I found an obit for Edward Rhoades Badger; "Mr. Badger served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army 369th Engineer Combat Battalion, in Europe during World War II, in General Patton's Third Army Group."

The 369th Engineer Combat Battalion Constituted 19 October 1944 in the Army of the United States as the 369th Engineer Combat Battalion and organized 31 December 1944 from personnel of the 215th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion at Marignone, France.

215th AAA Gun Bn organized 20 Jan 1943, parent unit & location unknown.

215th was part of the 31st AAA Brigade, date & location unit joined the 31st unknown.

Activities of the 31st AAA Brigade can be found at:

http://www.airdefenseartillery.com/online/2010/Coast%20Artillery%20Journal/Extract/CA%201948/Jan-Feb%201948.pdf

31st AAA Brigade arrived Oran, North Africa 13 May 1943, assigned to 5th Army, moved to Constantine, Algeria 1 June 43, moved to Hammamet, Tunisia 9 -14 July 43,btwn 31 Oct & 19 Nov 43 moved to Sardinia & Corsica. Landed at St. Tropaz, Southern France on D+7 (August 22, 44) relieved the 105th AAA Group in control of the beach defences. Moved to Marseilles set up defences of Marseilles, Toulon, & Port de Bouc.

No locations for the 215th AAA Gun Bn are mentioned in the 31st Brigade accounts.

The 215th`s only campaign credit for Rome-Arno shows they were on Sardinia/Corsica but no credit for Southern France tells me they probably stayed on Sardinia/Corsica & were later moved to France to be converted to the 369th ECB.

The 215th AAA Gun Battalion was disbanded on 31 Dec 1944 and reorganized as the 369th Engineer Combat Battalion on 31 Dec 1944 at Marignone, France.

Apparently the 369th ECB was assigned to Third Army according to Mr Badgers obit.

Being a converted unit, the 369th was most likey placed in an Engineer Group under Army control, or possibly assigned to a Corps, but not under any infantry division except temporarily for possibly in support of a river crossing.

The 369th ECB has campiagn credits for Central Europe & Rhineland & Occupation duty Germany 2 May - 29 Sept 1945. The unit was at Oberhausen, Germany at the end of World War II (15 August 1945 location).

I found some info on the 363rd Engineers, the lack of information on this unit is due to the fact they served in a forgotten theater of the war...Iran.

The proper designation for them is the 363rd Engineer Special Service Regiment.

In Iran they were under The Persian Gulf Command which operated the vital supply route for Lend-Lease war materials going to Russia.

The 363rd Engineer Special Service Regiment duties took in supervision of pipelines, water filtration and sewer systems, and maintenance of supplies for utilities.

Also in Iran under the Persian Gulf Command was the 334th Engineer Special Service Regiment who worked on & maintained the roads & railroad.

Some other units in the command were Railway Operating Battalions, Ordinace Heavy maintainance Companies, several Quartermaster Truck Companies, & the 19th Station Hospital.

There were only about 7 Engineer Special Service Regiments formed in WWII. They were Staffed with highly skilled construction men & were well equipt to handle large infrastructure projects. Most regiments were activated at Camp Claiborne, La.

The other Engineer Special Service Regiments i found:

333rd Engineer Special Service Regiment, has campaign credits for Normandy & Northern France. They were assigned to Southern Base Engineer Group 2 which was formed in the European Theater of Operations United States Army on 1

August 1943.

361st Special Services Engineer Regiment has Campaign Credit for Rhineland.

369th Engineer Special Service Regiment, history .pdf posted in prior post.

the regiment went to Guadalcanal and soon after were re-designated as the

1394th Engineer Construction Battalion.

1007th Engineer Special Service Battalion (Barge Contruction) served in India/ Burma

330th Engineer Special Service Regiment, activated as a Special Service Regiment, Redsignated a General Service Regiment during training at Camp Claiborne.

332nd Engineer Special Service Regiment, activated as a Special Service Regiment, Redsignated a General Service Regiment during training at Camp Claiborne.

393rd Engineer Special Service Regiment, no info.

I found an obit for Edward Rhoades Badger; "Mr. Badger served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army 369th Engineer Combat Battalion, in Europe during World War II, in General Patton's Third Army Group."

