My Dad was a 49th Combat Engineer in the Normandy invasion. I know that this unit landed on Utah Beach. But I would like to find out what happened to them in the weeks/months afterwards. I believe my Dad had pictures of one of the concentration camps so I have reason to believe that he was eventually in Germany. But I'd like to trace his unit for at least a few weeks after landing at Utah in possible preparation for a trip to Normandy where I wanted to hire a private tour guide.
Has anyone been through this before?
Larry
Hi, Larry,
I ran across this forum this year with the very same question, and even though your post is almost three years old, I want to share information that I found in case others land here. There are a few posts in this site where people share some resources about the 49th. There has not been activity on them in a long time.
https://ww2combatengineers.com/community/looking-for/49th-engineer-combat-battalion/#post-139
https://ww2combatengineers.com/community/introduce-yourself/49th-combat-engineers/#post-15817
Alas, most attachments are missing, and most URLs are now bad.
However, I want to bring a book to your attention: Ghost Battalion, by Bill Carr. It was self-published on the Lulu platform, but you can order it from Amazon.
I recently noticed that the Bill's file that makes up most of the content of Ghost Battalion is no longer online, but you can see it on the https://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/docs/ErnestNapier/content/49th%20Engineer%20History.htm l" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wayback Machine. It's handy to be able to search the information.
Have you made it to Normandy yet? My grandfather was also in the 49th, Company "B." Do you know which company your grandfather was in? I have only been able to find mine listed on the passenger list returning from France to New York in November 1945, with the rest of the unit. I am still looking for confirmation that he was assigned to them in 1943 and served with them for the duration of his service.
Best of luck!
The link to the Wayback Machine version of the Napier page is broken in the post above, even though it looked like it was done correctly in the draft. Trying it again, pasting the link directly here:
