelaide, two children, seven grandchildren
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II daily through Nov. 22 and on a regular basis through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
Arch Buffington of Palm Desert, U.S. Army veteran
More
U.S. Army recruit Jack Kirkwood was shipped overseas to North Africa in late July 1943 to help transport prisoners.
After reaching Casablanca on the Canadian Passenger liner Empress of Scotland, his detachment was ordered to a group of Army trucks at dockside.
“Out detachment traveled about 40 miles southeast into the North African desert to a big German prisoner detention camp near the Moroccan town of Berrechid,” said Kirkwood, a member of the 601st Military Police Battalion.
Kirkwood's detachment was assigned to take 760 German prisoners, by truck, back to the coast where they would all board a ship back to the U.S.
Kirkwood, 18 at the time, said the prisoners were in no way unruly or aggressive.
“It was clear that they trusted us and had accepted their surrender,” said Kirkwood, now an 85-year-old Indian Wells resident.
“It was also obvious they were looking forward to visiting the United States with its relatively comfortable quarters and daily good food, even if they would be confined as prisoners of war.”
A small convoy set sail to New York on Aug. 12, and apart from some rough seas just off the African coast, the trip was uneventful, he said.
In early September, the detachment set sail from the Newport News harbor area to return to North Africa.
It was rough heading out into the turbulent Atlantic Ocean, Kirkwood said.
“That first day out in the Virginia banks, our ship suddenly broke down and went dead in the water,” he said.
It took the engineers and boiler room gang about two hours to make the repairs.
“We were never told what happened, but we sure had a wild ride powerless and drifting in that big sea.”
His friend “Pappy Youmans and I were at the rail on the deck below the bridge. On each roll to our side of the ship, we looked almost straight down at the sea before the ship rolled upright, then over on the other side.”
MPs on patrol
Once across the ocean, the orders soon came down that the detachment would be reorganized and moved to Italy.
Kirkwood, now a member of the newly created 57th Military Police Company, patrolled the Naples port area on motorcycle with other members of his detachment.
With the fighting in Cassino less than 50 miles to the north, German night air raids attempted to disrupt allied supply lines between the port areas in and close to Naples.
Although the raids were sporadic, they occurred often enough to cause damage and casualties among the civilian population — which was suffering from the deprivations of war and close to starving, he said.
“After each raid, the military police were called out to patrol the city and assist wherever necessary, usually with the inevitable injury to civilians,” Kirkwood said.
The 57th was eventually moved up to Rome, where Kirkwood was assigned to a six-man motorcycle detachment, riding the Army's lightweight Harley-Davidson 45.
In February 1945, the 57th was on the move again.
This time, the new assignment was security duty at a big American detention center just north of Pisa and patrol duty from Pisa north about 15 miles to the front lines and across northern Italy to Lucca, the old, walled city between Pisa and Florence.
“There must have been several thousand GI prisoners, nearly all AWOL cases,” Kirkwood said, recalling his first visit to the detention center.
When the German forces in Italy surrendered in May, Kirkwood and his buddies celebrated in a big way.
They got a ride into Pisa to search for an “accommodating” bar.
“Just along the Arno River, we found what was left of one,” Kirkwood said.
“We got drunk. Did we ever,” said Kirkwood, laughing.
