Marion, I have spent some time today on my US 7th Army/Sicily research looking back over your many posts on the subject. Is there anywhere here that you have a chronological list of your dad's movements after landing at Gela? The dates are not as important as the route he took. I am initially interested in the engineers in western Sicily.

Colin.

I will be placing the entire history here someday, but in the interim, I can send you a synopsis of what I have so far. I will get back with you.

I should be getting my first "installment" of documents from NARA within the next several weeks. I do not know what it will cover. Let's hope this first batch covers the Sicilian campaign. Soon I will have my hands on ALL of it and that will be an exciting day for both of us!

Oh, were you able to download and read the brief history yet?

NOTE: This post and the several ones above have been merged from another topic into this one.

Along with various other links on this site, I downloaded the 'Brief History'. I am at the moment trying to trace the route taken to Palermo by the US army, including the engineers. Between Agrigento and Palermo the engineers were heavily involved with blown bridges, building bypasses and forging a route northwest through very mountainous terrain. Having already traced the 7th Army path from Palermo along the northern coast last May to Messina, I have only travelled as far a Corleone in the interior and in 2006 intend to link up to Agrigento. I await with great interest anything you find.

Colin.

Congrats Mare. Earlier you stated as to how can you put 3 years of warfare into 1500 words. Well; YOU just did.

Today was a beautiful fall sunny day, but that wasn't the sun; It was "Daddy"

smiling down on his "Little Girl".

Great News! Carolyn Billups just called me and she spent the entire day copying files from NARA for me. Info is already on the way. As I stated elsewhere, we are doing this in THIRDS because of the cost factor. So at least now I will have a third of the archived docs on my dad's unit. I am so excited.

Carolyn said that's there's a lot of good "stuff" in it too. Can't wait to get my hands on the info. This is going to be a Christmas present to myself.

Who knows, maybe in the spring I can hire her back again to do the 2nd part. At least this will get me started. A real gold mine!

Is there anywhere here that you have a chronological list of your dad's movements after landing at Gela?

This may not be of interest, but it is a very useful tool for studying the detail history of a unit. There is a guy on eBay that is selling WW2 maps of Sicily. These are the small scale (1:25,000) maps used by commanders in the field to identify the location of friend and foe. The map coordinates used in their Op Reports and After Action Reports are based on maps like these.

He has 5 or so maps of Sicily, including one entitled "Gela". Others are the southern coastal area of Sicily, where the American assault came ashore. Previously he sold some of the NorthWest edge of Sicily, which is close to where Patton made his end run to beat Monty into Messina.

Check it out. The bid is at $5 each and no one has bid on them.

Steve

An example of a simliar map from my collection. This map is 1:50,000 scale and not as colorful as the one currently on eBay. The grid coordinates are shown in the margins. Black dotted lines were added at last printing to denote trails.

Cool Steve. Will have to wait and see what I get this week. Even though it's only $5.00, I still owe Carolyn $350.00, so I think I'll work on paying her first! Appreciate the links though. Keep 'em coming.

Hey gang, boy did this make my day.

I sent an email to Colonel Mike Morgan of Army Engineer Magazine and asked if they would be interested in the article I wrote a couple of months ago regarding my dad's unit the 540th. Here is his response. I am so thrilled!!!

Oh here is their web:

http://www.armyengineer.com/AEA_Magazine.htm

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Definitely like to publish your original article. I have room for it in the May-June issue as a matter of fact. You could send me just an unformatted text file, and attach separately any images or illustrations you may want to include. If you don't have any images, I can probably find some "generic" ones online that fit the subjects (Center of Military History for example has many high resolution WWII images and illustrations). And, I probably can find a map or two online as well. I'll need to have the materials assembled by mid-April to meet my deadlines.

Thanks for the offer, Mike

Mike Morgan

Colonel, USA (Ret)

Editor, Army Engineer Magazine

148 Romana Drive

Ridgeway, VA 24148

276.956.1769

Marion, that's great! I'll have to get one.

Will you autograph it for me??

Brooke

You got it sweetheart. You're first in line!

I am very excited. I had sent my article to WWII Mag, but haven't heard anything yet. I know they have a two year waiting list for many of their columns, so I was surprised when Col Mike wrote back and said May-June issue! Yee-haw!