Heard back from Kay. Was also hoping to hear something from our engineers, but so far, no bites...
Marion,
How nice of you to respond. I think I may have figured it out. Large bundles of paling was used to fill in craters so tanks, trucks, etc could make their way down a road. Chestnut trees are a typical, inexpensive source of paling in Europe (or at least were during WWII). I think they were making paling from chestnut trees, simply called chess paling in the Morning Reports.
I would love to share about my dad and here your stories as well. I'm working on a book and am spending time at the National Archies in June to look at Unit Records. I already spent a week looking at Morning Reports in St. Louis. If you haven't done this, you really, really should.
Kay
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"