 

The 369th Engineer Combat Battalion Constituted 19 October 1944 in the Army of the United States as the 369th Engineer Combat Battalion and organized 31 December 1944 from personnel of the 215th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion at Marignone, France.

 

215th AAA Gun Bn organized 20 Jan 1943, parent unit & location unknown.

215th was part of the 31st AAA Brigade, date & location unit joined the 31st unknown.

Activities of the 31st AAA Brigade can be found at:

http://www.airdefens...an-Feb 1948.pdf

31st AAA Brigade arrived Oran, North Africa 13 May 1943, assigned to 5th Army, moved to Constantine, Algeria 1 June 43, moved to Hammamet, Tunisia 9 -14 July 43,btwn 31 Oct & 19 Nov 43 moved to Sardinia & Corsica. Landed at St. Tropaz, Southern France on D+7 (August 22, 44) relieved the 105th AAA Group in control of the beach defences. Moved to Marseilles set up defences of Marseilles, Toulon, & Port de Bouc.

 

No locations for the 215th AAA Gun Bn are mentioned in the 31st Brigade accounts.

The 215th`s only campaign credit for Rome-Arno shows they were on Sardinia/Corsica but no credit for Southern France tells me they probably stayed on Sardinia/Corsica & were later moved to France to be converted to the 369th ECB.

 

The 215th AAA Gun Battalion was disbanded on 31 Dec 1944 and reorganized as the 369th Engineer Combat Battalion on 31 Dec 1944 at Marignone, France.

Apparently the 369th ECB was assigned to Third Army according to Mr Badgers obit.

 

Being a converted unit, the 369th was most likey placed in an Engineer Group under Army control, or possibly assigned to a Corps, but not under any infantry division except temporarily for possibly in support of a river crossing.

 

The 369th ECB has campiagn credits for Central Europe & Rhineland & Occupation duty Germany 2 May - 29 Sept 1945. The unit was at Oberhausen, Germany at the end of World War II (15 August 1945 location).

My father, Alfred Fenzel, was a 1st Lt. in the 215th AAA when they shipped out to North Africa in 1943. They arrived safely in Casablanca, but the ship carrying their guns was torpedoed by a U-Boat. They had to wait a few weeks before new AAA guns arrived. After North Africa the 215th landed in Sicily at Porto Empedocle just south of Agrigento. One reason he was able to land his guns so quickly is that the transport's Captain went to the same high school in Brooklyn, St. Michael's Prep. They quickly moved north through Agrigento, so quickly that the batallion commander was chewed out by Gen. Patton for getting on the road ahead of Patton's 7th Army, which landed east of Agrigento and had to march west before heading north. One comical event occurred during the advance to Palermo. Three guys from th 215th encountered a pretty young mother who was in tears. She wept because her freedom loving husband, who loved Roosevelt and America, was held in the Carbinieri's jail nearby. Well those three knuckleheads believed her, and staged an armed jailbreak, releasing the freedom loving citizen, who turned out to be the head of the local black market. The town mayor and Chief of Police wrote a formal complaint to my father who commanded the nearest company of the 215th. (My father kept the letter and I read it a few weeks ago.) They demanded the arrest of the perpetrators of the jailbreak. Dad had his First Sgt. bring the three culprits to him to hear their tale, and later told the Carbinieri and the Mayor to come back the next day. The next morning the entire company was lined up in full battle dress with helmets, packs, and weapons. Dad said to the mayor, "Pick 'em out." which they obviously could not do, so they left very unhappily but without any recourse. The three knuckleheads were assigned latrine duty for a week.

Great stories there. Really enjoyed reading your post today, especially the jail break out escapade! Ah, sounds like American GI's!

Welcome to the forum.

That does sound like American GIs! Funny story!

363rd Engineers group photo:

My Grandfather Cpl. Orval Covert Herbert was in the 363rd Engineers and was stationed in Iran during WWII. After his death, his daughter (my mother) inherited his belongings. Among them were souvenirs of his tour, a photo collection of random shots here and there in Iran, and a group photo of the entire 363rd Engineers unit. I have since inherited these items and have scanned the group photo into a very large high resolution jpg file. I have sent it to Marion, for her to eventually post on this site, but in the mean time, I will offer it to anyone else who comes across this blog and desires to see the image. You will have to send me a request via email, and you should expect the reply message to take considerably longer to download than your standard email message.

