Yes, you are pretty much right on the money with your assessment. The real nitty-gritty didn't begin until the Sicilian Campaign, which is where the engineers experienced tougher landings, and were constantly on the move with the infantry and armored units. This is where put all their additional infantry and engineer training learned in N. Africa, to the test. Mainland Italy was a brutal experience, which was due to many factors including the weather, terrain, and of course the enemy. Many of the engineer's spent days on end as infantry and fought right alongside with such units as the 34th and 45th Inf Divs.
As Art Cook stated, and which is reiterated in my "green book" (as I so fondly refer to it now), N. Africa saw the engineers spending most of their time in additional infantry and engineer training. This included Bailey bridge training with the British. There were also a lot of initial mistakes made by the combined beachhead parties (navy and army). This began on the American mainland; the engineers had spent hours on end loading all their equipment for the invasion, but the next day were instructed to unload most of it. What? Yep, they were told the space was needed for other things, so most of their "stuff" was left behind. Well that soon proved (oh ya that took a genius huh?) to be a disaster, for the engineer's couldn't function to their full capacity without!
They didn't have the bulldozers to load and unload and clear the beaches. They didn't have the vehicles to even get around. You get the drift. Not a good scenario. The army and navy had a steep learning curve and found that the engineer's weren't secondary "citizens". They actually needed them. WOW!
Art laughed and stated that many of the days in North Africa were actually fun! Hell, that wouldn't last long would it?
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"