Loud speakers warned troops as soon as they detrained that they were "now in a secret area". In the two weeks that followed, processing of clothing and equipment followed. A full round of lectures occupied all hands so they were advised about ship security, abandoning ship, censorship, finance, sanitation, conduct overseas and other pertinent subjects (including "gangplank fever"). Physical fitness was maintained through road marches, obstacle course-running, and athletic contest. Boston became the latest metropolitan mecca for the Division, but it wasn’t long before the restriction lid was clamped down and the big ships tied up. The ultimate rail movement of thirty-five miles to the Boston Port of Embarkation was negotiated, trains running conveniently onto the dock. Traditional Red Cross doughnuts, coffee and orangeade helped calm any stomachs that might have quaked at the gangplank’s forbidding slope. Troops were squared off according to number and then began the fateful file of pack-and-bag-laden men up the plank, responding with first names and initials to the check-off of surnames.
The U.S.S. Mariposa sailed August 6, with the 378th Infantry, 358th, 359th, 360th, Field Artillery Battalions and the 320th Medical Battalion aboard. The U.S.S. West Point (formerly America) embarked August 9 with all remaining units of the Division. Prior to sailing, troops "came up for air" on the sun deck, looking long at the Boston waterfront and getting in their last whistles at American girls. As the ships wound out through the antisubmarine-netted harbor, the last visual contact with the United States faded out with the dimming lights of the city and Massachusetts’ North Shore. The voyages were generally serene and the Division enjoyed, save for unavoidable overcrowding, the shipboard life so novel to most everyone. Motion pictures, standing in lines at the ship’s stores and reading occupied most of the troops’ time. With the ships taking about the same time to cross, they docked at Liverpool, England August 14 and 17, respectively. Thus, these dates became highly significant in the Division’s history. They marked the first arrival of the Division on any foreign soil in any war.
For a probable majority of the Division’s personnel, Liverpool’s docks represented their first foreign footing. Staggering under maximum loads, troops made their way up a long ramp and to the waiting English trains with their European-made cars. Traveling southeasterly through the Midlands, all eyes peered and necks craned at the alternating rustic and industrial vistas that were framed by thick green hills. The Division’s destination was Winchester, in Hampshire, oldest English city, capital during King Alfred’s reign and legendarily synonymous with King Arthur’s Camelot.