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Roll Out the Runways
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It was almost the middle of March, but it might have been any grey, cold European day. Men of the 818th Engineer Aviation Battalion stood at the side of the steel-surfaced runway and watched the plane settle onto it, and stop. One engineer waved his work gloves, and another his scarred, muddy helmet. It was the first tactical aircraft to land on an American-built airfield in Germany.
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| Laying pierced steel plank (PSP) |
Perhaps some of the men wondered why the flat steel planking looked so simple, now that the job was completed. It did not show the 40 craters that had been filled underneath it. It did not show the hundreds and hundreds of yards of crushed rock that made a firm sub-surface beneath it. Nor did it indicate the hours of toil with hand tools that were required before planking could be laid. It looked just like any other “PSP” strip these men had laid down from Normandy through France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Only the gummy, mustard-colored mud oozing over their shoe-tops gave clue to the problems they faced during “winter construction” of airfields.
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When the engineers first moved onto the site near Aachen, it was blanketed with snow and the ground was frozen to a six-inch depth. Henceforth the engineers worked against a series of thaws, frosts, increasing mud, and almost continuous rains. The traffic of heavy construction equipment was hard on roads, and the site restricted the use of grading equipment to the extent that a good share of the work had to be accomplished by hand. The soft mud made it at times almost impossible for proper distribution of surfacing materials at the runways, necessitating a “planking in” method in which a completed part of the runway was used as an access road to build additional lengths.
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| E-1/A-21C St. Laurent-sur-Mer |
Mud conditions were at times so bad that regular pickets for the pierced steel plank surfacing would not hold. Longer ones were needed and none were available. So the engineers made ’em. They used captured materials and captured equipment, and fabricated extra-long pickets. The unit also operated a rock crusher, built roads, and maintained a flight strip for artillery observation and liaison planes. But they got the job finished.
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The first captured German field to be put in operation by the engineers in Germany was at Venlo, and was completed by the 852nd battalion. These “Avineers” filled more than 300 craters with crushed rock, and then surfaced them with brick. The whole project of making the field operational took only six days.
These new tactical fields in Germany, and the winter-built bases in Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and France, were used by fighter-bombers to provide a net of protection and secrecy for the mobilization of forces for the Great Drive to the heart of Germany.
In the highest headquarters of the Allied armies, plans were laid for the offensive that would ultimately crush the Reich. With the massing of tanks, infantry forces, air power, artillery, supplies, and communications, the aviation engineers were chosen to play a critically important role.
Army commanders and supply officers planned and conferred with officers of the Engineer Command on operations that would keep detachments of aviation engineers operating with the spearhead task forces of infantry and armored units. This technique was considered because of the possibility that the drive might move rapidly and supplies would become a critical factor in sustaining it. The ground forces wanted an assurance that supplies would reach them. Air transport to airfields built on-the-spot was the answer.
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The Commanding General of one American Army stated that he would be willing to relinquish tactical air support in his sector if need be, in order to have air-supply, a good indication of the importance placed on supply and evacuation fields during the campaign in Germany.
Detachments of the command were assigned to different Corps. They usually consisted of one company, stripped of excess personnel although carrying extra equipment, and organized with a view towards mobility. They carried almost no bulky construction supply such as surfacing material, but did provide marking materials for runways and some wind-socks. These detachments were to travel with the advance spearheads of the drive and be under orders of the Corps headquarters.
The Command re-geared itself almost overnight for the new operations. The First Engineer Aviation Brigade was to operate with the First and Ninth Armies and the Second Brigade was with the Third and Seventh Armies.
During the pursuit phase of the campaign beyond the Rhine, aviation engineer units closely followed up the advance with the fastest airdrome reconstruction operation in the annals of the AAF. The “stripped down” companies of aviation engineer battalions traveled with onrushing armor and repaired airfields over-run in the drive as fast as humanly possible. An average of twelve fields were put into service during each week, after the Rhine was crossed and until the -first junction with the Russians was realized. In one seven-day period, a total of 21 were made operational --- an average of three fields per day. Greatest part of this construction effort in Germany was devoted to S and E strips, a priority item in support of the armies’ advance. Construction schedules to base tactical groups deep in Germany were also accomplished at the same time.
An example of how this new type operation worked is the story of two platoons of the 852nd battalion. As the drive jumped across the Rhine and towards the heart of Germany, the two platoons joined separate Corps of the Ninth Army on the 11th of April. By 2100 on April 12th, two separate airstrips were made ready for Air Transport craft by these detachments. In less than seven days of the drive, they were responsible for the operation of five advanced S and E strips. The gas, food, and ammunition flown to these advanced strips appreciably contributed to the success of that army.
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Another company from the 825th, traveling with the XX Corps, prepared eight fields for supply operations in the vicinity of Erfurt. During this operation, the unit had numerous brushes with the enemy, capturing a garrison of 29 German soldiers who, upon seeing the unit’s four-ton truck and trailer carrying a D-7 caterpillar, thought it was a new secret weapon and surrendered. In another instance, a guard detail killed four SS troopers in a cellar fight after the Nazis had terrorized the townspeople for having surrendered to the Americans.
