The 359th was a General Service Engineer unit and they have a very interesting history. When you read the accompanying document, you will find out all about POL's or Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants setup and distribution. Amazing what they could do during wartime. Talk about pressure buddy! Let the gasoline flow.
Happened to be working in the store this afternoon, when a gentleman walked into the store. What are you reading he asked? I smiled and showed him my book, The Technical Services, The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany.
We started laughing as he commented about my choice of reading. Long story short, I told him about my research regarding my father and gave him my card. He told me about his father and mother and how they met during the war in Italy. He then told me about one of 7 brothers in the family and how he died in Liepzig just a couple of weeks before the war's end. He said they didn't know much, not even what unit he was with. So I told him to send me his name and I would send him a list of research tools.
In the interim I told him to check out the local newspaper in the town where the gentleman lived. So he is going to look through the archives of the Wyandotte, Michigan papers. I said that during the war each town listed the casualties from the war in their local papers. It would include his date of death and the unit he was in. Ah, a fine start. He is also going to locate his grave because that would also include info.
He said he was so glad that he asked me what book I was reading. Me too. Goes to show you, you just never know...
First Across the Rhine - The Story of the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion - by Col. David E. Pergrin with Eric Hammel - Publisher: Pacifica Press - 1989. Is a first-person narrative by the commander of the celebrated 291st Combat Engineers, who paved the way from Normandy shortly after D-Day and raced across France and Belgium in the summer of 1944. In December of '44 they found themselves virtually alone as they stood astride the route of the panzer spearhead - The Battle of the Bulge. Weeks later the 291st was selected from among all the US Army engineer bns in Germany to throw the first bridge across the mighty Rhine River, in the face of enormous resistance.
The Office of History has formally released its latest publication, Remembering the Forgotten War: U.S. Army Engineer Officers in Korea. The book is a richly illustrated collection of oral history interviews, drawn largely from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oral history collection. The book was released on July 13 at a reception in Headquarters hosted by Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, Chief of Engineers
