IX Engineer Command

Stepping Stones To Victory

“...you engineers have the vital job of paving the way for the air cover to back us up all the way to Berlin. Each base you build will be a stepping stone toward victory because the faster you move and work, the faster ‘the air’ moves and gets at the enemy - up close where it counts”

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That’s what the briefing officer had told them back in the fog, security shrouded English Channel assembly area while they were sweating out D-Day.

They -- the men in a detachment of the 834th Engineer Aviation Battalion -- didn't have much time to think of the wisdom of the statement on D-Day when they hit the Normandy invasion beach or on D plus one when they hacked out E-1 at St. Laurent Sur Mer, the first emergency landing strip in their beachhead sector.

But they did remember it 337 days and some 700 miles later when V-E day came and they found themselves directly in rear of the Third Army’s final drive -- and still working. This was on R-89 in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, and it was the usual tough, get-it-done-pronto job like all the others.

Stepping stones to victory...

That was the theme all right, that briefing officer had hit the nail on the head.

Behind R-89 came a pattern of stepping stones -- approximately 250 of them -- a victory pattern laid out by men of the IX Engineer Command in an airdrome engineering feat that rates as the biggest and most unique of its kind in the annals of warfare. It was a victory pattern that brought tactical airpower close behind the front lines for its air-ground support operations which constantly battered the enemy and his defenses and communications. Units of the command formed the ground spearhead for the advance of tactical bases into the heart of the Reich. These bases were the means by which air power was expressed and each group leap-frogging onward with the advance of land armies was a step closer to victory.

It was mobile warfare and aviation engineer units of the command were geared to pace. They had to be as they held the key to the mobility of a tactical air force which was following up in coordinated support of the infantry and armor.

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This mobility is underlined by a glance as the territory covered and the breakdown of time spent in construction or rehabilitation of the fields. These 250 bases, stretched over seven European countries, were put into operation over a period of eleven months -- an average of one airfield every 36 hours. This pace enabled the tactical air commands to be based within short striking range of the enemy at all times throughout the war.

In basing these attacks, the engineers became to be known and respected as an essential part of the Air Force combat team because from start to finish, any phasing in or operational plans had to be guided by availability of bases and construction schedules carried out by the men with the bulldozers and strong backs. An intimate relationship always existed between air operations and air bases.

Previous recognition of this team status had come in the winter of 1943-1944 when the command was organized as the aviation engineer component of the Ninth Air Force -- the first to become an organic part of an air force. This recognition plus the command’s later boost to a higher level in the AAF hierarchy point up the relative importance the aviation engineers hold in the air force doctrine.

This is not the story of doctrine, but one of men, machines, and materials --- the elements that came into play when the units worked on airdromes. To the men that toiled through all kinds of weather and tactical conditions, one thing was important, “Let’s get this field into operation.” The doctrines, the charts, and the plans --- that was for higher headquarters to figure out. For these reasons, the following account is presented so that those men can see the overall accomplishments of their efforts and how they fitted into the pattern of war.

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The story of the construction of a single airfield is a narrative of coordinated service among various headquarters and individuals. Careful planning and constant contact with all echelons of ground and air forces has guided the operations to now. Based on a knowledge of the ground plans and the probable requirements for bases in maintaining the air effort, the engineer staff has planned the phasing of units into the plan. Then the story that the engineers know too well starts to unfold:

An advance party of reconnaissance men moves close to the front-line area and charts the site previously selected. The debris of battle lies about and the infantry has just moved out. Center line of the main runway is charted, proposed taxiways, marshalling areas, hardstands or dispersal areas, repair areas, fuel storage sites, and bivouac areas are surveyed and mapped. On the chart access roads are indicated, water points, gravel pits, and railheads are recorded, and the rough map is on its way to regimental and brigade headquarters.

The battalion moves in and bulldozers, the backbone of the work organization, and other heavy equipment begin grading operations. At the same time, trees are felled, hedges and other vegetation are grubbed and cleared, fills are made, and high ground leveled. It is bustle of activity.

Often, the noise of battle and the churning creak of the bulldozers mingle in the air over the dusty activity of construction. The blasts from heavy artillery adds to the symphony. To the liberated French peasants who come to watch, it is a welter of confusion. While machines grade the soil, men work behind laying down taxiways and dispersal areas; others set up fuel storage tanks and build access roads. Bit by bit, it fits together like a gigantic jig-saw puzzle. The high-spot comes, however, when after the windsocks go up the first flight of P-47 Thunderbolts circle and land. Their work pays off that way.

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That is the picture of one construction project. The panorama is made up of twenty or more construction units working on as many projects in other sectors along the combat line. Often under fire and always under pressure, the battalions pressed every effort to get the bases operating as soon as possible. Airfields were a priority number one item from Utah Beach to Berlin, these construction veterans will tell you. And although the primary emphasis was necessarily on speed, no concessions were made in design. Each of the fields was built to rigid engineering standards.

In bulldozing the path for the fighter-bombers, the engineers developed an affinity with the men who fly them. In spirit, they sat in the cockpit with every pilot who took off from their runways. And in the same process, the aviation engineer had become a new type of soldier --- a specialized combat support trooper who had helped to forge the IX Engineer Command’s strong link to the air force combat team.