Loyd was shipped to England on an old luxury liner, a ship longer than the queen Mary but not as wide. The liner was called Ode de France. His thoughts of England, "There was a bunch of funny people who spoke odd." No money and the army kept the boys busy, Loyd and the others were able to stayed out of trouble. He was in England for 3 weeks and then shipped to France. 

In France, Loyd remembers his first day. He marched all day with about 40 lb. on his back. Tired and hungry they were told to "Dig In." He was a green horn and had been assigned to a fox hole buddy that was an old campaigner. Turning to his buddy, he asked, "When are they going to bring up our beds? The guy looked funny. A few minutes later the platoon leader walked by, "Hey," the buddy called out, "Come over here, this guy wants to ask you a question." Loyd had to repeat his question.
The platoon leader repeated the question to the sergeant, they reported it to others, fox hole after fox hole. It got a laugh from all the men. Loyd's fox hole buddy had been on the front line for three weeks and had not had a bed in all that time. Fox holes, rain, cold, night after night, he sleep with his clothes on, wet, dry, he soon learned why the guys had got a good laugh out of his question.  Food was regular. There was two kinds. Sea Rations for individuals and K rations for the platoon. The squad leader would open the K rations, take out the chocolate and cheese and divide it with his friends. The rest was passed out and divided with the group. It contained cans of devil meat, vienna sausage, cigarettes (4 in a  package) and other stuff. The Sea Rations contained food such as  hash, corn beef, a  biscuit in the top of a can with gravy in the bottom can. Most of the guys complained about all the food. Loyd loved the food, he didn't understand all the complaining.  Being raised poor and having very little to eat, it was a feast for Loyd. Loyd said, "It was good healthy food." 

He remembers how dumb some of the guys were. Once they took a warehouse, it was full of rabbit skin vests. They were made to be issued to German soldiers. The Germans were on the run, so the warehouse was packed. If worn correctly the fur was dark, but if the vests were turned inside out, they looked white. The Sarge had to tell some of the yahoos to turn them around the right way. They were great targets shining white for the Germans. Loyd remembers some of the guys sneaking into the towns to drink and party. He doesn't remember any of them being hurt. By this time the Germans were backing up 25 miles a day. They didn't have time to booby trap the land behind them. 
 

Loyd recalls one battle, as they came to the top of a hill, they could observe a tank battle between the Germans and the Americans going on below. The engineers were down on the river  below trying to put bridges across for the troops to cross. Over time they would get one of the floating bridges about complete then the Germans would take it out. Finally the Americans put out lots of smoke screens. With a bridge completed it was time for the army to cross, Loyd recalling the Germans taking the bridges out time after time, he said he ran as fast as he could with his  40 pound pack on his back. When he hit the bridge, he kicked it into another gear. He recalls the Germans being very good fighters, one on one, he thinks they were better soldiers than the Americans.

With the cold winter setting in Loyd developed a bad cough. Being hard of hearing was a genetic family problem, mixed with the loud sounds of battle, he lost his ability to hear. The guys in his squad took up a petition to have him sent to the medical hospital in France. Loyd doesn't remember the name of the hospital but recalls hearing people talking about Patton dying at the same hospital. He was flown back to England stayed there a short time while waiting to be shipped back to the USA. The first ship he was schedule to go on was over booked so he stayed a few days longer waiting for another. As luck would have it, that ship was the last ship sunk by the Germans. It was filled with American soldiers heading home. Loyd was then placed on a small ship called the US Wakefield, an army hospital ship. It had been a small pleasure ship before the war. It had been used to cruise the coast of Mexico and South America.  The little ship would go up and down with the waves. One night the sick soldier below deck heard horrible noises aboard the little ship.  Krr..plop,  krrrrrr plop, krrrrrrrrrr plop. The men remembered the sinking of the ship by the Germans a few days before.  They ran for the stairs, stampeding and pushing as they went. It turned out to be garbage can rolling around, banging as they hit the sides of the ship.  Loyd remembers one of the guys on board, an old Italian guy, he was too sick to get up. The men had to stand in line for about 3 hours to get breakfast, he would get Philadelphia his meal, the man was too sick to stand in the lines for food. After shaving and cleaning up, Loyd would repeat the 3 hour wait for the dinner line. There was 2 meals served on the ship, the meals were contracted by an English bunch. They served brussel sprouts and mutton for most of the meals. If one was willing to pay $.50 cents to the staff, the staff would sneak corn beef sandwiches and different kinds of food the the men. Again most of the guys complained about the food but Loyd thought it was pretty good eating.