IX Engineer Command

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FRANCE

At first it was just a blur on the horizon, then gradually built up into a shore line and tiny, scurrying boats as far as you could see. Part of our convoy had turned to the left for the British beaches, but we had gone straight ahead and now joined the great family of ships off the beach, -- huge ocean freighters anchored in deep water and being unloaded by “Ducks”, the trucks that are at home on land or in the water. Closer to shore were smaller ships being unloaded by rafts and Ducks, and nosed up on the beach itself were LST’s and smaller landing craft. Some 160 old navy and cargo vessels had been sunk offshore to give protection against the storms, while on the beach hulks of many ships lay tilted at crazy angles, partly embedded in sand.

The beach was sandy and wide, the land rose from it a hundred feet or more, sometimes abruptly and more often gently. There were large signboards erected on the sloping bank to designate beach sectors, and blinker signals showed from control points hidden in old German gun emplacements. Few supplies were visible on the beach, but the Ducks crossed the wide strip constantly, sliding carefully into the water from the sand and churning their way alongside the ships, where they received their load in a cargo net from a derrick on shipboard, then lumbering out of the water and onto a roadway that led into the trees and out of sight.

We hesitated off shore for landing orders, then picked up speed again and headed for the beach. At about two hundred yards from shore there was a soft grinding noise as we slid over the first sand-bar, then we moved forward at reduced speed another fifty yards till we came to a slow, grudging stop in about five feet of water. It was 2133 hours, and we had landed in Normandy! The tide was going out and there was nothing to do now but wait for shallow water ahead of the landing ramp in the bow.

Shortly after dusk the Germans came over for their nightly air-raid. We watched from the deck as the red tracer bullets reached into the sky, like drops of water from a garden hose, until they hesitated at the top of their flight and suddenly winked out. The heavier explosions of the 90mm. guns were flashes of white light in the dark sky, the sharp report finding its way to us seconds later. There were no searchlights so that we never saw the planes, although the sound, -- the peculiar synchronized hum of German motors, was heavy over our heads. A few bombs fell in the distance but none near us.

Shortly after eleven o’clock the first three trucks and trailers went down the ramp into about three feet of water and slowly made their way ashore. The fourth truck in line, pulling a road-roller on a trailer, hesitated to shift gears at the foot of the ramp and embedded itself in the soft sand. No amount of pulling could move it after that, nor could a tractor from shore help. The truck and trailer blocked the exit so that further unloading was impossible. After daylight, with the tide in, the ship reversed itself and drove ashore a short distance away.

By ten o’clock the tide was out again and we rapidly unloaded all of the trucks and equipment of our ship and also of the other two who had anchored off shore the night before. Our heavy tractor-crane was used to recover the roller and trailer from the sand, while all of the equipment was dispersed along hedgerows in an assembly area three or four miles from the beach.

Survey crew

About four o’clock that afternoon our new regimental commander arrived in the area to tell us not to build the Colville Field, but were to go to St. Lambert, south of Isigny, and build a field there. By five we were on the road, arriving just before dark in a pleasant little French apple orchard, the first of many which provided homes for us. The trucks and equipment were placed along the hedgerows and covered with camouflage nets. We pitched our pup tents and slept. The next morning we paced off the center-line of the runway and by noon the bulldozers were at work, pushing over the trees and cutting their way through the hedge-rows.

It is worth while to take a few minutes to look at the part played by the Aviation Engineers in the Normandy campaign. For the past eight months the IX Engineer Command, under the command of Brig. Gen. James B. Newman, Jr., and later of Col. Karl B. Schilling, had been planning the airfields to be built in Normandy, procuring materials for the fields and setting up sequence in which the battalions were to leave England for Normandy. These plans called for the use of four regiments, each with four battalions. The first type of field needed was called an Emergency Landing Strip (ELS) , -- merely a rough, graded strip some 2000 feet long to provide a place for belly-landings of aircraft on our side of the front lines. The first Aviation Engineers landed at 1050 hours on D-day and the first ELS was completed and marked for use by 2115 hours on D-day.

