Wow, I love this when it happens and we find more info on a member of the 1108th Engineer Group - 235th Bn!!!!!

Received this letter a few weeks ago (I know, I know) and just got around to reading it (so far behind) and looking at the attachments that Karen sent/

I am posting her letter to me, and will post her attachments, very shortly.

PS - Karen the patch you noticed would be 2nd Corps, not 2nd Army, There, just cleared up something for ya~

 

 

Hello Marion:

 

I happened upon your website as I was anxious to learn more about my father’s duties during WWII. I knew (only based on my memories of his stories)that he was in the Combat Engineer Corps but that’s about it. He had 2 trunk-fulls of manuals, books, his own pictures and some Italian photos, personal mementos and ‘salvaged’ memorabilia in our garage for years, but after he passed away in ’07, my mother dumped everything on the curb...without my knowledge, until after the garbage men had collected it.

 

Somehow later on, I found a little memo book that my father, Edwin A. Gales, had written in back in his war days. I scanned the pages/notes. While reading the little pages, I noticed then that he gave more info about one of his units—he said that on 1/6/44 he was “assigned to the 235 Engr. Combat Bn.” and that at that time there were “nine officers besides myself”.. I was already on your website when I read this (again) and was able to discern that you may have more info about his activities than what he wrote in his little book?

 

I also noticed that on 1 of the 3 pics I have of him during that time he has a 2^nd Army patch on his left shoulder-and the engineer castles on his lapels. I tried looking around and didn’t see where all that matched up, so I was hoping you might shed some light on that as well, if you can. If you can’t answer for me, perhaps some of your guests/members will be able to help. I see where I can post to your guestbook, but was wondering if there was another avenue? Also, I’m not sure how to phrase my question, as his background is confusing to me which may make it more confusing to others!

 

I’m attaching the pics-and the notes-so if you’d like to use them, feel free. I really admire your passion for putting your great site together and finding out so much about your father, enough so to even do a book! That’s great!!!

 

Best Regards,

Karen

 

 

Karen Gales

Okay here are three of the four PDF's she sent me. I have to re-size the diary PDF, for it was too large and would not upload to the forum, in their present state. Will be back...

Enjoy - such a treat!

EAGalesWWII.pdf

EAGalesWWIISanVittoreItalyFeb1944.pdf

EAGalesWWIIundated.pdf

I split the document into four parts, so I could upload it. Here we go....

EGalesNotesWWII - re-sized for web_Part1.pdf

EGalesNotesWWII - re-sized for web_Part2.pdf

EGalesNotesWWII - re-sized for web_Part3.pdf

EGalesNotesWWII - re-sized for web_Part4.pdf

I did not get a chance to tell you how much I appreciated being able to read this! Thank you so much!

Jean

Trust me, it is good to hear, sometimes I think I am only posting this for myself, for I rarely if ever, hear from our more than 1000 forum members, any more. I DO appreciate your remarks and it makes me feel like someone is paying attention to the veteran's stories, etc, that I post.

What we need is a movie about WWII combat engineers - then maybe people would show interest. Because clearly if it hasn't been made into a movie or TV show, then people don't think it exists.

You got that straight. What, you want someone to read a book? Wow, that's asking a lot! :pdt12: