Good Evening, my Father in Law (Harry Drake) was with the 343 and landed on Sicily July 10th. He is looking for others of the unit and if there is any written documentation of the 343rd. We said that we would look and was delighted to find this site. Harry would like to document his story for his grandsons, one who just returned from Iraq. Harry has long been very quite about his service so we are delighted that he now wants to tell his story.

Thank you for any contacts information or leads that you might be able to share.

Eagle

Hello Eagle,

For the last two years I have been researching the WW2 Sicily campaign (Operation Husky) initially concentrating on the Canadian 1st Div then the 8th Army. I have visited Sicily over the last two summers and go again this May to trace the path of the US 7th Army from Gela/Licata via Palermo along the north coast to Messina. I have posted on a number of websites trying to contact veterans of this campaign.

I would very much like to know your father-in-laws story, ie where he went what he did etc. If you are willing to help with this please see my profile on this website and Email me.

Colin. (Wiltshire, UK)

Looks Like Colin and I are equally excited about meeting you here on the forum. It is a real honor to have you here.

I did a bit of investigating last night and this is what I found. These references were found in my Corps of Engineer book which I have listed on this site.

The 343rd was a General Service Engineering Regiment, who indeed came into action with the Sicily Invasion. They even worked and fought in the very same places that my father's unit, the 540th did. That was a pleasant surprise.

Behind II Corps, the 20th Engineer Combat Regiment on Highway 113 and the 343rd Engineer General Service Regiment on Highway 120 shared road maintenance responsibility within the army area.

The 20th Engineers improved 18 bypasses on Highway 113 between Palermo and Cape Orlando, and the 343rd did similar work on 21 bypasses on roads from Cape Orlando to Messina and Randazzo.

The 540th CE Reg (less on bn) worked briefly at Palermo, then moved on to operate the beaches at Termini Imerese. The 343rd Reg whose responsibility for Palermo was also brief, replaced the 540th on July 30, 1943.

The following is in regards to the invasion of the Italian mainland:

The 3rd, 34th, 36th, 45th Inf Div's along with the 82nd Airborne and 1st Armored Division were the main invasion forces and of course had their own permanently attached engineer units. A navy beachmaster was to maintain communication with all the ships and control all operational landings. A port HQ consisting of two Transportation Corps port battalions, was to coordinate all unloading into small craft offshore, but the pivot of beach supply operations was the 531st Eng Shore Reg and the 540th Engs, the former assuming responsibility during the assault phase. The 531st, a component of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade for the invasion, replaced the 343rd Engs, which was trained in beach support operations but had neither the experience nor the equipment to carry out this function.

This is in relation to the Volturno River crossing:

From the time the troops crossed the lower Volturno at Capua and Caiazzo to the time they crossed the upper Volturno and Colli, they were extremely short on bridging material. They had to resort to low-level bridges and mainly used materials that were scrounged up from the local country-side. Flash floods played havoc with most of the bridges and many were completely wiped out.

The one bridge sturdy enough to resist the torrent was a semi-permanent structure that the 343rd built at Capua between Oct 16 & Nov 9th. This pile bridge was a major link in the 5th Army lifeline for a 6 month period!

That bridge was 332 ft high, 370 feet long, and was classified as a two-way Class 40, one-way Class 70 bridge. In the first 24 hour period after the bridge opened for traffic, 10,000 vehicles crossed. During the campaign, 1 million! Way to go boys!!!

During the June and July drive to Arno, much of the 5th Army forces were preparing for Operation Anvil (the Invasion of Southern France). The non-divisional engineer units that split away from 5th Army control included the 36th, 540th & 48th CE Regiments and the 343rd & 344th Engineer General Service Regiments.

Here's a reference to Aix, France in August of 1944:

The 343rd Engineers restored service to Aix in ten days by a strategem that saved days in repairing a 104 foot gap in a rail bridge. In the area the regiment found a German 270-mm railway gun. They hauled it to the site, stripped the gun and the rail trucks from the traverse base of the piece and attaching a ten-foot steel extension, launched the platform as the stringers for the new span across the void in Bailey fashion. The Aix bridge work was completed on August 29th.