The next need was for transport strips for the evacuation of wounded and for emergency supply. The first of these fields, 3500 feet in length and 140 feet wide, was operational by noon of D+3 days.

The third type of field, Advanced Landing Ground, ALGs they were called, was the first kind planned as operational fields for our fighter groups. The first planes landed on an ALG on D+4 days. The 843rd was the twelfth Aviation Engineer Battalion to land in Normandy and our first assigned mission was the ALG at St. Lambert.

Mined area

The marching party of the 843rd arrived at Omaha Beach on the 2nd of July and bivouaced in an assembly area that night. Here we had a good look at the first of many French battlefields. Trees were pock-marked with bullets, branches wrecked by shells or bombs, trunks standing alone and broken, stripped of branches. Shell and bomb craters were everywhere. A wrecked P-47, stacks of enemy ammo, empty shell cases, and wrecked German artillery pieces cluttered the area. That evening, it rained and we ate our first meal in France, -- K rations in the rain! The next morning we joined the heavy equipment party at St. Lambert. The site at St. Lambert was still under enemy artillery fire, so headquarters stopped work on the field after we had cleared out the hedge-rows and had started the rough grading. We dug in and waited for orders to move. At night the noise of artillery firing from positions around us was almost deafening. Intermittent rifle fire and the chattering of machine guns not too far to the front gave us an indication that we were pretty close to the enemy. The next day we watched our fighter planes bomb and strafe the German positions. We watched them come over in formation, peel of f and dive in over the targets, release their bombs, strafe, and circle back.

We pulled out of St. Lambert at 1600 hours July 5th, going by motor convoy along the main trunk road which ran south from Cherbourg, -- a road jammed with trucks hauling men and supplies, through Carentan which was at that time under sporadic enemy artillery fire, past infantry and artillery positions dug in along an airstrip occupied by our fighter planes, on to Le Grosellier (Brucheville), where we were to build our first complete ALG in France. At this time the Carentan sector of the Cherbourg peninsula was a hotly contested area, heavy rains in an already marshy lowland country having made the going even more difficult. In the marshland corridors through which attack was possible, enemy infantry had dug positions in hedge-rows and was supported by heavy mortar fire, machine guns, and an increasing amount of artillery. Planes as well as heavy artillery were needed to blast the enemy out of these strong positions. It was our immediate task to construct landing strips to increase the effectiveness of air support for our ground forces fighting now across a ten-mile front in this southwest sector of the Cherbourg peninsula.

Cleaning site for hessian strip -- Bruchville, Normandy

The Brucheville mission had been assigned the 843rd on the 4th of July, 1944. The specifications called for one runway, 5000 x 120 feet, 3600 feet to be surfaced with PHS and the remainder graded and compacted; one taxi track surfaced with PHS and one with square mesh track; 75 hardstands, 42 x 72 feet, 50 to be surfaced with mesh track and 25 to be graded and compacted only. The completion date was set for July 16, 1944.

Sheepsfoot rollers pack the runway as it begins to take shape

An advance party of the Battalion S-3 section had moved to the new location on the morning of the 5th and staked the center line of the runway. On July 6th clearing of hedge-rows from the runway site was started with equipment working three shifts of six hours each. All trees and brush were removed and the soil was stripped to a depth sufficient to reach a satisfactory base, backfilled and compacted with sheepsfoot rollers. Clearing of hedge-rows was completed on July 9th. Grading of the runway started on July 8th and progressed rapidly until on July 13th a large soft spot was encountered on the heavy cut at a point along the middle of the runway. It was necessary to excavate all material from this spot to an average depth of 4 feet, install drain pipe to remove the subsurface water and backfill with rock from a pit opened near the field. Clearing of taxiways was started July 12th to utilize equipment not needed on runway grading. Clearing of approach funnels of the runway was completed the following day, and on this date laying of Hessian matting on the runway was started with two companies working two 8-hour shifts.

