United States Army in World War II: The Technical Services
The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany
by Alfred M. Beck, Abe Bortz, Charles W. Lynch, Lida Mayo, and Ralph F. Weld
1985
. . . to Those Who Served
Contents
Chapter 2: The Engineers Cross the Atlantic, 1941–1942
Reconnaissance—Iceland—Magnet Force—The Bolero Plan—Creation of the Services of Supply—The Engineer Pyramid—Roundup Planning
Chapter 3: The Engineer Machine in Motion in the United Kingdom, 1942
Personnel—Training—Supply—Intelligence—Construction
Chapter 4: The Engineers in the Invasion of North Africa
Engineer Plans and Preparations—Engineer Amphibian Brigades—The Landings—The Assessment
Chapter 5: The Tunisian Campaign
Aviation Engineer Support—Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants Supply—Ground Support—Mine Clearing—Water Supply—Camouflage—Maps—Command Reorganizations—Atlantic Base Section—Mediterranean Base Section—Eastern Base Section
Chapter 6: Sicily: The Beachhead
Plans and Preparations—Training—D-day—Joss Beaches—Dime Beaches—Cent Beaches
Chapter 7: Sicily: The Drive to Messina
Supply Over the Beaches—Corps and Army Support of Combat Engineers—Maps and Camouflage—Highway 120: The Road to Randazzo—Highway 113: The Road to Messina—Palermo
Chapter 8: From Salerno to the Volturno
The Invasion—A Campaign of Bridges—Naples—Peninsular Base—Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants—The Volturno Crossings
Chapter 9: The Winter Line and the Anzio Beachhead
Minefields in the Mountains—Bridge Building and Road Work—Engineers in Combat—At Cassino: 20-29 January 1944—Anzio
Chapter 10: The Advance to the Alps
Reorganization—The Offensive Resumed—The Arno—The Winter Stalemate—The Final Drive—The Shortage of Engineers—Training—Engineer Supply—Mapping and Intelligence—Camouflage
Chapter 11: Engineers in the Peninsular Base Section
Port Rehabilitation—Petroleum: From Tanker to Truck—Tasks of Base Section Engineers—PBS Supply and Maintenance
Chapter 12: Reviving BOLERO in the United Kingdom
The Continuing Problem of Organization—New Supply Procedures—Construction—The Manpower Shortage—Engineers at the Depots
Chapter 13: Looking Ahead to the Continent
Engineer PROCO Projects—Planning for Construction on the Continent—Refinements in Overlord’s Operation—Joint Stockpiling With the British—Training—Maps for the Invasion
Chapter 14: Preparing for D-day Landings
The American Beaches—Beach Obstacle Teams—The Engineer Special Brigades—Assault Training and Rehearsals—Marshaling the Invasion Force—Embarkation
Chapter 15: The Landings on Omaha and Utah
Engineers on Omaha—Opening the Exits—Utah
Chapter 16: Developing Beaches and Reconstructing Ports
Small Ports Near the Beaches—COMZ on the Continent—Cherbourg—Granville and the Minor Brittany Ports—The Seine Ports: Le Havre and Rouen—Antwerp and Ghent
Chapter 17: Combat Engineers in the Breakout and Pursuit
The Road to Coutances—The Road to Périers—The Road to St. Lô—VII Corps Engineers in the Cobra Breakthrough—VIII Corps Engineers Aid the War of Movement—Siege Operations in Brittany—The Seine Crossings—Beyond the Seine
Chapter 18: Supporting a War of Movement in Northern France
Highways—Railways—The ADSEC Engineer Groups—Pipelines—The Minor POL System—The Major POL System—The New POL Organization
Chapter 19: Breaching Germany’s Barriers
