2 February, 2007
Dear Russell,
Received your E-mail and have a little time to answer. I told my Mom about your mail and she was also excited. Your Dad's name etc. are in both Unit books she has from "The Long Trail" (the one about the AlCan) and the "History of the 341st in Europe. Now as far as His being in the 38th on D-Day I don't know about except to say that I do know that Engineers were loaned etc. to other units from time to time. Sometimes whole Companies or just a few depending on the need. It is odd that his name is in the Unit book from Europe unless he was just on loan for a time to the 38th. What is also odd is the fact that your Dad was listed as Company A 341st just like my Uncle in both books. My Mom says that my Uncle George had a friend in Company A who was from either Washington or Oregon who's family would develop film and mail the pictures to her family in Texas from Alaska. Could this have been your family?
Now to tell you a little more about what I have learned about Company A 341st Engineer Regiment. My uncle also did his boot camp training at Ft. Leonard Mo. He also got his Engineer training there. The VCR tape is really great and I will get it copied onto a CD at some point. It shows a lot from unloading equipment at White Horse to dealing with the musk eggs to the Cats working in very cold weather to base camps to the pet moose Company A had for a time and much more.
After they were pulled off the AlCan some were given a short leave before going to Camp Sutton South Carolina for more training in preparation for going overseas. From there I believe, this is from memory, they went to Camp Shanks in New York to stage before shipping out on the USS Sibony I think but can't be sure without my notes. They landed in England and the Regiment was split up by Companies to work building camps etc. to house the huge number of troops that were coming very soon. One Company operated a practice landing beach called Slapton Sands for the troops to practice for Omaha and Utah beaches.
Now is where your Dad may have been re-assigned or loaned out for D-Day because Company A came ashore on the 29th of June and started working on roads and improving the beach areas for supplies. They kept roads up until the Hedgerow breakout and from there were mainly assigned repairing/building railroad bridges because the need was for railroads to take the massive amount of supplies to the front.
The Battle of the Bulge found Company A on the Northern Shoulder and according to Mr. Oberbeck (A Company Commander) were for a time 3 miles in front of the Infantry holding a road in an effort to slow the German advance. Mr. Oberbeck told me that one night they captured a German patrol and the next day turned them over to the Infantry behind them. He said that was their only "Claim to Fame".
After the Bulge my Uncle and a few more were borrowed by a bridge repair Regiment to try to save the Remagen bridge which had been severely weakened by the Germans trying to blow it up and by the hurried tank/equipment traffic trying to get across in pursuit of the Germans. And on March 17,1945 the bridge fell into the Rhine and my Uncle was killed.
Hope I have not bored you with all this. If you would like to know where I finally located the books on the 341st. or any other was I can help just say the word. Either way keep in touch if you want.
Parker
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Dear Larry:
Not boring at all! Thank you so much. I have wrote a small letter in a Microsoft Word document to you (see post right above this one). If you don't have the capabilities to read it, let me know and I'll simply copy and paste it in another e-mail. I'm attaching two photos that were in my Dad's collection. One where he is standing on the left with two other gents. I suspect this looks like it may be his superiors in Boot Camp or something - I just don't know. The other is a picture of the monument I spoke about in the letter also attached.
Thanks again and I'll be in touch.
Sincerely, Russell H. Kvistad
