Posted from an email I received today:
Mrs. Chard,
My grandfather was in the core of engineers as a demolitions expert during WWII and I'm trying to research, as deeply as possible, not only what kinds of missions he would have executed but what kind of training, reference materials, and methods he would have been provided with. I am a structural engineer myself and teach structural engineering at the Boston Architectural Center, so I have a general understanding of what structural knowledge would be applicable, but I'm not sure what information and reference materials would have been provided to officers for training. I am wondering if you have any specific knowledge regarding the appropriation of vintage training manuals, &c. and if you can reccomend any historical or period books or guides that I might find helpful.
Warm Regards,
Matthew Strong
Hi Matthew:
So nice to hear from you. I will try and see what I can come up with to
share with you. I do have some old army manuals and docs, so I'm sure to
run across something. I will also post this on our forum for you under WWII
Engineers.
I'll get back with you later this week.
Smiles,
I'm not sure if this is what you are seeking but the US Army used manuals to train the soldier for about everything. Of course, Engineers had to be pretty specialized for some types of operations.
For example, Fort Sill, OK, was the home of the field artillery school and it put out manuals for artillerymen---everything on auto-maintenance to the speciality training for horse artillery. The same is true for the Engineer but I'm not sure what Amy base had the primary responsibility.
There was a Field Manual for the average engineer soldier: FM 21-105 - Basic Field Manual: Engineer Soldier's Handbook. This book began with the basics of how to swing an axe and use a shovel to how to lay steel mat for runways. It is a good start to understand the engineer's job duties.
I've seen more specialized field manuals, too. I think there was one on Camoflage, but that might have been a regular infantry manual.
So, I would recommend looking for some field manuals. There are some guys out there who are scanning these into CDs for equick reference.
Steve
Yes Steve, those manuals are perfect. Have a few myself.
You can pick them up on Ebay or at used book stores. If anyone is interested, please check out the links I have for WWII related information on my Books page on the main site.
http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/Books.htm
Matt:
Make sure you check out the links on the Links page too. Look under Engineer Related Links once you get to the page:
http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/links.htm
If you send me your address, I can put any engineer related articles on a CD for you. Let me know.