The Siegfried Line—VII Corps South of Aachen—XIX Corps North of Aachen—The Siege of Aachen—From the Moselle to the Saar—The Moselle Crossings at Mailing and Cattenom—The Bridge at Thionville—Advance to the Saar—The Capture of the Saarlautern Bridge—Assaulting Pillboxes on the Far Bank—The Withdrawal
The Landings—Base Sections and SOLOC—Railroads—Map Supply—Engineer Supply for the First French Army—POL Operations—Preparing To Cross the Rhine
Chapter 21: The Ardennes: Engineers as Infantry
The Storm Breaks in the Schnee Eifel—Blocking Sixth Panzer Army’s Drive to the Meuse—Delaying Fifth Panzer Army From the Our to the Meuse—Stopping the German Seventh Army—Engineers in NORDWIND—Seventh Army Through the Siegfried Line—After the Ardennes
Chapter 22: The Roer Crossing and the Remagen Bridgehead
The Roer Crossings—The Ludendorff Bridge—The Ferries—The Treadway and Ponton Bridges—Collapse of the Ludendorff Bridge—The 111 Corps Bailey Bridge—VII Corps, First Army, and V Corps Crossings
Chapter 23: The Assault Crossings of the Rhine
Ninth Army at Rheinberg—Over the Rhine—The XII Corps Crossing at Oppenheim—The VIII Corps Crossing at the Rhine Gorge—The XX Corps Crossing at Mainz—The Seventh Army Crossings—The Rhine Crossings in Retrospect
Chapter 24: Into the Heart of Germany
Ninth Army’s Dash to the Elbe—First Army’s Drive to Leipzig and Beyond—Third Army Reaches Austria—Seventh Army to the “Alpine Fortress”—Support of Alsos
Basic Military Map Symbols
Charts
1. Office of the Chief Engineer, ETOUSA, 1 July 1942
2. Theater Structure, AFHQ and NATOUSA, 8 February 1944
3. Office of the Chief Engineer, MTOUSA, 28 January 1945
4. Office of the Chief Engineer, ETOUSA, 1 August 1944
5. Office of the Chief Engineer, ETOUSA, 1 October 1944
Maps
1. Iceland, 1943
2. Organization of SOS in the United Kingdom, July 1942
3. North African Beachheads, 8 November 1942
4. Tunisia, 1943
5. Sicilian Landing Areas, 10 July 1943
6. Sicily, 1943
7. Italy Invasion Plans
8. Salerno Beaches, September 1943
9. Anzio Beachhead, 22 January 1944
10. Italy: Salerno to Rome
11. Northern Italy
12. Peninsular Base Section
13. Engineer Supply Depots in the United Kingdom, March 1944
14. Major Training Sites in the United Kingdom
15. The Final OVERLORD Plan
16. OMAHA Beach
17. UTAH Beach, June 1944
18. Minor Ports in the OVERLORD Plan
19. The Engineers in France: Normandy to the Seine, 1944
20. Beyond the Seine, 1944
21. Railways in Use and Red Ball Express, September 1944
22. POL Pipelines, September 1944
23. The Siegfried Line
24. Southern France Beachheads, 15 August 1944
25. Southern France: Supply Operations, August—November 1944
26. POL Pipeline
27. The Ardennes, 1944
28. Roer River Crossing, 23 February 1945
29. Crossing the Rhine, March 1945
30. Engineers in Germany
Illustrations
Maj. Gen. Charles H. Bonesteel—Construction Supplies at Reykjavik Harbor, October 1941—Engineer Troops Dumping Fill at Meeks Field, Keflavik—Maj. Gen. James E. Chaney, Ambassador John G. Winant, and—Maj. Gen. Russell P. Hartle—Maj. Gen. John C. H. Lee—Brig. Gen. Thomas B. Larkin—Lt. Col. Herbert Milwit—Men of the 829th Engineer Aviation Battalion Erect Nissen Hutting—Paving Train at an American Bomber Field in England—Hospital Construction Employing Prefabricated Concrete—Roof Trusses—Maj. Gen. Daniel Noce—Wrecked and Broached Landing Craft at Fedala, French Morocco—Moroccan Labor Gang at Casablanca Harbor—Col. Rudolph E. Smyser, Jr.