Six or seven years ago, the late and great Al Kincer of the 48th Engineer Bn, sent me a three-volume set of books called
Engineer History - Mediterranean Theater - Fifth Army
These are a wonderfully detailed set with text, and loads of photos and maps.
Recently I copied maps for Enrico, and then today, shared the maps with Steve Cole, a friend who runs an Italian Campaign website.
Steve began asking me for more information on the maps, so we've been writing back and forth this morning. I wanted to show him what I was referring to, so looked up the books on the internet. Now I know these are rare and valuable, but about fell off my chair when I clicked on the first site I came to:
http://www.abebooks.co.uk/Engineer-History-Fifth-Army-Mediterranean-Theater/591436687/bd
The set is going for FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE English pounds. OH MY GOD!!!!
I AM SO GEEKED! Did I say I was GEEKED!?!
Recently a WWII vet inquired if I could copy more info for him on engineers in Italy. I told him that Al Kincer had given me a set of books years ago, but there's no way I could scan these, due to their age and fragility. These books are rare and costly and I just couldn't take the chance, Waaaaa!
Mind you, I had been looking online to see it there was a digitized copy, but no luck, that is until this evening. I almost fell off my chair, when the search turned up positive.
I posted this link, plus many others - on the main site (http://www.6thcorpsc...inksVICorps.htm) over the last two days, some really GREAT data on the Italian campaign. Many thanks to Dave Kerr on the 36th Inf Div site on Facebook, for turning me onto his site.
Here's the direct link to the book - Enjoy! PS - This file is very large, so be patient!
I looked through the book and was pleased to find several long entries on the 540th. I printed them out and plan to get into them next week. The MEU command element will be going to the field all next week. At least the weather is good! I can't imagine what these WWII dog-faces had to put up with being out in the elements, with few breaks, for several years!
Joe, Yestidday ya saved my life an' I swore I'd pay you back.
Here's my last pair o' dry socks.
Love the Willie and Joe. Ya, that was about it too. Glad you will get the chance to read about the 540th. They are a fantastic set of books and gives you a real feel. Nice to have the maps too for a visual, plus some great photos, some of which I use in my documentary.