At the same time they were restoring a bridge at Meyrargues over rising river levels. After closing a 107-foot gap with the first Bailey Railroad bridge in France, a quadruple-single span with a deck thirty-eight feet above the water's surface, which opened to traffic on September 18th.

The 343rd was assigned the job of opening the Marseille-to-Lyon route, and began work on the Livron Bridge on September 7. Before the war a masonry-arch bridge has stood and had carried a single track across a muddy-shallow Drome. Now all that was left was a pile of masonry with a 310 foot gap. The 343rd placed steel I-beam stringers and by Sept 20 the bridge was open to rail traffic 5 days ahead of schedule. This performance along with the units previous actions in the southern Rhone valley, earned them a commendation from Lt Gen Patch.

After October 30, 7th Army Engineers divided the responsibility for rail rehabilitation. The 1st Military Railway Service supervised the construction of forty-two rail bridges and the repair of nine between Marseilles and Dijon by early 1945. The work continued and was performed by the 40th, 94th, 343rd, 344th, and 540th Engineer Regiments and the 1051st Engineer Port Construction and Repair Group.

Thank you to all that have responded. We are having a very interesting time gathering the story from my Father-in-law. He has never wanted to talk until now but it is very important to him to tell the story now. Ardis, my wife, is calling him often as we find new information and then he tells his version or the discussion spurs a memory. It seems that he was working on boulder Dam when the Army drafts pretty much the whole company. He was sent immedately to England to begin preperation for the rest of the outfit to come. His basic training was on the ship on the way over there. At least that is where he was taught how the Army worked.

Again thanks for the help and a great site.

Keep it up. It is so important to get these stories while we still can.

Eagle

You are very welcome. We are all too happy to help out. Let us know what more we can do for you. Remember, we want to hear all about his story as it unfolds. Can't wait to create a page for him. Tell him I can't wait to read his memoirs. Will be honored to have him here.

One thing we all have to keep in mind; it's never too late. So everyone, if you know a vet, please go talk to him and make sure you tell him how precious and important he and his memories are. Do it now before it's too late. Regrets aren't easy to carry around.

In the woods near Nettlebed in England is a small reminder of the US Army Engineers' presence in the area in World War II. A small stone 'Castle', taken from the Engineer's badge, was said to be one of two constructed at the entrances to Nettlebed Camp. This was a camp used by US Engineers as a training base set in the woods of the Chilterns north of Reading and near Henley. On it is a sign saying 1942 - 343rd Engineers US Army, probably the unit which built the camp.

Does anyone know of the history of the 343rd Engineers?

I'd like to find out more about the camp or hear from any veterans who served there. There were also camps nearby at Badgemore, Henley, Checkendon and Kingwood Common that I am also interested in.

Contact me at shazam7777@hotmail.co.uk or 44 1844 281575.

Best Wishes

Tony

Hi Tony and a very warm welcome to our forum. Pleased to have you here.

I do have some info on the 343rd and will scan and copy it here within the next 24 hours or so. Happy to help out.

I looked up the contact info for this engineering group and there is nothing presently on the internet. I will post anything else I find right here, so check back from time to time.

There are other resources available that are included in the Research Section of the forum:

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/eng...hp?showtopic=23

These include the Army Corps of Engineers which is lacated here in the states. They are a very valuable resource.

So stay tuned and I hope to have more for you very soon.