—Gasoline Storage at Port-Lyautey—German S-Mine—Italian Bar Mines—The SCR-625 Mine Detector in Action on a Tunisian Road—Scorpion Tank Crew Loading Bangalore Torpedoes—Ponton Causeway Extending From an LST to Shore—Landing Heavy Equipment Over the Causeway at Scoglitti—Construction Begins at Cape Calava To Close Gap Blown by—Retreating Germans—Maj. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., Tests the Temporary Span—at Cape Calava—DUKWs Head for the Salerno Beaches—LSTs and Auxiliary Ships Unload Men and Supply at Salerno—Decking Placed Over Sunken Vessels in Naples Harbor—Brig. Gen. Arthur W. Pence—Engineer Officer Reads Pressure Gauges at Pumping Station—at Foggia, Italy—Wrecked M2 Floating Treadway on the Volturno—Engineer Rock Quarry Near Mignano—Removing German Charges From Buildings in Anzio—Assembling MIAl Antitank Mines at Anzio—Brig. Gen. Dabney O. Elliott—The Rising Arno River Threatens a Treadway Bridge—Bailey Bridge Construction Over the Arno Near Florence—Brig. Gen. Frank O. Bowman—Engineers Bridging the Po River—Raft Ferries a Tank Destroyer Across the Po—Blasting Obstacles at Civitavecchia, June 1944—Maj. Gen. Cecil R. Moore—Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants Depot, Lancashire—Bulldozers at the Engineer Depot at Thatcham—Engineer Crane Stacks Lumber at Thatcham, April 1944—Models of Belgian Gates—Wire Entanglements and Dragon’s Teeth at the Assault—Training Center, Woolacombe—Engineer Mapmaker Uses a Multiplex—Infantry Troops Leave LST During Exercise FABIUS—Col. Eugene M. Caffey—Tanks and Vehicles Stalled at the Shingle Line on OMAHA Beach—Engineers Anchor Reinforced Track at OMAHA—Teller Mine—Roads Leading off the Beaches—Tetrahedrons at OMAHA Beach—Twisted Sections of Lobnitz Piers at OMAHA Beach—Coaster With a Cargo of Gasoline Unloads at Isigny—Gasoline Being Pumped Ashore at Cherbourg—Clearing the Mouth of the Locks at St. Malo—Engineers Assemble an Explosive-Laden “Snake”—3rd Armored Division Vehicles Cross the Seine River—French Barges Support Bailey Bridging Over the Seine—982nd Engineer Maintenance Company Welds Six-Inch Pipeline—Col. Emerson C. Itschner—Decanting Area on the Oil Pipeline in Antwerp—Rigging Charges to Demolish Dragon’s Teeth—Bulldozer Seals Bunkers Outside Aachen—Troops Float Footbridge Sections Into Place on the Moselle—Heavy Ponton Bridge at Uckange—Brig. Gen. Garrison H. Davidson—Mine Removal at Camel Red—Probing for Explosive Charge at Marseille—The Aix Bridge—Engineers Drop Barbed-Wire Rolls To Prepare Defensive—Positions—Placing Charges To Drop Trees Across Roadways—Road Maintenance Outside Wiltz, Belgium—Installing a Bridge on the Ill River—Engineers Emplace Mats To Stabilize the Banks of the Roer—2nd Armored Division Tanks Cross the Roer Into Jülich—Footbridge on the Roer—The Ludendorff Rail Bridge at Remagen—Pontons Loaded for Transport to Remagen—Wreckage of the Ludendorff Bridge After Its Collapse—89th Division Infantry Cross the Rhine at Oberwesel—Engineers Slide Bailey Bridging Into Place at Wesel—Men Connect Bridge Sections Near St. Goar—M2 Treadway Bridge on the Rhine at Boppard—Heavy Ponton Bridge in the Seventh Army Area—Hauling a Tank Across the Saale River—Pontons Headed for the Danube—All illustrations are from Department of Defense files.
Center of Military History, United States Army
Washington, D.C., 1985
U.S. Army Center of Military History
Brig. Gen. Douglas Kinnard, USA (Ret.), Chief of Military History
Chief Historian, David F. Trask
Chief, Histories Division, Col. James W. Dunn
Editor in Chief, John W. Elsberg