Offset Stamp Lickers -- laying mat

The PHS, or Prefabricated Hessian Surfacing, was a Hessian cloth heavily coated on both sides with bitumen. After the ground was compacted at an optimum moisture content to form a hard, dense surface this roofing material was laid, each sheet with a 50% lap to give a 2-ply covering. The bitumen on one side of the material was dipped into a mixture of gasoline and diesel oil just before laying; this softened the bitumen coating until it became very sticky, and thus provided its own adhesive. Canadian Army Engineers are credited with developing the idea, but the material that we used had been manufactured by American roofing material manufacturers. The cloth was 43 inches wide and each roll was 300 feet in length. Usually the area at the ends of the runway subjected to turning action of the planes had a layer of wire mesh laid on top of the Hessian to prevent tearing. The Hessian material went down rapidly and an entire runway could be laid in three days, -- but the base had to be perfect, and it could not be laid effectively in the rain. This covering was very successful, -- no dust, no mud, and the pilots liked it.

Soft spot in runways excavated and filled with rock

On July 14th a second soft spot was encountered on the runway, causing more delay in the grading operations, and as a result, changed the completion date to July 21st. On July 15th grading and installation of taxitrack surfacing was started. Heavy rains delayed laying of Hessian matting for two days and also made it necessary to remove and re-lay some of the mat which was not sealed at the edges when the rain started. Heavy rains, commencing on the afternoon of July 20th, again stopped all operations except drainage for three days. This delay moved the completion date back to August 1st. On July 24th materials for two 250-barrel bolted steel tanks was received and erection started. Fair weather allowed good progress for three days, but then rain again slowed grading operations and delayed mat laying. The field was made operational with the runway, one taxiway and 38 hardstands complete August 1st. On the 2nd of August the first planes flew in from England and landed on the field. Work continued on one taxiway, access roads and hardstands, and the field was completed August 7th.

Airplanes land

Over 90,000 cubic yards of earth were moved at Brucheville, 2350 rolls of PHS covered the runway and one taxiway, 1500 rolls of wire mesh covered the other taxiway and the marshalling areas at the ends of the runway. Most of our equipment was used on this field, -- D-7 tractors and carry-all scrapers, motorized graders, the Osgood shovel, the Barber-Greene ditcher, the sheepsfoot rollers and water distributors improvised from “borrowed” Navy dock pontoons. The rainy weather and soft subgrade combined to make this a difficult job.

Locals at St Marie du Mont

We were camped in apple orchards surrounded by the inevitable hedge-rows. The days of passes and evening entertainment in the cities and towns had been postponed indefinitely; towns such as Carentan and Isigny were off limits. For recreation we took walks in the area surrounding the camp, talked with the local inhabitants, traded cigarettes, chewing gum, candy or a few francs for milk, apples, cider and French applejack, more famously known as “Calvados”, whose paralyzing effect became known to quite a number of us. In the evenings we played cards, read, wrote letters, improved foxholes and puptent living quarters and witnessed the nightly ack-ack barrage which began before dusk and continued into the early morning hours. This ack-ack barrage sometimes assumed the proportions of a giant fireworks display. Enemy planes, though occasionally massing over 200 planes for bombing objectives, usually flew alone or in small groups over the beachhead area, dropped flares and photoflash bombs, strafed, bombed, -- but did relatively little damage. Yet they were active throughout the night and the ack-ack batteries were kept busy, tracers whipping up into the sky from all directions and the shells of the big guns bursting high over our heads providing, along with death and destruction, an evening’s excitement. Artillery in our rear kept up a more or less continuous nightly barrage.

On the 25th of July we looked up from our work to watch thousands of Allied planes fly overhead toward St. Lo. We could feel the earth tremble beneath our feet as the bombs hit enemy installations in that fortress town. It was after the breakthrough at St. Lo that we prepared to move again. The recce party left on two half-tracks on the 4th of August. On the 8th of August we struck tents, loaded the trucks, and left Brucheville for St. Jean de Daye.

