Letter from Gabe - 291st Engineer Bn

[Walt's Daughter]

Good morning Gabe:

 

Thanks for writing. There's a ton of info and this is ONLY a partial list. I am also going to include this on the forum too, so other's can benefit from it. The unit was sometimes referred to as the "Damned Engineer" unit.

 

Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

 

Warm regards,

Marion J Chard

Proud daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek

540th Combat Engineer WWII

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/

 

 

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Here are two contacts for the unit also:

 

291st Engr (Combat) Bn

Mr. Patrick J Martin

300 Foxhall St

Raleigh NC 27609-5604

919-781-0857

 

291st Engineer Combat Bn

Mr. Joseph H. Geary

55 Cottrell Road

Saunderstown, RI 02874

(Newsletter)

(401) 295-7088

 

Links:

 

They were there at the Malmedy Massacre:

 

http://www.historynet.com/wwii/blmassacreatmalmedy/

http://www.qmfound.com/malmedy.htm

http://ardennes44.free.fr/page55.html

 

 

There's a brief mention of them on Mr. L. Page's page:

 

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/law...awrencepage.htm

 

Battle of the Bulge:

 

http://hometown.aol.com/dadswar/bulge/

http://www.leveillee.net/roots/juliana4-6d.htm

 

VII Corps:

 

http://www.jeroenkoppes.com/ww2/units/7th%...0US%20Corps.htm

 

General Info:

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~crcorbin/Corbin2.html

 

http://www.fireandfury.com/extra/bridging.shtml

 

Engineering Booklet:

 

http://www.lonesentry.com/gi_stories_bookl...lets/engineers/

 

 

The Bridge at Remagen:

 

http://www.appalachianpower.com/Remagen%20...%20jul14.01.htm

 

The 1st SS Panzer Division's Dash Westward, and Operation Greif

 

http://history.sandiego.edu/cdr2/BYRD/BATT..._BO/CHAP_11.TXT

 

This is on a friend of mine's site and is a dedication to those buried at Margraten, The Netherlands

 

http://www.basher82.nl/Data/margraten/harlow.htm

 

Engineers in the Battle of the Bulge (PDF file)

 

http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/usace-docs/...-1-42/c-7-4.pdf

 

 

Books on the 291st:

 

First Across the Rhine: 291st Engineer Combat Battalion in France, Belgium and Germany

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/068...7245099-4169554

 

The Damned Engineers: How one battalion of Combat Engineers stalled Hitler's offensive in the Battle of the Bulge

http://www.cellarstories.com/cgi-bin/cella...ies/056566.html

 

Monument to:

 

http://users.swing.be/salmriver/monument.htm

 

 

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Letters on the Internet: (mentions some interesting facts, books, etc.)

 

This week, I read one-half of a very interesting 1989 book titled " First

Across the Rhine, The 291st Engineer Combat Battalion in France, Belgium,

and Germany", by Colonel David Pergrin.

 

This narrative describes combat engineers who were caught in the spearhead

of the German forces (otherwise known as Kampfgruppe Peiper) led by Joachim

Peiper. Up to this time, their routine duty had been repairing the MSR

(main supply route) roads, for the Red Ball Express and periodically

clearing minefields.

 

When these engineers were cutoff from direct communication with their

various headquarters, reinforcements and each other, individual

squads/platoons and their officers and NCO's took the initiative to stymie

the German Army at key points along the spearhead into the Allied lines.

The engineers blew up bridges at key points along the Ambleve River and

mined road blocks at key junctions to delay enemy forces long enough for

reinforcing US units could make their way to the action. For these

delaying actions, Peiper called them "those Damned Engineers". This story

is not usually discussed in detail in overall books on the BOB.

 

 

It brings the reality of the war to an individual level.

 

Also, this battalion trained at Camp Swift just before shipping out to Europe.

Camp Swift is about 30 miles east of Austin, Texas and at one time was one

of the larger Army training facilities in the states. After WWII, most of

the land was returned back to owners, but the Texas National Guard (or Army

Reserve?) still has a tank training facility there. Periodically, WWII

Re-Enactors use it for battles between German and Allied forces.

 

Regards,

Gary Speer

UT Austin

rggrs@utxdp.dp.utexas.edu (don't know if this email address is currrent)

 

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Gary,

 

There was also a book published years ago called "Those Damned Engineers!"

(thank you Jochen!) and as Micheal Reynolds explains in the intro to his new

book on Peiper - had it not been for a chance reading of this book (his wife

picked it up for him as a gift),he never would have developed an interest (and

to his own confession - "Obesession") with the Bulge and particularly with

Peiper's KG and its story. It was "Those damned Engineers" of the 291st that

made all the difference.

 

Now i'm interested...

I'll have to pull out my AFTER THE BATTLE by Pallud tonite and sift through it.

 

Best,

Russ Folsom

(rfolsom@draper.com)