Received this letter:

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Ms. Chard,

Thanks for your response to my request. Can you help me in locating the

359th Engineer Battalion? My father in law was assigned to this unit during

the final years of WWII. I'm particularly interested in the unit's path

through the US to its final location in WWII. Also I'm interested in what

unit they were assigned to so that I can try to locate a unit patch and

distinctive unit insignia for a shadowbox. Where would be a good source of

this type of information? Thanks for your help!!

V/R

Mike

Support Our Troops!

Co. A., 1-504 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82D Airborne Division and 32D

Aerial Intelligence Squadron, USAFE

Godspeed To All!!

I sent him the PDF file below and also told him about Robert Hoedel's page. I put him in contact with Nancy Hoedel, Robert's daughter. Ah small world.

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/Rob...obertHoedel.htm

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.

359thHistory.pdf

Attached Files

  359thHistory.pdf (Size: 1.53 MB / Downloads: 0)

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.

New book on Korean War Engineers.

http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/pubs/sep...ep05/story7.htm

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

My new friend Karl contacted me. Here are his letters to me and this is the info I compiled for him this morning.

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dear missis marion. first let me tell you who i am. i am a hobby

historian living in germany near heidelberg, my friends and i

participate in collecting us army artifacts and also reeanactments.

second interest is the two weeks before and after the occupation of the

rhein-neckar area in april 1945. i read that the 540 th engineer combat

group did some operations here. i like to ask you if you would give me a

hand on finding out what units build the bridges in this area. i would

be very thankful. yours truly karl heinz kleine

hello marion. i thank you very much for your agreement to give me a hand

on my researches. i work with a partner who is stationed in heidelberg,

with the airforce, he may also write to you sometimes. we are trying to

cover the occupation of the rhein-neckar-area precisly with all exact

informations such as unit descriptions and correct places. the picture

you attached i think i know where it was taken i will go there and take

a comparisation shot and send it to you. i am also in contact with the

63rd inf.div veterans and have a cd of pictures from them. i already

located some pictures there that i will look for and make also

comparisations.thank you again i remain greetings from heidelberg, yous

karl heinz

hello marion. good to hear you are very much involved in engineer history. thanks a lot also for your recent mail.the picture in

heidelberg will have to wait some since i don`t get to go to heidelberg

too often however its planned in the near future.i will also send you a

panorame postcard from the most romantic city in germany. the bridges

in question to make it easyer for you are from north to south on the

rhein : rheindürckheim/hamm, worms down stream from the nibelungenbridge

destroyed, mannheim/sndhofen, ludwigshafen to mannheim, on the neckar in

mannheim city , heidelberg city also later in heidelberg downstream from

the friedrichsbridge and maybe a bridge up river at hassmersheim. these

are all that i could think of, if there are anymore on these rivers let

me know. for your efforts i allready thank you very much. since i`m also

involved in reenactments i will soon send you a picture of our group

with me on it just so you know with what an ol`goat your dealing with.

once again thank you very much til next time. karl