Engineer Memoirs
A
I don't remember any major problems. We got some amphibious vehicles for this
crossing that we used to put one of the infantry battalions across in an area where we
felt we could not put in a foot bridge. We did practice with these. As I remember, they
were fairly effective. No equipment shortage per se stands out in my mind as being a
limiting factor.
Q ..
Shortly before this time, around the end of January, the journal referred to the
companies in the battalion being reorganized according to the book. The organization
had become a "mess"- t h a t is the word that was used-because of new replacements
and casualties. What comment would you have on this as far as keeping the
organization as it was designed to be? Also, what are your comments about the
replacement troops that you were getting in the field; the quality of them and this kind
of thing.
A.
Again, from the point of view of 35-plus years, nothing now stands out in my mind as
being particularly significant or particularly lacking in the quality of the replacements.
Having been engaged in fairly heavy combat during the Battle of the Bulge and having
been fairly widely dispersed with individual companies working with the infantry
regiments, we did need time, not so much to reorganize but to be sure that each unit
was filled with replacements; that equipment was replaced-things of this sort. It is
vitally important for any organization engaged continually in combat. For instance, we
went into Normandy on about the 11 th or 12th of June. The first time the battalion was
totally out of combat was just prior to the Battle of the Bulge in November
short time. With the fighting in the Battle of the Bulge there were
requirements to replace casualties. As these replacements came along there was a
degree of inexperience created simply by the fact that a large number of new people
were coming into the units.
We were able to do fairly well in replacing our noncommissioned officers from within
the unit by promoting people who had had combat experience. Therefore, experienced
continued to be available. Replacing younger officers was not as easy to do. A
fair number of our noncommissioned officers received battlefield promotions as
commissioned officers, thereby giving us some experienced people as platoon leaders.
Q.
Which was surely an important factor.
A
A unit reflects the quality of the training and the experience of the people, in my
opinion, to a higher degree than anything else.
Q ..
What about black troops?
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