St Lo

Full realization of the destructive powers of modern war-fare came to us when we saw what had happened to the town of St. Lo. Where once there had been a peaceful old French town, now was nothing but gray ruins; homes and public buildings, small industrial establishments pulverized, and everything covered with gray dust. A river that ran through the town was choked with debris and it too was a solid gray. The smell of death pervaded the place and hung in the air miles beyond the town limits.

We drove into our area at St. Jean de Daye, unloaded the trucks, and set up mess, supply and administrative tent offices. Then we put up our pup tents. Some of us arranged “Fancy” living quarters, using pieces of square mesh to form a support, covered-wagon style, for our shelter halves. Some constructed shacks out of odd pieces of lumber found around the area, making walls out of scrap pieces of PHS. A few men dug foxholes, probably out of habit. All around the area the Krauts had made themselves good dugouts. They had also left behind burned-out tanks and tank destroyers mounted with the 88mm. These gave us an idea of what an armor-piercing shell or rocket can do to some of the toughest armored weapons of war.

Our battalion had taken over construction of ALG A-18 at St. Jean de Daye from the 852nd Engineer Aviation Battalion. As a preliminary survey revealed that the subgrade was insufficiently compacted where the runway crossed hedge-rows and the design of the taxiways was unsatisfactory, these conditions were corrected. Surfacing of the runway with Hessian mat was started on the 13th and placing of wire mesh on marshalling areas began on the 16th. Here again heavy rains delayed work on the strip and the operational date was moved forward from the 21st to the 27th of August, on which date at 1200 hours the field was ready for operations. Actually the field was never used, -- the tactical situation had moved so rapidly that this field was no longer within efficient operating range for fighter planes!

On the 6th of September Company A was sent on north to Beauvais as an advance detachment. On September 9th, the work at Le Bourget having been completed, the remainder of the battalion joined A Company at Beauvais. This field had two concrete runways which were badly cratered, having been constructed with specially prepared shafts sunk into the runways at regular intervals for demolition purposes, each of which held 16 sticks of dynamite to act as a booster charge for the 250-kg bombs. Thirty-two of the bombs had failed to detonate and had to be removed before work could start on the 6000-foot runway. This field was planned for medium bomber use and repairs were made in a more substantial manner that would have been necessary for fighter planes. In addition to cratering the runways the Germans had destroyed practically all of the hangars on the field. The debris was cleared from these hangar floors as they were to be used as hardstands. A total of 226 bomb craters were filled in two weeks time. Two 500-barrel gasoline storage tanks were constructed and were completed on September 19th when 50 B-26 bombers moved onto the field from England.

The town of Beauvais had been the scene of one of those German “revenge” air raids in 1940. At a time when the French Air Force was virtually non-existent the Germans claimed heavy damage to certain of their cities of cultural importance, claiming that French bombers had damaged German churches and monuments of historic value. In reprisal, therefore, they had bombed the city of Beauvais damaging the ancient and beautiful cathedral and destroying practically all of the old monuments and the more picturesque sections of the town. Most of the inhabitants of Beauvais had left the town during its capture by the Allies, and when we arrived there it was like a dead city. The first Sunday we were on the field, however, the French came to the field in large numbers. Their visit was in the nature of a pilgrimage; for four years they had not been allowed on the field. This event had its counterpart at Le Bourget where the French crowded around the gate and lined the fence watching us, the newly-arrived Americans, at work on the field.

The field at Beauvais was a desolate place, very large and flat and open; and while some of the men of the battalion live in underground barracks which had been constructed by the Germans long before our arrival, most of us lived in pup tents again. The ground was damp and cold, the nights chilly. It was not a pleasant place. After Le Bourget and Paris it seemed exceedingly quiet and monotonous. A search for Germans supposedly hidden in a plot of woods on the field area provided the only excitement while we were there. In spite of much small arms firing and throwing of hand grenades nothing significant happened in the woods; if the enemy was there he did not show himself, and the “ambuscade” involved only so much expended ammunition.