During the same period, elements of the 816th Engineer Aviation Battalion arrived at a site near Limburg, Germany, after a motor convoy of nearly 100 rough miles over battle-scarred roads. In an hour they had the strip properly smoothed, checked, and marked. Then the engineers undertook emergency flying control until the regular Air Corps team arrived.
More than 300 planes a day arrived at this field furnishing precious gasoline to a nearby armored division, and evacuating wounded by the hundreds to well-equipped hospitals behind the Rhine. Even while, the great C-47’s were churning in and out of the field with their valuable cargoes, the engineers were laboring to make the drome larger and more permanent in order to base a Photo-Reconnaissance Group soon to arrive.
Meanwhile a detachment of the 852nd, moving with an armored group, arrived at a site only to find it well ditched from end to end by the retreating Germans. The detachment’s heavy equipment had been delayed along the way and was not on hand, to assist them. The platoon worked far into the night filling the ditch and smoothing the field with hand tools, and when the sun rose the following morning the field was ready and transport planes began to land. The same day the group moved with the Second Armored Division to another site, where, without rest or sleep, another field was made operational.
An indication of the terrific quantities of supplies moved to the spearheads in Germany by air transport is shown by a few total figures of the first 19 days of the drive. More than 11,300,000 gallons of gasoline were landed at S and E fields made operational by the aviation engineers. More than 70,000,000 pounds of critical freight; 7,000,000 pounds of rations; and 3,000,000 pounds of ammunition went by air to the armies East of the Rhinc during this period.
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Four evacuation hospitals were moved during this period, and once a complete convalescent hospital with 473 tons of equipment and personnel. On their return trips the planes transported equally important cargoes from the newly completed Engineer Command fields. More than 28,000 front-line casualties were evacuated by air, and over 34,000 liberated Allied prisoners were flown to the rear. This huge speedy transportation project was successful because of the earnestness and courage of small groups of aviation engineers.
Nine divisions were supplied almost entirely by cargo aircraft landing at advanced S and E fields during the first two weeks of the drive.
The lack of bridges over the Rhine during the early stages was a tremendous bottle-neck to moving adequate supplies. The speed with which the armies were moving further complicated the picture. During the early part of the drive, the nearest railhead available to the Third Army was at Trier, 90 miles by indifferent roads from the Rhine. The distance covered by that army during the first part of the campaign doubled time and again.
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| Pierced Steel Plank (PSP) |
On V-E day, 120 fields had been constructed or rehabilitated in Germany, and at least 100 of these fields were East of the Rhine. More than 80 S and E fields had been made operational, some of them having a daily traffic of almost 400 aircraft, while others had relatively little traffic and were soon abandoned as ground armies sped to other areas farther into Germany.
Other battalions engaged in the S and E program during the closing days of the war included the 820th, 826th, 832nd, 833rd, and 834th. Still other units were as busy with tactical and occupational fields.
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Air and ground reconnaissance of airfield sites was one of the most important phases of airfield construction on the continent. Ground recce teams moved with infantry and armored columns in armored half-tracks during most stages of the campaign. Air recce teams were used extensively for the first time in aviation engineer history in locating virgin sites and inspecting know nones. During the move across France three air teams in Piper Cub observation planes covered thousands of square miles of territory determining the suitability of scores of sites, and saving incalculable time and effort.
But in the Spring of 1945 the tactical situation had so changed that both ground and air recce teams could not be expected to furnish advance information on airfield sites. The sites were still held by the Germans.
The Air Forces were using a plane known as the “Droop-Snoot” as a lead ship in some bombing missions. It was a standard P-38 Lightning fitted with a plexi-glass nose for observation instead of guns. The use of two of these planes was obtained for the command’s air reconnaissance section. With these fast ships it was now possible to fly into enemy territory and inspect enemy held airfields that were soon to fall into the hands of the Allies.
Visual reconnaissance from the air was done during daylight hours and at low altitudes. One pass over the enemy field was not enough, for the engineer-observer required at least two “deck-level” passes at a constant rate of speed straight down the center line in order to calculate the runway length. Even in a fast Lightning, enemy ack-ack sometimes pierced the Droop-Snoot with “beaucoup” shell holes before the mission was completed.
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This aerial reconnaissance provided the command with information of the greatest importance on these airfields. It kept the engineers informed of the suitability of various airfields for rehabilitation before they had been taken from the enemy.
This has been the story of the aviation engineers in Germany. A story of quick adjustment, hard work, and great accomplishment. Throughout the S and E campaign our armies were quick to praise the engineers, but top praise came from their tall, trim, grey-but-youthful commander, Brigadier General Newman, who upon inspecting this work had occasion to say, “I have been prouder of the command in these recent days than ever before, and that’s saying a great deal because I have always been proud of this organization”.
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| Aircraft parked on steel mesh track (SMT) |
