Engineer Week and the GPO
#1

I subscribe to the Government Publishing Office (GPO) emails to get info on the books that they are featuring - every now and then they are WWII ones. Today's email was about engineer books since it is - apparently - Engineer Week. Who knew? Apparently, it coincides with the week of George Washington's birthday. This year it is February 19-25. The email I got sent me to "Government Book Talk" for Engineer Week. 


As for the GPO, they are the place you can buy your brand new versions of the US Army's Green Books about WWII. For Christmas, I bought the Okinawa green book (with a picture on the cover and no longer green), some posters and a few small publications. Very cool. Anyway, it's pretty easy to navigate around the book store site. The search is ok but you will get a lot of results that don't have anything to do with your search parameters. Here is a search for "Engineers World War II"


   https://bookstore.gpo.gov/search/apachesolr_search/engineer world war ii


Great place for government published books that are hard to get elsewhere.


 


Looking for the Green Books on PDF. . . and for free?


http://www.history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/collect/usaww2.html

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#2

From the "The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany"


Page 236: With Fifth Army's advance, Peninsular Base Section acquired additional ports, but they were usually damaged severely. Rome fell on 4 June, Civitavecchia three days later, Piombino on 25 June, and Leghorn on 19 July. At Civitavecchia, the first seaport north of Anzio potentially useful to the Allies, the 540th Engineer Combat Regiment forged through the heavy wreckage to open DUKW and landing craft hardstands. On 11 June the first cargo craft, an LCT, unloaded; next day an LST nosed into a berth, and ferry craft began to unload Liberty ships. Cargo was soon coming ashore at the rate of 3,000 tons a day. Later the 1051st Port Construction and Repair Group provided Liberty berths by building ramps across sunken ships as at Naples. cross sunken ships as at Naples. Even while improvements were under way at Civitavecchia, a new entry for Fifth Army supplies opened 100 miles farther north at Piombino, a small port on a peninsula opposite the island of Elba. Elements of both the 39th and 540th Engineer Combat Regiments reopened the port, which, like Civitavecchia, had suffered heavy bomb damage. The main pier lay under a mass of twisted steel from demolished gantry cranes and other wreckage, while destroyed buildings and railroad equipment cluttered the area. But the engineers did not find the profusion of mines and booby traps the retreating Germans usually left behind, and they were able to remove 5,000 tons of scrap steel and pig iron from the main piers during the first two days. Pier ribbing and flooring repair required considerable underwater work. After three days facilities for LCTs to dock head on were available and one alongside berth was ready to receive a coaster; within the next few days hardstands for LCTs, LSTs, and DUKWs were available; and at the end of the third week the engineers built a pier over a sunken ship to provide berths for two Liberty ships. Piombino joined Civitavecchia as a main
artery of supply for Fifth Army during July and August 1944.


 


And on Page 443: The 1st Battalion of Col. George W.  Marvin's 540th Engineer Combat Regiment, leading the beach group, charged ashore on Green with two battalions of the 141st Infantry. Two engineer companies quickly organized the beaches, cleared mines, and set up dumps for the following assault waves. Company B crossed the Agay River with the 2d Battalion, 141st Infantry, and met infantry units coming from Camel Blue to take Yellow from behind in order to start supply operations there.


There's a lot more, of course. 


 


Advance to the Alps.PNG


Mines.PNG


po river.PNG


The Iron Mountain.PNG


 


With the Pumps.PNG



Attached Files
.png   Advance to the Alps.PNG (Size: 257.79 KB / Downloads: 0)
.png   Mines.PNG (Size: 267.47 KB / Downloads: 0)
.png   po river.PNG (Size: 244.12 KB / Downloads: 0)
.png   The Iron Mountain.PNG (Size: 242.49 KB / Downloads: 0)
.png   With the Pumps.PNG (Size: 204.44 KB / Downloads: 0)
Maj Todd O. USMC, Retired
Grandson of LTC John O'Brien
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#3

Sounds like a wonderful resource. So glad you shared all that with us. And yes, we too have a PDF rendition of the green book, or as we sometimes call it, The Engineer's Bible. I'm happy that I have a hard cover too. Can't tell you how often I have referred to that little gem. 


Will have to check out the site. 


The photos rendered nicely too, didn't they.

Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"
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#4

Todd,


I have looked through your post dealing with the GPO and found it very interesting. Thank you for passing this on.


Colin.

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