On September 10, 1944 Company B again was sent on a separate mission, this time to Gosselies, near Charleroi, Belgium, with orders to convert a captured German airstrip into a field for a photo-reconnaissance group. Every man in the company will long remember the hectic convoy from Beauvais to Belgium. Knowledge of the tactical situation was scant and half of the journey was made under complete blackout conditions. Maps were of little value in the heavily industrialized regions of Moms and Charleroi. Directions from the Belgian White Army aided the company in arriving at its destination by midnight. Reconnaissance was made by the company officers the following morning and operations were started on marking the field at 1300 hours September 12th. The field was marked and all hardstands cleared by the 14th. With the exception of knocking out a fence and filling an old gun emplacement no repair work was necessary to make the runway 4500 feet long, including two 450-feet overruns. Ample parking space was available for 75 planes on concrete and good sod.

On September 17th the company moved to La Culot, Belgium, where box cars were used for living quarters. An English engineer battalion was already at work on the field, so we waited for another assignment. On the 21st the company moved to Tirlemont, supposedly to await the arrival of the battalion. Meanwhile, on the 19th, one platoon returned to Gosselies for the erection of a 500-barrel gasoline storage tank.

The short stay in Belgium was enjoyed by all. The hospitality of the Belgian people exceeded even that which had been received in Paris. The men had a brief chance to visit Mons, Brussels and Louvain. Only one thing marred the picture, -- the discovery of the graves of over one hundred Belgian citizens on the field at Gosselies. They had been executed by the Germans for refusing to work on the airdrome.

The sweeping advance of the First and Third Armies was now slowing down to consolidate their positions before pushing on. Sufficient airfields were now available in the north, but there was a need for more fields on the southern end of the front. The battalion was ordered to proceed on September 23rd from Beauvais, and Company B from Tirlement, to contact each other at Toul. At Toul we received orders from the 926th Engineer Aviation Regiment to proceed to Tantonville, some 20 miles south of Nancy, to construct a new fighter-bomber field of Hessian mat. The battalion arrived at the tiny French village of Tantonville on the 24th of September, just as the fall rains started!

The story of airfield Y-1 at Tantonville is a story of men and trucks, of rain and mud, and of guts and perseverance. It is the story of a construction outfit’s fight against adverse weather conditions, inadequate materials and a heartbreaking time schedule. From the day of our arrival until our departure on the 7th of December, rain and mud hampered every move on the field at Tantonville.

The battalion arrived in the rain; we unloaded the trucks in the rain. We cleaned and repaired equipment for the first two days in the rain, while the 926th Regiment made an initial survey of the proposed field. Fortunately, quarters were found in buildings in the town, -- two old chateaux, a school and a small hotel providing minimum space. Later, as a result of a regimental inspection and regulations providing for a minimum space per man, the administrative section of H & S Company and the men of the 2nd and 3rd platoons moved from their crowded quarters, -- one a room in which wooden slats were arranged as beds in tiers reaching to the ceiling, -- and into pyramidal tents in ankle-deep mud. Work on the field began on the 26th of September. The rock crusher belonging to the regiment was set up at Forcelles on the site of a small French quarry, and work on service and access roads began immediately! Grading of the runway did not start until the following day due to heavy rains. Continued heavy rains stopped grading work from the 1st to the 4th of October, the runway being too wet for satisfactory progress. On the 5th, grading of the runway was continued, but rain kept the subgrade continually saturated and very slow progress was made. Trouble was also experienced in compacting the clay subgrade to provide a satisfactory base for Hessian surfacing. At this time the Battalion Commander deemed it impracticable to lay Hessian on the subgrade and requested an inspection by higher headquarters to determine the possibility of changing the design to a rock base with PSP surfacing. In the meantime work proceeded on grading, drainage, clearing, hauling of Hessian mat and square mesh, erection of gas tanks and construction of access roads.

