Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
the battalion that we would put in direct support of the 1st Armored Division we would
designate. When the Corps commander said, "1st Armored Division, I want you to plan a
defense on this line," the 78th Engineer Battalion that I put in direct support tied in with
division engineer, the commander of the division's organic battalion, the 16th Engineer
Battalion. As division engineer he was doing the engineer planning in the division sector, and
so my 78th Battalion commander was then tied in with that planning, also.
When the maneuver and engineer units were picking positions, they would be deciding which
engineer company would support which maneuver unit, et cetera. All that detail was going
on, coordinated with part of the 7th Engineer Brigade.
Meanwhile, back at brigade headquarters we were doing our planning also. We at the time
really didn't know what the 78th was going to do when they were up in the division sector.
We were responsible for everything behind the division's rear boundary or the "engineer
support line," which might be forward of the division's rear boundary. As brigade
commander I had responsibility for the Corps' rear and how we were going to take care of
our missions, to include what we were going to do with our panel bridge companies, float
bridge companies, where they would fit into the war plan, and how we would move them to
where they ought to be. You have to remember that the 3d Infantry Division was fighting
forward of the Main River, so very quickly the Main River was at their backs. Consequently,
we might well be called to put in a float bridge rapidly for a potential retrograde or
counterattack mission for the 3d Infantry Division.
We would have to coordinate that kind of planning with the division engineer of the 3d
Infantry Division, who was also the 10th Engineer Battalion commander and had his own
float bridge company. We were doing all that kind of intricate planning down at brigade and
battalion level. So, throughout the structure everybody was out on the ground planning the
forward defense.
I found at this time that it was an ideal opportunity for change, and so we did several things. I
felt that things had been the same for so many years that our approaches to combat engineer
support were relatively sterile. I would go to a division engineer battalion and their
supporting Corps battalion, and I was getting routine answers and comments that didn't
reflect much new thought but really a response that, "this is the way we've always done it
and so we'll continue to do it this way."
At this time, with the many new parameters thrown into the picture--that is, we were
fighting forward and the new 12th Panzer Division was serving in the sector--there was an
opportunity to change the relationships. The 9th Engineer Battalion had been supporting the
3d Infantry Division and the 10th Engineers. So, I split the 9th away from 3d Infantry and
assigned them the engineer mission to support the 12th Panzer Division. We now had a U.S.
engineer battalion who provided direct engineer support for a Panzer division, and that's the
way we were supposed to fight, combined operations. We didn't get extra engineers with the
12th Panzers, so we had a gap within our Corps engineer capabilities.
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