Extracted from "VOL I. Engineer History, Mediterranean Theater, Fifth Army"
540th Engineer Combat Regiment.
On 9 September, the ships carrying the troops of the 540th Engineer Combat Regiment, commanded by Colonel George W. Marvin, sailed into the Gulf of Salerno for the invasion. As the regiment formed the landing party for the 45th Division, which was in reserve, it did not land until D plus 1. There, it devarked and assisted in the landing of the initial troops and equipment, organized Red and Blue Beaches (near Paestrum) and operated them until the end of September. All the necessary engineer work essential to an amphibious operation was accomplished with dispatch. The beaches were heavily mined, and at the mouth of the Sele River, on a 1400 yard frontage, 2,200 Tellermines and improvised wooden box mines were lifted. Although approximately six per cent of them were booby-trapped, the regiment suffered no casualties.
During the initial phase of the operation, the 540th was under heavy artillery fire, in addition to almost hourly bombing and strafing attacks by enemy aircraft. On 12 September, Company "F" of the 2nd Battalion participated in a special mission with the Rangers under the command of Colonel Darby. The landing took place at Maiori, Italy, a few miles from the town of Salerno, and Company "F" operated the small port and beaches, unloaded huge quantities of supplies and equipment and aided in establishing a firm foothold.
On 13 September 1943, the unit was released from attachment to the 45th Division and attached to VI Corps. On 2 October, the day after Naples was taken, the regiment entered the city and bivouacked in the Villa Aquario, a city park located on the waterfront, overlooking the Bay of Naples. Colonel Marvin Reported to the Commanding General, 6665th Base Group, and the regiment was assigned the task of clearing the harbor of Naples.
The port had not only been bombed by allied planes, but the enemy, in its retreat, had demolished nearly all of the remaining port facilities. With dynamite, bulldozer, crane and shovel, the regiment filled craters, hacked roads through debris, cleared the docks and levelled the buildings for storage space. Within twenty-four hours, ships were being unloaded in the harbor, and the Port of Naples once again came to life. The normal pre-war tonnage for the harbor was 8,000 tons. Twelve days after Nables was captured, its facilities had been restored to the extent that its capacity was 3,500 daily.
By October, the 60 feet of destroyed aqueduct had been repaired. The railway tunnel near Bagnoli was cleared, and many buildings were checked and deloused for booby traps. On the beaches of Bagnoli, a suburb of Naples, approximately 500 Tellermines were lifted. This particular minefield contained two mines for every yard of frontage, and also contained 29 "S" mines. This was considered by the regiment as the most difficult minefield it ever encountered, because of the great number of booby traps. But the minefield was cleared in record time with only one minor casualty. The 540th remained in Naples until its work was accomplished and Base Section troops took over the remaining engineer projects.