PSP, or Pierced Steel Plank, was the most satisfactory type of emergency surfacing developed by the war. It consists of 1/8-inch steel sheets, 15 inches wide and 10 feet long, with a series of projecting lugs on one sheet inserting themselves in slots in the adjoining sheet and locking themselves together. Holes of 3-inch diameter are punched out about six inches on centers, in order to save weight. Pierced Steel Plank, laid on a solid base, provided a field for either fighters or medium bombers.

Mt Sion quarry

The requested job inspection was made by Brigade and Regimental Commanders, and the design of the field changed to PSP on a rock base as requested. Surfacing of the west taxitrack and hardstands with rock was started on October 13th. As a result of extra work entailed in hauling, placing and grading of the large quantity of rock required, the operational date was changed to November 4th and completion date to November 27th. The change in specifications made it necessary to locate a supply of rock and gravel that could be delivered to the job as speedily as possible. Consequently, the rock crusher was moved to a small mountain, six miles away, near the old monastery of Sion, where a good supply of rock mixed with clay was available. It was also evident that an additional crusher or shipments by rail would be required to furnish the estimated 1500 tons required daily to meet the scheduled operational and completion dates, and additional trucks would be required to haul the material.

Railroad spur at Mereville

A gravel pit at Mereville, near Nancy, promised to deliver 600 tons of pit-run gravel daily under the condition that the unit would build a spur approximately one-half mile long to the pit. Company A was sent to construct the spur, beginning on October 17th. The job required two platoons seven days to complete, using one D-7 with dozer and one D-7 with scraper for stripping the gravel pit.

Putting gravel on runway

The original rock crusher secured from the regiment was now supplemented by another. They were worked 24 hours a day, but breakdowns were frequent, and it was only through Lt. Catlin’s constant repair and improvising that production stayed up. The best rock available had about 30% clay in it. The standard procedure was to haul this mixture down the mountainside, and back the trucks down a roadway which was built on the center line of the runway, to dump their loads without getting off the roadway. Bulldozers spread the rock and as the clay worked its way up and mixed with the rain, it was pushed off to the edge of the field. Trucks and bulldozers took terrific punishment and the number on deadline rose in spite of the best efforts of Lt. McCluggage and the repair section. The tire situation was beginning to be critical, 130 flat tires a day was common. Additional dump trucks were requested and some were received. However, their tour of duty was always uncertain and they were constantly being recalled for use by their own organizations. Trucks were operated 18 hours a day, at first using three shifts of drivers. Dispatchers were used at each end of the route and trip records maintained.

On October 16th a gravel pit at Bayon was opened, approximately eight miles from the field. By October 19th the shipments by rail from Mereville started, and we were placing well over 1500 tons of rock and gravel per day. But grading on the taxitrack and runway progressed very slowly in the muddy soil. Two days of crushing were lost when both shovels were down at the same time. The field operational date was moved back to November 15th and the completion date to November 27th.

By October 26th the Bayon pit was abandoned as the trucks were needed on the rock haul, and it was feat that sufficient gravel was coming by train. Civilian laborers were picked up in Nancy each morning by battalion trucks and delivered at night. These men were used to unload gravel from cars and to do drainage work along roads. The 30th of October was the peak day in placing rock and gravel, -- 3025 tons were placed!

On November 2nd two 6-ton prime mover trucks were sent by the 926th Regiment to assist in hauling PSP and stockpiling it on the field. Additional cargo trucks were received on loan from the 2019th QM Truck Company to assist in hauling rock. These required unloading by hand, so we increased our number of French civilians. Increased deadlining of the 843rd dump trucks continued to decrease the amount of rock daily in spite of the additional D/S trucks.

Laying PSP

Laying of PSP on the runway was started on the 5th of November. Civilian laborers were employed to help place the PSP and on one afternoon they refused to work on the project because of the rain! Laying of PSP on the runway was delayed on November 9th because of extremely wet condition of the subgrade, making it impossible to place plank on a section of the runway. On this date the railroad spur at Mereville was washed out by heavy rains, stopping all rail shipments of gravel. Rain also closed up rock crushing operations because saturated binder material in the rock clogged the crushers. Hand picking of rock from the quarry to run through the crusher was started. Sixty French civilians helped load the hand-picked rock into trucks to haul it to the crusher.

