It's great to have you here. Sorry I have been a bit remiss this week, but I am in the middle of publishing my first children's book this week, so have been totally tied up in the project. So excited.

I look forward to talking with you. Love the pic!

Hi Glen!

I don't have any knowledge of the 160th but I look forward to whatever information you can share with all of us!

Glad you joined!

Jean

Ah Glen, hope you have performed a search on the forum, for we do have several topics of discussion right here. YEAH! This should get you off to a decent start.

Yes, thank you Marion. I have been all over your site and there is a lot of information about our Combat Engineers. I enjoy reading all of the posts, personal accounts are especially interesting. Keeping this going must take a lot of work and it is appreciated.

Glen Blasingim

I'm looking forward to seeing what transpires between you and Wayne Nichols. So very cool!

Photos

Wayne sent his thanks for the picture of his uncle, Robert L. Nichols. The man on the dance floor with the number 2 written on the picture is his uncle but the other picture of the three men with the 160th sign was not. These pictures were taken at a first anniversary celebration of the 160th Engineer Combat Battalion. I am not positive but I believe that this celebration took place at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Notice that the picture has a stamp in the lower left corner that is an Army Signal Corps stamp. The picture has good detail and will stand some cropping to identify some of the other dancers. This picture came to my Dad by way of his friend, Oscar G. Anderson. O.G. was obviously a friend of Robert L. Nichols too. Dad received these pictures some years ago when O.G. passed away. He was a good friend of my Dad and his wife Lucille sent them to him. I am not sure about the time and place of this first anniversary celebration. I would like some input from anyone who has pictures taken at this event or knows for sure when the160th was avtivated. Can anyone identify any of the other dancers or the three men by the sign? Thanks for the support and encouragement from Marion and the other members. Hope this is interesting to someone with 160th ties.

Glen Blasingim

This picture was taken at the 160th's first anniversary also. It has a lot of the brass from the battalion, I would like to know anything that anyone knows about these guys, where or when this picture was taken. It appears that all are having a great celebration and the 160th is off to a good start.

1 Frank B. Snodgrass,1stLt.,Hdq Bowling Green, Ky

2 Louis Leaf,Lt.Col.,Hdq Chicago, Illinois

3 Archie S. Mayes,Maj.,Hdq Warrensburg, Mo

4 Robert W. Hartwick,1stLt.,Co B Pittsburg, Penn

5 Thomas L. Howard,Maj.,Hdq Boston, Mass

6 John J. Maloney,1stLt.,Hdq Old Forge, Penn

AWESOME!!!!

I have recently learned that the 160th Engineer Combat Battalion was formed at Fort Meade, Maryland on April 27, 1943. The full battalion consisted of 638 men. If the first anniversary celebration was held on April 27, 1944 then it would have been held at Camp Rucker, Alabama. The first picture is of eleven men taken at that celebration. I have no names and would appreciate any information that anyone could share. The second picture talks to me. The way that I see it, Private Irvin Krum is a long ways from his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These two ladies are enjoying pulling this shy homesick soldier out of his shell. He will remember this event for a long time. Private First Class Krum will later be awarded the Purple Heart in Europe. I believe that is all of the pictures that I have from this first anniversary celebration.

Glen Blasingim

Makes me smile!!!!!

This is a picture of a schoolhouse that Dad remembers staying in just north of Thionville, close to the Luxembourg border. There were about 75 men staying in the upstairs, no furniture, but they found a couple of bails of straw and used it to pad their bedrolls. It was November 1944, very rainy, lots of mud, and the men were glad to have a dry place to stay for a change. A French family lived downstairs. Their son was gone someplace fighting with the resistance ( Dad said that the 160th often gave rations to the French fighters, let them in their chow lines when they had them, and sometimes gave them clothes ). The family had a special wine stash that they were saving for a celebration when their son returned, but they served it to the men that were staying upstairs instead. Our artillery was a short ways behind the school and they fired all night every night. The gun explosions and screaming shells made it difficult for the 160th to sleep, mostly because the men could not hear the incoming for the noise our own guns made. This made them very nervous, especially after their long stay across from Metz with the shellings they took every day. Dad said they were able to bunk in the school house for two or three weeks. My Dad is the soldier just above the spare tire, the women and child are part of the family downstairs and the other two soldiers are unknown to me, but from the 160th. Notice the hook on the front of the jeep.

Glen Blasingim

Glen, welcome aboard! You do have some interesting stories there. I was curious to see what the story is about "Olive's Old Man" on the side of the Jeep but that one may be lost to time, I guess.

That is a good question CaptO, I will be talking to my Dad in the morning and I will ask him.

Glen Blasingim