I haven't posted for quite some time and normally I didn't post a lot regarding engineers. A few days ago I received this picture. On the backside of the picture is the text: 84th division, 309th engineers at the Roer, you can see the patch on the shoulder of the trooper who is up front and it's definetely the "Railsplitter" patch. So this picture must have been taken in 1945 just before or after these men crossed the Roer river in Germany.
I thought it could be a small and nice addition to the website. If someone wants the better quality picture, just let me know and I can e-mail it to you.
This is my first post (after my introductory post). I had a bit of luck with a question that seemed to generate some interest on, and hopefully this one will get some good responses as well.... I am interested in hearing about what life was like for our boys when they returned home. Specifically, the boys in Europe. (BoB if possible, but really, anywhere in Europe would do). I wanted to know if it was like we see in the movies with big ships docking and floods of people waving and cheering and parties in the streets etc, or if it was more of a quiet affair. Did these boys have loved ones waiting on them the second they set foot on home soil or did they find their way home for surprise homecomings? If it was a big party, what was life like once the party was over? I know they were left to look for jobs and the GI bill came into effect which helped, but what was a typical day post WWII like? Mentally, was it difficult to adjust from war to quiet home life or was it easy because war was over? Details and stories if possible!
Received this email recently and am sharing it with you. Cool map!
Hello Marion,
Got tied up on the phone. Here are the new (better) photos of th 292 Campaign Map.
I am a (soon to be) 59 yr. old Marine (Vietnam era)Veteran. My first training was at 29 Palms, Ca. where I graduated No. 1 in my Combat Engineer School. (A Company 7th Engineer) from there I went on to Marine Barracks, Naval Air Station, Barbers Pt., Hawaii. Just as a little background.
I found a huuuuge photograph at the same time I acquired the map. I need to research it to find out when it might have been taken. It's a genuine NAVY PHOTO of a parade of ships...(Aircraft carriers and battleships) coming into the San Francisco Bay with a full view of the Bay Bridge, the docks, the ships and Alcatraz island in the fog! The frame is 2'x3'! If your interested I'll send you photos....it's rather hard to get good photos when glass is involved.
Received a letter from Sam Resnick, telling me about this book...
...A new book came out last year, not sure whether I mentioned it, but anyway, it's called War in the Ruins, The Battle for Heilbronn. Many of my buddies as well as myself have been quoted extensively in that book...
“War in the Ruins has all the vivid narrative, historical context, and exacting military detail you would expect in a battle story. But author Edward G. Longacre’s account of the Centurymen at Heilbronn is no sterile blow-by-blow from the ‘war as chess game’ genre. It is a fully fleshed-out portrait of young American men dealing with war’s realities in one of World War II’s fieriest and unjustly overlooked land battles.”—JIM KUSHLAN, America in WWII Magazine
By April 1945, the last German counteroffensive in the west had been defeated, the vaunted Siegfried Line was no more, the Rhine River had been crossed, and major German cities were being bombed relentlessly. The war in Europe appeared to be in its final stages. As American and British armies overran central Germany, the Russians were smashing their way from the east toward Berlin. Optimism reigned up and down the Allied lines. But as the American Army’s 100th Infantry Division pushed along the west bank of the Neckar River across from bomb-shattered Heilbronn, resistance unexpectedly stiffened. In that 700-year-old city, a major industrial and communications center still operating for the benefit of the Nazi war machine, Hitler’s subordinates had battened down for a last-ditch stand. For sheer ferocity, it would exceed anything the now-battle-hardened Americans had experienced. Here, American troops faced a grueling campaign of house-to-house fighting, with Hitler Youth, Volkssturm militia, and an SS division attempting to stop the American advance at this critical sector of the European theater. Having been repeatedly targeted by Alllied aircraft, the city resembled a vast, Hellish ruin, and as American soldiers inched their way forward, they encountered booby traps, withering sniper fire, deadly Panzerfaust rounds, and a fanatical enemy. The nine-day battle for Heilbronn would be the last major combat for American troops in Europe. Within three weeks of their securing the city, Hitler would be dead and Germany defeated.
In War in the Ruins: The American Army’s Final Battle Against Nazi Germany, Edward G. Longacre recounts this neglected but essential chapter in the history of World War II, describing the 100th Division’s swift but grueling advance through the Vosges Mountains, their Rhine River crossing, the assault on the historic Maginot Line, and the ominous approach to Heilbronn. The author then describes the entire bitter battle and its aftermath, using private letters, journals, German and American action reports, and other primary source material, to establish War in the Ruins as an essential volume in the history of World War II in Europe.