It was necessary to send one squad of men to Mereville to repair the railroad spur. After one week’s delay the gravel shipments were resumed.

Reconnaissance had discovered some 4000 tons of hand-picked rock about ten miles from the field on a partially completed French airfield. On November 12th one of the crushers was moved to this stockpile and the resulting rock was the best quality that we had on the job. It was used in surfacing the taxitrack and hardstands. Later another cache was discovered in Pulligny (rock from houses destroyed by German raids 4 years before) and 3000 tons were secured there.

November 16th saw the first PSP go down on the taxitrack. On November 22nd Company A started placing the wire mesh on the rock fill for hardstands. The operational date had been postponed two or three times, but now was fixed for December 2nd.

Laying PSP

On the 27th of November personnel and equipment from the 840th Engineer Aviation Battalion were assigned to the project, and their trucks began hauling material on the 30th. All emphasis was now on the placing of PSP. B Company on runway and A Company on taxitrack and hardstands, both assisted by French civilians, worked the day shift. Starting November 30th C Company started to lay PSP at night under lights. Two companies of the 840th assisted in laying PSP on December 2nd. At 0330 hours, December 3rd, the runway, taxiway and 47 hardstands were complete, making the field operational.

Our last drive for completion had been at the expense of access roads which had been constructed first and were in good condition until the increased traffic had pounded all the rock down into the mud and were now scarcely passable. We concentrated upon hauling rock for these roads, some additional work on hardstands and general cleaning-up of the fields. Considerable work remained to be done on the roads to put them in first class condition.

Rock crusher on Mt Sion at Night

One of the most difficult and dangerous runs that our truck drivers ever made was on the route between Sion and the field. Accidents and near-accidents were frequent. Night driving with cats-eye lights over worn-out, soupy roads that ran snake-like down the mountain, made life a miserable proposition for our drivers. We were only some twenty miles behind the front lines and the German planes were very much interested in the lights at our stone quarry at night. Often their night flyers cut their motors some distance away and glided over the quarry, only a short distance overhead, with the Nazi crosses on the wings plainly visible. For some reason or other they didn’t strafe us, but did drop propaganda leaflets once or twice.

Our battalion was officially relieved at Y-1 by the 840th Engineer Aviation Battalion on 2400 hours, December 3, 1944. Men and equipment were practically exhausted!

The following brief statistical summary will serve to indicate the magnitude of the job:

   Manhours expended.....................393,740
   Equipment Hours expended...............52,008
   Materials Excavated and Placed:
      Gravel placed (tons)................20,370
      Pit run rock (tons).................53,480
      Crushed rock (tons).................16,277

In a period of reasonably dry weather this project, due to its location and to the type of the soil, could have been constructed quickly and efficiently with nearly any of the materials normally used in the construction of ALGs. Weather conditions encountered during the entire construction period made it practical to carry on construction only because of the absolute tactical necessity for this field, of the 69 days covered by the construction period rain fell on 43 day interspersed throughout the period so that there was no chance for drying out. None of the base materials used on the job were unaffected by this high moisture content and in most cases these materials, which in ordinary circumstances would have been entirely acceptable, were rendered undesirable and were used only because there was nothing else to be had. All operations connected with the construction were rendered doubly difficult and inefficient due to the constant wet subgrade and the clay binder in the base material used.

At Tantonville relaxation from the strain of daily work was essential. As usual facilities for recreation were of necessity improvised. With the advent of cold weather a stove was manufactured from an old steel drum and placed in a large barn at Tantonville. The barn was scrubbed, partitioned off, murals were painted on the walls, chairs and tables furnished, and a very comfortable day room resulted. The tables were stocked with books supplied by Special Service. Nancy was too far and time was not available to permit the granting of passes to that city. Movies were shown in a storage building in the village, which had been used as a theater by American troops in World War I.

