179th Engineer Combat Battalion

[Walt's Daughter]

Strange how that wound up on his headstone, but mistakes have been known to happen.

 

When researching "bastard" (self-supporting) engineer units, it's often confusing, for even I (early on), believed that all units were part of a division. My father's unit, the 540th was also a self-supporting engineer unit, and was not a permanent part of any division They were usually under the direction of a Corps or Army, such as the 5th or 7th Army and the VI Corps. They often supported and/or were attached to various others units during the war. In other words, they were assigned where best needed.

 

The 90th Infantry Division had an engineer unit, but it was the 315th Engineer Battalion (see attachment) - archived file - General Order 421

315th EB GO 42 1.pdf