1053rd Engineer Port Construction and Repair Group

[JerryLH]

My Father in Law was in the 1053rd Port Construction and repair group as a marine diver. T/Sgt Carmen DeLucia. He enlisted in Nov 1942. Trained in NY Navy Salvage 12 weeks and at Ft Screven GA. 12 weeks Marine Diving 1943. Was deployed Dec 1943 and arrived in England Jan 1944. Army Engineer Divers were placed in Port Construction and repair groups. There were 17 officers and 235 enlisted men in these groups. Their sole purpose was port restoration. The 1053rd was ADSEC and deployed in late June or July of 1944 to Cherbourg France. They were then moved to clear ports of St Malo and Brest in Brittany in August/September 1944. The efforts in St Malo and southern ports were ended in late Sept, as they could not produce the tonnage needed for supplies. Focus was put on Cherbourg, LeHarve other larger ports. The 1053rd was in Cherbourg from Oct 44 to Jan 45. We have a commendation naming all in the 1053rd for the meritorious and brave work in 90 ft of water installing charges and cutting metal under water to make connections to raise sunken boats and cranes etc. Carmen was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his work. He was moved to Reims France in Dec 44/Jan 45 due to the Battle of the Bulge. He never spoke much of the war and only said it was cold as hell that winter and those boys were being cut to ribbons upfront, so they were moved up closer to the front lines. He always said the real heroes never came home. He was then moved to Liege Belgium, when we are not sure. After the Battle of the Bulge the push was on to crossing the Rhine. Many bridges were built to cross the Rhine these units supported the Corps of Engineers efforts. In March/April ,the 1053rd and the 1058th Port Construction and Repair groups were detached to the 1146th Engineer Combat group to build a fixed timber highway bridge at the Rhine 1,813 ft and Lippe rivers, 411 ft.at Wesel. The 1053rd and 1058th built the Rhine portion of the bridge. Work began March 31 and open to truck traffic April 18, 1945. The spam was named the Roosevelt Bridge. Carmen was then deployed from Le Harve France on June 16,1945, and arrived in NJ and taken by train right thru his home town of East Liberty section of Pittsburgh, (after being in ETO for 18 months he said his family did not know if he was dead or alive at that time and he so much wanted to jump off the train that day) to San Diego placed on a troop ship to Luzon Philippines arrived July 20 1945 where he helped clear and salvage the port of Luzon. He returned home in late Nov 1945.