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- Pete
- New Jersey
- Since my first trip to Gettysburg as a young boy, I've been captivated by History. I get it from my mom. Although she passed away when I was just 13, she still had an influence on me. All our family vacations were stitched around some historical site. So, history geeks are in my blood. I'm a graphic designer by profession and a semi-amateur painter. I love to explore history through my paintbrush. I've also done living history to get a first hand feel for "what it was like". Looking at history through the eyes of the common man (or woman) and understanding the personal, human drama is really the spice that flavors the historical stew!
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Thursday, September 27, 2007
Clearing the Way - Combat Engineers in World War II
Like many history geeks, I've been glued to the TV from 8pm to 10pm the last couple of nights watching Ken Burns new documentary, The War. It got me rummaging through my box of family historical stuff....letters, photos, keepsakes, etc. and I came across my Uncle Steve's World War II photo album. That's him writing a letter sitting in front of his tent somewhere in Germany in 1944. That photo is screaming at me to make a painting of it don't you think? Anyway, he was a member of the 1301st Combat Engineers.
I'm sure he had some amazing stories to tell, but I never heard them. He died when I was very young. I had many uncles and aunts who had wartime experiences and I always loved their stories. Especially Uncle Ray who was in the navy. At 85, he's still telling them over gin and tonics. He's a whole blog entry in himself. But for Uncle Steve, I had to do some digging of my own in order to understand his war.
If you are ever doing research on WWII Engineers, it won't take long to get introduced to Marion Chard. Her father was an engineer and she's damn proud of it. She even has the website to prove it! I recommend a visit even if you aren't interested in engineers. There's a lot to read and look at. She even put up a page dedicated to my uncle. Through Marion's effort I've met some other members of my uncle's regiment and I can't thank her enough for that.
So what did the Engineers do? Well, Marion has that covered too. A general history is posted here and her fathers history is here. In short, they had to keep the army moving and make sure the enemy couldn't. They built amazing bridges like the one below. To do it, they also had to fix that old steam pile driver and worked around the clock while suffering the occasional air raid. They still were expected to be infantry men as well. Think of them as the offensive linemen of the Army. You can have a great halfback, but if those guys up front don't clear the way, he's not getting anywhere. They were truely multi-talented soldiers.
If it weren't for history geeks like Marion, so many interesting details of the past would be lost. I can never ask Uncle Steve what he did in the war, but now at least I have an idea. To a history geek that's like finally scratching that itch. Sadly all of Uncle Steve's siblings are gone now too. That's why it's important that someone remembers.
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3 comments:
Pete, Pretty cool. What a neat little treasure trove of stuff you have there. How can you NOT appreciate such things? I guess that's the history geek in us. I've yet to see any episodes of The WAR. guess it'll be re-runs for me.~Gary
My grandfather (Lucien R. Seymour) was in the 1301 Engineer Regiment durring WW2. His stories (like all those who fought in that war) are truely amazing and couragous! I would be more than happy to share detailed information about that Regiment and General Patton's Third Army in which the 1301 Engineer Regiment was under through this site or via email. If you have information about that Regiment, I would love to hear about it :)
email: corporalsmokey@yahoo.com
My older brother recently sent me a link to a book he thought I would like concerning WWII and how one can find out about there parents service in the great conflict. The books looks interesting but I thought why not just Google my Father's outfit and see what comes up. I am so happy that I did, I am the youngest of nine my Father died when I was just 24 and I never was able to talk to him about his experiences during the war.
I have all of my Father's WWII memorabilia including a Nazi Battle Flag that his buddies wrote their names on. Lucien Seymour, Jimmy McLauchean, Bob Borgman, Michael Gessler, Denver Tenney, Paul Anderson, Stephen R. Krupansky, Alden W. Lybarger, Til Ronconi, Mike Michaelis, Snakes Devins, W. Van Dusen, Steve J. ( Leonard or Louard) Jr., Maurice "Pappy" Kraff, Louis Turdevant, Vic Tufano---I recognize this name as one of my Father's really good buddies, Frank Nunez, Joe Barrecto, Robert L. Stickle, Joseph Romano, Mike Figel, Frank A. Radyko, Eugene Ball, Jack fischenbaker SP?, Ivan Lundquist, Frank Navarre, Tony Kawka, Robert Garner, William Martin, Thorman SP? Gordon, Dale Greanya, Bob Johnson, and John Garland.
As i said I have all of his stuff, but if someone else has any information on what my Father's unit did I would love to hear from you.
Bob Bales