This thread seems to have been dormant for a long while. Let's see if we can revive it.
My father, Lawrence A. White, also known as "Red" White due to his red hair was from Leominster, Massachusetts. He was a construction foreman in the 345th Combat Engineers. He was trained at Camp Crowder, MO and then shipped out to North Africa. He said he saw the USS Massachusetts get hit by a shell from the French battleship Jean Bart and then saw the Massachusetts sink the Jean Bart. He mentioned he was in Casablanca and Bizerte. From there he was in the invasion of Sicily, then Salerno and Anzio. He said he was at Monte Cassino as well. He ended the war up in Milan where he obtained photos from a Bristish photographer of Mussolini, his mistress, and a few other fascists hanging from their feet at a gas station in central Milan. He said very little else about his service except that he told my mother that at one time he was face to face with a young German soldier at very close range. Dad simply said "And I'm the one telling the story and he's not." This haunted him for the rest of his life.
He also mentioned that he had a good buddy in his outfit from Watertown, Massachusetts, but I don't know his name.
I would love to know more about this unit if anyone has information. Dad died in 2011 at age 90.