2770th Engineer Base Reproduction Company

[Walt's Daughter]

Received this from a colleague of mine. Am happy to say I found an answer, which is also included below.

 

Hi Marion--

 

Dave Berry (Pathfinder historian) writing. It has been quite a while since we were in communication.

 

I have a quick question which is somewhat outside of my comfort zone....I am assisting a friend of my father who was in the USACofE during WW2.

 

I am trying to determine his parent unit. He told me that he was in the "2770th". He was a map maker/lithographer. He told me that he was at Belvoir in mid to late 44 and they shipped out to Europe in late 44 and they were scrambled to the front in the "Bulge" such that he was there during the last two weeks of the battle. He remembers his Captains name as Ehrett (or Ehret).

 

I have found reference to 4-digit CoE units beginning with 27. These appear to be titled: 27xx Engineer Base Reproduction Company. I found reference to 2771st and 2773rd but NOT 2770th.

 

I was curious to know if your archives could give me something firm on the name/numeric designation of this unit and any larger formations it might have been attached to.

 

Mr. Mallardi is a friend of my dad's down in Florida. He is 93 years old and told me that he got "the Letter" from St. Louis about the fire. While at Ft. Belvoir he fell off of freight train and was hospitalized with a broken coxix (tail bone). His Capt. came to him before they shipped out and told him they needed him and Mr. Mallardi checked himself out of the hospital and rejoined his outfit to ship out. He was hoping to find reference to his hospitalization in his service records...but you know how that St. Louis stuff goes. My thought was to verify the 27xx "engineer" unit and then go to Lee's Summit and find the Morning Reports...which were not destroyed in the fire.

 

Can you get me started in the right direction about this 2770th outfit?

 

BTW, since last we spoke I have relocated from Dayton, OH to Alpharetta, GA. I can't think of anything more fun than packing and moving after being in the same place for 38 years!

 

Hope to hear from you.

 

Dave Berry

Historian WW2 Pathfinder Group Assn.

 

==============

 

Dear Dave:

 

I have GOOD news. My buddy, historian Michael Brodhead (Army Corps of Engineers Office of History), came through with flying colors. Here's the info:

 

Marion--

 

After a frustrating day of bad luck finding anything for a couple of

researchers I was pleased to find, without difficulty, this entry in John

Controvich's bibliography of unit histories:

 

2770th Engineer Base Reproduction Company, Seine Section, Paris, France.

Bobingany: 1945. 34 lvs. PCarlMH.

 

"PCarlMH", as you may know, refers to the Military History Institute at

Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

 

We are pretty sure that this is the unit in question. There were no 2770s

listed in the WWII Order of Battle volume, which has entries for battalions

and larger units. Also, a base reproduction outfit sounds like the sort of

unit where a "map maker/lithographer" should be.

 

Michael

 

Happy to help. I am going to post this info on my site too, so we may benefit others who are also in search...

 

Smiles,

Marion