Info for 171st Engineers

[Walt's Daughter]

Received this request this week. Am posting it and all pertaining correspondence. Thanks to all for your assistance.

 

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Nice Website, was hoping maybe you can help me out a bit. I have over 269 letters spanning from September 1943 at Camp Carson to end of the war and then some from 35225857 Donnell G Gale Company A 171st Eng 'C' Battalion; [most letters being three to four pages long]........I think the last one I looked at had a December 1945 date and no censor stamp. The handwriting is ez to read, the guy writes in pencil a lot.

 

 

I have looked all over the net for information regarding this Company A 171st Engineers C Battalion but haven't been able to come up with a concise history of them. Can you help in any way to point me in the right direction?

 

 

 

35225857 Donnell G Gale

Company A 171st Eng 'C' Battalion

 

{US Army eagle letterhead}

 

September 2, 1943

 

Dear Sweetheart,

 

Well it seems a long time but I have arrived where I am to be at last. It is a long way from home, Camp Carson Colorado just outside of Colorado Springs about five or ten miles. Believe it or not I am in the Engineers. Why? I don't know and I can't say I like the idea a whole lot at the present. Maybe after I am here a while it will be different. The camp here is very nice. Mountains all around and you can see Pikes Peak from here, it is only a few miles away. I am in Company "A" 171st Combat Battalion whatever that is.

 

Just to give you an idea of where I travelled here goes. We left Fort Benj Harrison at 4:00 p.m. Aug 31st and arrived at the various towns as follows,

Indianapolis Ind -4:35. Layover in Indianapolis ate supper and left about 7:20 pm.

 

Terre Haute Ind -8:30 pm

Paris, Ill -9:10 pm

Sept 1-St. Louis Mo-1:00 am

Union Mo - 3:00 am

Eldon Mo - 6:35 am

..........

he continues to list every town they whistle stop thru and then goes on in great detail about arriving there, getting his GI haircut, missing family etc.-and this is only the start of this guys story-I haven't even begun to read the letters as I write this to you.

 

thanks

 

dave

 

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I then contacted the Army Corps of Engineer's Office of History in Alexandria and Fort Leonard Wood.

 

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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Caveats: NONE

 

Marion and Dave--

 

Once again about all I could find was the information in the Order of Battle

volume:

 

Battalion activated 25 June 1943 at Camp Carson, Colorado; left New York Port

of Embarkation 11 August 1944; arrived in England 22 August 1944; arrived in

France 13 September 1944; participated in the Central Europe, Northern

France, and Rhineland campaigns; in Arendsee, Germany, on August 1945 (end of

war); arrived at New York Port of Embarkation 27 December 1945; inactivated

28 December 1945 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.

 

In Beck, et al. on the Engineers in the war against Germany, it says (page

497) that the 171st supported the 84th Division when it was crossing the Roer

River in Germany.

 

Our finding aid for military files says that the National Archives has

records of the 171st.

 

All the best,

 

Michael

 

Michael J. Brodhead, Ph.D.

Historian

Office of History

U. S. Army Corps of Engineers

7701 Telegraph Road

Alexandria, Virginia 22315-3865

(703) 428-6559

 

 

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Michael and Marion,

 

Thank you very much for all of your help and information. I truly appreciate it.

Kind regards,

 

David Pallante

 

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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Caveats: NONE

 

Dave,

 

You seem to have a wonderful collection of letters. Great stuff!

 

I did find a page that mentions the 171st in the Army's official history

titled "Corps of Engineers: War Against Germany" by Alfred Beck, et. al. It

is attached.

 

Otherwise, the Engineer School History Office does not have any

documentation on the 171st.

 

However, I do have some leads for you.

 

The Library here at Ft Leonard Wood does have this book in its rare book

collection:

“171ST ENGINEER COMBAT BATTALION” -- ENGINEER SCHOOL LIBRARY, CR 355.31

171ST EN CBT BN, 1939-45"

I suggest that you contact the librarian Mrs. Claretta Crawford.

claretta.crawford@us.army.mil. Give her as much information as possible as

request to see if she can scan or photocopy relevant parts of that book for

you. I don't know the policy. It is rare book, so it does not circulate.

 

You might look at Ebay and such to see if there is on for sale.

 

You could contact the Military History Institute in Carlisle, PA.

Ask for the possibilities of copies of these illustrations:

"171ST ENGINEER BATTALION:

1945 8 1v. Illus. 20 x 45 ½ cm. Folded to 20 x 23 cm.

D906."

A good point of contact at MHI is Mr. Richard Baker. (left off email for spam purposes)

 

For a brief overview of combat engineering in WWII, see Section VII on this

link:

http://140.194.76.129/publications/eng-pamphlets/ep870-1-42/toc.htm

 

If you can get some exact, dates, places, operations, etc., the you could

send a request for morning reports, daily logs, rosters, and such to the

National Archives College Park. Send email request to:

"Textual Reference-Modern Military Records" to this email

(left off email for spam purposes) This will take a while. Ask for cost estimates

for photocopies (which are expensive!)

 

This is the best that I can do.

 

Good luck with your search,

 

Dave Ulbrich

Historian, USAES

 

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Dave and Marion,

 

Thank you very much for all of your help and information. I will contact the librarian you suggested.

Kind regards,

 

David Pallante

171st_--_Official_History_001.pdf