GUAM, MARIANAS 53rd NCB - SEABEES

Early in June, 1944, the 53rd was attached to the First Provisional Marine Brigade, for the assault operation on Guam, in the Marianas group. Leaving a rear echelon of two officers and 79 men, the remainder of the Battalion embarked on two ships, on june 6, 1944. En-route to the island, plans for the Battalion's part in the invasion were carefully laid and gone over almost daily. Two special beach parties, composed of volunteers, were assigned to assist in the landing operations and unloading of supplies on D-Day, June 21.

The remainder of the Battalion moved ashore on D-Plus-3, to set up their camp near Agat Village. Concurrently with the construction of quarters for themselves, the Bees were almost continuously occupied with the task of clearing debris from existing roads, clearing jungle, and constructing new roads to facilitate movement of supplies to the Marines at the front.LT. Commander Thompson's official report of the Battalion's activities on the Guam invasion is Quoted:

At Guam, Marianas, two beach parties were assigned from the 53rd NCB. One officer and 17 enlisted men, euipped with several tractors, landed on D-Day (H-Plus-5 minutes), July 21, 1944, with special mission to assist unloading a Marine Battery of Sherman Tanks from LCM's and LCT's at the edge of the reef at Agat Beach. This task was finished within an hour under heavy enemy mortar and machine gun fire. Three of the Sherman Tanks dropped into bomb craters on their way in from the reef to shore and were submerged. This party volunteered to rescue these Tanks and succeeded in getting two of the Tanks safely to the beach in two hours, under heavy fire. A second beach party of five enlisted men was assigned the task of operating a North West Crane, mounted on a pontoon barge and anchored off the reef of Agat Beach, to unload gasoline and ammunition from LCT's to LVT's in support of assault troops. The barge was under heavy mortar fire for the first four days.. The remainder of the Battalion moved ashore on D-Plus-3 and established, maintained, and constructed roads and bridges in support of the assault troops. The Battalion's beach camp was under enemy artillery fire for four hours on D-Plus-3. The 53rd NCB maintained the only Seabee Demolition Squad on the island, consisting of a Chief Petty Officer and 13 enlisted men.. This squad cleared all beaches, roads and areas ahead of construction troops over a nine months period.

While the 53rd NCB was attached to the First Provisional Brigade, during the initial landing on Guam, they were detached from the Marines on July 27, 1944, and assigned duty under the Fifth Naval Construction Brigade.

I finally found a REASONABLY priced copy of this book that I had been searching for for over 2 years. Some copies ran as high as $325.00! OUCH!!

This one was $99.95. I knew I wasn't going to find one any cheaper. Hell, they are hard enough to come across as is.

This is the 540th Combat Engineer's Regiment book, Overseas With the 540th, that was produced in Germany for the guys in 1945. It's a real treasure and I am so excited about finally getting my hands on one. YEE-HAW!!!!

Ah, good things come to those who wait!

While reading through the journal entries from the 540th, you start to see a trend of "antziness". I can imagine how badly they wanted to go home at that point. Here's an excerpt from July records on the period from 20 - 30 June 1945, Mannheim, Germany

"...The wait for a trip home is having its effect on the men. On the night of the 28th a group were drinking at the Enlisted Men's Club. A fight developed, and one man was severely wounded with a knife..."

Here's a file I scanned from the 540th docs regarding the official redesignation and reorganization of the 36th, 40th and 540th Combat Engineers in February of 1945. The following file is a PDF file.

ReGroup1945001.pdf

Attached Files

  ReGroup1945001.pdf (Size: 158.74 KB / Downloads: 12)

18th NCB - Seabees History. The 18th Battalion was commisioned at Camp Allen, Norfolk Va., August 11, 1942, and transferred that day to Davisville R.I. On September 6, "C" Company was transferred to CB Replacment Group, Fleet Marine Force, San Diego, California. The remainder of the battalion was transferred to the FMF Base Depot, Norfolk. Embarking on September 11, 1942, the unit arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia, November 11. "A" "D" and Headquarters companies disembarked at Noumea, while "B" company sailed for Guadalcanal, landing December 6, 1942. On December 7, "A" "D" and Headquarters companies sailed from Noumea for Guadalcanal on two ships, and disembarked at Guadalcanal December 12. More detachments of the outfit arrived at Guadalcanal December 19 and 25. On April 7, 1943, the battalion, minus the rear echelon embarked at Guadalcanal and arrived at Wellington, New Zealand, April 16. The rear echelon arrived April 20. On April 26 the battalion was redesignated as 3rd Battalion, 18th Marine Engineers, 2nd Marine Division. On October 31, 1943 Companies "H" "I" and Headquarters sailed from Wellington for Tarawa. On November 21, and throughout the next three days detachments of 290 men and three officers disembarked at Tarawa, the remainder of the force continued to Hilo, Hawaii, landing December 5. "G" company left Wellington November 29 and arrived at Hilo December 12. Remainder of the echelons left Wellington a few days later and the last detachments arrived at Hilo January 6, 1944. The group left at Tarawa embarked on January 8, 1944, and arrived at Hilo January 21. On April 1, 1944, the battalion was redesignated as the 18th USN Construction Battalion and assigned to Corps Troops, Fifth Amphibious Corps, but remained attached to the Second Marine Division. On May 11, 1944, the battalion minus the rear echelon, left Hilo bound for Saipan. On June 15, 1944 (D-Day) seven shore party platoons landed on Saipan. On D-Plus-1, nine more shore party platoons went ashore, and on D-Plus-2, one shore party landed. Turning their attention to Tinian, a group of two officers and six men went ashore on that island on July 24 (J-Day). On July 26 (J-Plus-2) a detachment of 16 officers and 613 men landed on Tinian. The remaining men arrived on Saipan in small groups over a period of ten days. The rear echelon departed from Hilo in small groups during June and July, with the last group arriving on Tinian September 5, 1944. In June 1945 the battalion was inactivated