IX Engineer Command

before the Cologne Plain and the industrial Ruhr. Engineers worked under the nerve-shattering drone of buzz-bombs as Von Rundstedt was pushed back.

In the meantime, fighter-bombers from the winterized fields maintained by the command began their big winter aerial offensive, pouring lead and fire into the retreating German columns and enemy strongpoints in the Siegfried line. The scenes were rapidly being shifted again and the stage was now set for the battle of the Roer and Rhine.

With the readjustment of the armies came a realignment within the command. All aviation engineer units on the European continent and in the United Kingdom were placed under one major command with the organization of an enlarged Engineer Command (Prov) U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe. The command, headed by General Newman, became the largest of its kind and assumed control of all airdome construction and maintenance for bases occupied by U.S. Air Forces in the European Theater of Operations. The major component, the IX Engineer Command now headed by Colonel Schilling, was to concentrate on new construction. The other component, the Third Engineer Aviation Brigade was under Colonel George Kumpe, of Fort Omaha, Nebraska, and undertook the vast maintenance program. Serving on General Newman's staff were