Regards,

David Baker (civilian)

Hello David!

How wonderful that your Mom saved these treasured items!

Because I do not know anyone in the 363rd unit, I will wait to get the photo from Marion and really appreciate your sharing it with us!

I would love to see more of the photos that you have! And wonder if you are thinking of putting those on this site. I know it is a lot of work but it would be fascinating to see WW2 photos from that part of the world!

So happy you joined this site - it is incredible what discoveries have been made here and the information shared - and all Thanks to Marion!

Jean

Here it is. I can also send the four separate smaller scans, but that might be redundant. The best thing for someone to do when they find a family member in this photo is for them to open it up in Photoshop or some other image handling software, crop the section of the photo they want, and re-save it as a new photo. Example: I'm attaching my Grandfather's cropped picture. His name was Orval Covert Herbert and he is in the fourth row back 11th from the right. I also have a collection of his photos from Persia (now Iran), some letters from there, and some souvenirs that he bought while stationed there. An old muzzle loading pistol, some brass belt buckles for a belt that goes around a burka, and a lot of vintage coins, and knick knacks.

Regards, David

 

Here ya go. Sorry for the wait, but I have a huge list of uploads to complete...

Group shot in a lower res. The original was too large for the forum. I divided the panoramic shot into two.

Great Job! and Great Photo! How wonderful that David B. shared it with all of us!

Jean

My Grandfather Orval Covert Herbert is the only person I know in this large group photo. The only way we will ever know who anyone else is by name, is to track down a roster that goes with this photo (if one even exists), or by individual family identification (which could take forever).

Glad you all liked it.

David

P.S. Jean, I will try to scan and post some additional photos when I get some free time.

regards

David: Well we certainly hope that anyone searching for info on this unit, will stumble across this post and be able to help us fill in the blanks (and there are a lot of them). But we seem to be blessed with info and I wouldn't doubt that someone will be able to assist you in your quest.

I received this today and was able to supply her with the document in the above post! YEAH!

Hi Marion and All! I'm Pete Fenzel, son of Capt. Alfred J. Fenzel, who at war's end was the battalion commander of the 369th Engineer Combat Battalion, ex the 215th AAA Gun Bn. Dad is still alive at age 99 and a half. His mind is sharp as a tack and his war recollections are vivid. Of course, we in the family have heard the stories a few hundred times, but that never lessens their significance.

Dad enlisted in the US Army Reserve right after the Munich Conference, in which Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement gave the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovalkia to the Nazis without firing a shot. Dad figured that weakness invites war so he decided to get in early and get some rank. He was activated at

Camp Upton few weeks after Pearl Harbor in the 508th Coast Artillery, which became the 215th AAA Gun Bn (semimobile), 7th Army, on January 20, 1943. The 215th AAA Gun Bn was disbanded on December 31, 1944 and its personnel formed the new 369th Engineer Combat Bn at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day outside Marseilles.

One of Dad's recollections is of Easter Sunday, April 1,1945. The 369th had crossed the Rhine near Mannheim that day and towards evening they pulled into a village east of the river. (I'll get the village name.) Around 3pm Dad had his sergeant go find the local priest to provide an Easter service for the men. The local priest turned out to be a Jesuit, whom the Nazi's had neglected to murder. He spoke perfect English and was ordered to conduct a service at 5pm and to see that there was no fraternization with German civilians in church. About 35 men of the 369th took the opportunity to attend. When the Americans, dirty and discheveled, carrying their weapons, entered the little church it was ablaze with every candle lit and a boys choir signing hymns in Latin. For Dad it was a very spiritual moment, where a bit of heaven was found in Nazi Germany. He still finds awe in that moment to this day.

I just loved your dad's story. Even in the midst of hell, a little bit of heaven shown through. Touching!

So glad you joined and are willing and able to share this with us. Can't wait to hear more.

Thank you for the story. I'm Catholic and can imagine the scene - very nice.