Frerick McGulpin

Monday, April 11, 2005

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Fredrick Gordon McGulpin died April 6, 2005. He was born in Ryder, N.D. on July 7, 1917, and moved with his family to Alhambra in 1930. He attended school there until he was 17 years old, when he joined the Navy, where he served from 1934 to 1938. When World War II broke out, he joined the Army and after a month in the states was sent overseas with the 5th Army, 815th Engineer Battalion, later changed to the 5th Army, 343rd Combat Engineers. They invaded North Africa at Oran, where the Nazis had mined the harbor and where he recollects they had to fish the many allied casualties out of the bay and build ÒBoot Hill Cemetery.Ó Their duties consisted of destroying enemy roads, bridges and supplies and building new roads and bridges, and hauling in supplies for the oncoming troops. They stormed across North Africa, through the Kaserine Pass, invading Sicily at the time Mt. Etna erupted in 1943, then to mainland Italy where Mt. Vesuvius also erupted and where the lava was used to build new roads by the troops. They fought their way to Rome, Corsica and into southern France and on into Germany. Fred was honorably discharged after the war in 1945 and began working for the Department of Water and Power of Los Angeles. He drove supplies from Los Angeles to the High Desert for the installation of the aqueduct from Northern California to Southern California. He worked there for several years and then became dispatcher for the Western District of Los Angeles in power and equipment. He retired in 1973. On Oct. 7, 1943 he was married to Elizabeth Welden Buster. Fredrick leaves behind his wife, Elizabeth; his son, Patrick; his daughter, Eloise; his stepsons, David Buster and his wife Jamie, James Buster and his wife Sherry, and Mark Buster and his wife Linda; one sister, Hazel Milliron, and her husband Keith; 11 grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews. He was dearly loved and will leave a vacuum in all our lives. Services will be held at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Corona First Baptist Church at 155 W. Eighth St., at S. Main Street, in Corona. Graveside services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Riverside National Cemetery, Staging Area No. 1 in Riverside. Kern Hesperia Mortuary is handling arrangements.

The 343rd were part of the 5th Army and were a general service regiment.

http://www.milhist.net/ordbat/5armyus.html

VI Corps (American)

- 2nd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment

- Hq and Hq Detachment, Special Troops

- 1st Platoon, 21st Chemical Company (Decontamination) [u/c AtlBaseSect]

- 34th Coast Artillery Brigade (Anti-Aircraft)

- Hq and Hq Battery

- 62nd Coast Artillery Regiment (Anti-Aircraft) [u/c MedBaseSect]

- 68th Coast Artillery Regiment (Anti-Aircraft) [u/c AtlBaseSect]

- 103rd Coast Artillery Battalion (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) [u/c MedBaseSect]

- 213th Coast Artillery Regiment (Anti-Aircraft)

- 437th Coast Artillery Battalion (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) [u/c AtlBaseSect]

- 658th Coast Artillery Battery (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) (AB)

- 689th Coast Artillery Battery (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) (AB)

- 690th Coast Artillery Battery (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) (AB)

- 691st Coast Artillery Battery (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) (AB)

- 692nd Coast Artillery Battery (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) (AB)

- 693rd Coast Artillery Battery (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) (AB)

- 694th Coast Artillery Battery (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) (AB)

- 695th Coast Artillery Battery (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) (AB)

- 696th Coast Artillery Battery (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) (AB)

- 697th Coast Artillery Battery (Anti-Aircraft) (Automatic Weapons) (AB)

- Engineers, Fifth Army

- 343rd Engineer Regiment (General Service) [u/c MedBaseSect]

- 175th Engineer Regiment (General Service) [u/c AtlBaseSect]

- 402nd Engineer Battalion (Water Supply) [u/c MedBaseSect]

- 601st Engineer Battalion (Camouflage)

- 450th Engineer Company (Depot) [u/c MedBaseSect]

- 470th Engineer Company (Maintenance) [u/c MedBaseSect]

- Engineer Utilities Platoon (Provisional

Harold Ray HAWLEY

Harold was a Technician 5th Grade in the United States Army during World War

Line 3568 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:

NOTE CONC II. He served with Company F, 343rd Engineers General SVC, CE. He

enlisted 21 Apr

Line 3569 from GEDCOM File not recognizable or too long:

NOTE CONC 1942 and was separated 9 Jan 1945. He was a Protestant of Walla

Walla, Washington..

Grave location: Sect. B, #3952.@12

ADD "Multomah County"

References:

!1-2, 4-6, 12. INTERMENT RECORD.

http://hawleysociety.org/hawleygen/pafn140.htm