Lieutenant Colonel Harvey
R. Fraser, CO, 51st
Engineer Combat Battalion
(foreground), and Captain
William R. Mueller,
Adjutant, during February
1945 awards ceremony at
Huertgen Forest, Germany.
Commanding Officers
The performance of the 51st Engineer Combat Battalion
during the following days can better be appreciated by
knowing the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Harvey
R. Fraser, and his executive officer, Major Robert
B. Yates. They were two different personalities who
complemented each other in directing the battalion.*
During the breakthrough, Colonel Fraser was with that
portion of his battalion along the Barvaux-Hotton-
Rochefort front; Major Yates was at Trois-Ponts.
The peculiar angle to the performance of these
officers is that they both arrived at the battalion within
two days of the start of the breakthrough. Major Yates, a
veteran member of the battalion, had been hospitalized in
Colonel
August and returned to his post on 15 December.
Fraser was a newcomer to the battalion, having assumed
command on 14 December. Both officers were almost imme-
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