We were rewarded for our long hours of work under the most difficult conditions by the realization that the field was used only hours after its completion in an emergency which, had the field not been there, might well have resulted in loss of life and planes. Four Thunderbolt fighters were weathered in on all surrounding fields and were forced to land there. A letter of commendation and appreciation for the hard work that had made the field possible was received from Brig. Gen. Glenn O. Barcus, Commanding General of the 64th Fighter Wing.

hanger construction at Laon/Couvron, France

Effective December 4, 1944 our battalion was attached to the 2nd Airfield Maintenance Regiment (Provisional). The battalion was assigned responsibility for maintenance and new construction at A-70 at Laon/Couvron, France. From December 1944 to April 1945, inclusive, our battalion, with the aid of French civilian workers, was engaged in construction and maintenance of 18 airfields in that area. These fields were being used by B-26 and A-26 medium bombers and the fields had to be maintained in good operating condition. The first two months were marked by bitter cold weather, by ice and snow which made working extremely difficult. In overcoming the serious effects of heavy snows, motor patrols equipped with worn-out D-7 blades were used in clearing snow from runways. After the heaviest portion had been removed they were kept clear by sweepers borrowed from the Paris street department. With milder weather the thaws brought about numerous road failures which hampered supply and caused rapid deterioration of runways and taxiways. This condition was countered by the use of a dry batch method of patching concrete, a method devised by the Battalion Commander to make the repaired surface capable of supporting airplane traffic without delaying operations.

runway repairs at Laon/Couvron, France

It was while we were at Laon/Couvron that the Battle of the Bulge developed and German paratroopers were dropped in and around the vicinity. A small number of these behind-the-lines saboteurs were apprehended, some of them very close to the field. The battalion guard was doubled and all men were warned to be on the alert. Our “bazooka” crews were given firing practice and emergency positions were mapped out in case of a German motorized breakthrough for Paris. There were no reports of sabotage of the battalion installations. The field was strafed once by a German fighter plane, setting fire to two bombers and a light reconnaissance plane. On February 8th a group of 44 enlisted men of the battalion were transfered to the Ground Reinforcement Command for training as Combat Infantry and left for England by air. A good number of these men had been with the battalion since its activation.

Co C dance at Tantonville

For most of us the five-month period of maintenance work seemed static and monotonous. Once again we had a day off duty each week. This was a privilege that we had not enjoyed since the battalion had landed in France. We visited St. Quentin and had dances in Laon. We had a movie every other night in the battalion theater. We had a gymnasium where we could play basketball. There were French classes under supervision of one of the local schoolteachers. We were encouraged to take correspondence courses under the USAFI Educational Program. In spite of the paper shortage the fourth edition of “AIRSTRIP”, the battalion newspaper, went to press on February 25th. Leaves and furloughs were begun, -- to Paris, to the U.K., to the Riviera. In Paris we noted the change that time had made since last we were there. Trains to the city were in operation and the Metro was running. Parisians and G.I.’s crowded the once almost-deserted streets. The shops offered a few articles for sale at fantastic prices. Bullet holes in the old barracks along the Champs de Mars were being patched up; at the gate of the Grand Palais stood a rusty German 88, -- symbol of the action that had moved now far from Paris, to the Rhine and to the outskirts of Berlin where our Russian allies slowly hammered onward. We forgot the course of the war at the “Happy Remedy Rest Home” or in familiar places in the U.K. or for the lucky few, -- along the Riviera, at Nice or Cannes. But when they were over such excursions into welcome and luxurious change often served only to accentuate the drabness and monotony of our everyday experiences. Along with millions of others we were tired of the war, we were fed up, disgusted with the waste of it. We wanted to go home. Our letters, our daily conversations reflected it. But we went on working. We worked hard, griped plenty, but we knew that the end of the war was within sight.