Dear Jim:

Well this looks like a tough one indeed. I have searched through some of my research materials, etc. and the only reference I can find at the moment is this one. It's from a grave marker in:

LITTLE VALLEY RURAL CEMETERY

Route 353

Little Valley, NY

MATTHIES, Robert H. spouse of Ruth Marie died 8-25-2003 age 82 - US Army 253rd Engineer Brigade WW II

You may want to contact someone in that town to see if he has any living relatives or friends.

I will continue to search and of course if I come across anything at all, I will contact you immediately. In the interim you may to contact NARA in St Louis for morning reports, etc and NARA in College Park Maryland for after-action reports, etc. I have all the contact information in my forum section here:

https://ww2combatengineers.comengforum/index.php?showtopic=23

There is also a contact for a Richard Horrell from WWII Connections who does private research on units. If you do visit his site and contact him, please tell him I sent you his way.

Sounds like you have very rare footage there. A real treasure. Of course it would be more meaningful if you could attach some names and faces to it. I would love to see it myself. Are you planning on placing the media on DVD's etc., to make it more accessible?

I am going to place your letter in our Lost and Found section in the hopes that someone will run across it while performing a search on this unit. It's amazing how many people have found my site in the last year and have been able to reunite with old buddies, etc. That is the best part of all this and oh so rewarding.

Please stay in touch and I will do the same.

Warm regards,

Marion J Chard

Proud daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek

540th Combat Engineer WWII

Received this later the same day:

Dear Marion-

Thank you for your reply.

Strangely enough, I ran one last attempt at a web search for "253rd

Engineers" and up came two names. One was the cemetery you listed and the

other is a man in Utica, NY who is alive and well. I called him today and

hopefully he will be able to come up with some names, although he says his

memory has slipped and he can't recall any names. I'm sending him a copy of

the video today which I hope will jog his memory. He did seem very alert and

interested in the film.

I did get one bit of information from him that the unit had gone on

maneuvers at Camp Campbell, KY in 1944 and that explains why there are

scenes of the men on a pass in Hopkinsville, KY. The unit was activated at

Camp Crowder, MO on 15 Oct 1943.

If you will give me your mailing address, I'll send one to you, also.

Thanks for your help.

Sincerely,

Jim Herron

I have pictures of Robert Matthias, along with a few of their buddies, on R&R in Innsbruck Austria, from my dad's collection, and at Campbell.

Jim, in my email to you, I forgot to ask if you could pass along the contact information for the person in Utica. These men are all in, or about to be in, their 80's so we need to get what information is available soon or it will be lost for all time.

I've attached one of the great pictures. This is labeled:

PFC Joseph Moriarty

PFC Frank Perlberg

PVT Matthias

PVT Zolendy

PVT McGoldbrick

Corp Moran

PVT Edward Hollis

From top, taken Camp Campbell Aug. 4, 1944

Thanks

Gary

Here is more info provided by Richard Horrell of WWII Connections.

Dear Ms. Chard,

Commanded by Lt. Col. T.P. Hughes, the facts I have is that the 253rd was a part of Ninth Army. Not in my list for XIII or XVI Corps, so they must have been at the Army level.

Rather atypical for a unit of Ninth Army to have an Ardennes-Alsace Campaign credit, so they must have been in First or Third Army for a brief time before ending up in Ninth Army.

I will keep you up-to-date if I find further facts.

Happy July 4th Holiday,

Richard V. Horrell

WW 2 Connections

More info by Richard. This is an excerpt from his email to me:

Dear Ms. Chard,

Just a few more facts as per the 253rd.

Departed Boston Port of Embarkation, October 31, 1944

Sailed on the USS West Point AP-23

Arrived at Liverpool, England, November 8, 1944

Marion,

I can't keep up with all the engineer battalions but I thought this one sounded familiar----guess not.

I checked my handy refererence book and it confirmed the 253rd Engr served in the 3 Campaigns that Jim mentioned. It lists them as serving occupation duty in Germany from 2 May until 31 Oct 1945.

Steve

Hey, at this point as everyone can tell, every little tidbit is a juicy morsel. Thanks for everyone's contributions.

I can't keep up with all the engineer battalions but I thought this one sounded familiar----guess not.

Hey! I was correct. Only 2 threads earlier, Gary Olin submitted a discussion about the 253rd Engrs.

Marion----are you trying to see if we are paying attention?!?!

Steve

They'll be a pop quiz in 10 minutes.

I just received letter back from my inquiry to the National Archives for 253rd unit information. When I did this about two years ago, the documents they listed had no obvious connection to the 253rd Engr C BN. THIS time, however, they came back with a list which includes the units history for 1943, 1944, 1945 through V-E day, and then still another for the remainder of their activation period. In addition, they listed after action reports for 1945. There was about $70.00 worth of pages in the listed materials.

Obviously, I intend to order the materials but it will take, according to their letter from 10-12 weeks to receive the material. I wish I lived closer to MD so that I could do the copying myself!

Once I get it, unless there are restrictions preventing it, I will attempt to share what I can with those interested.

Gary

The documents will all be de-classified as mine were. I received over 2000 pages from NARA. I used a private researcher because of the volume of documents available on the 540th. A real lucky find.

Good luck with your search. Sounds like you are well on your way. Yes, thanks in advance for sharing. I know many will be looking forward to seeing them.

Don't look now, but there is a 235th Engineer DUI pin up for sale on eBay. Looks good enough to be a WW2 vintage.

Steve

I'll try to link the image.

Much to my surprise, I arrived home last evening and found the documents from the National Archives waiting for me, at least two months before I had anticipated getting them.

I received the 253rd Unit History documents for 1943, 1944 and through Sept 1945.

They have a lot of great information. There are also several unit photos.

After scanning them into PDF documents, they are quite large. Rather than break them up too much, I am going to attemtp to find a good spot on the web where they can loaded and easily found.

Suggestions are welcomed.

Gary

I may have some space on one of my sites that I can rent to you for DIRT cheap. Let me get back to you this afternoon. You can upload them there and people can access them whenever they desire. Hopefully I'l send ya an email later when I get off of work.

Congrats. Ain't it exciting?

Hello,

I just found this site a few days ago, whilst searching for info on the 253rd, and have some to share. A member of my church was in the 253rd (A Co.), from inception through discharge in 1946.

Thomas Mowry, PFC, Truck Driver Light 345. He has told me about when they got to the UK, then over into the ETO. One thing he told me was that they were with the 7th Army, not the 9th. He was adamant on that point. I will get more details on the period leading up to VE day. Today we talked about getting out of Europe. He did not preform as a truck driver until after the war! He also said he was transferred to the 75th ID for the period involved with transporting troops from the interior of Europe, to coastal France. I am not clear if it was his unit, or himself that went to the 75th. The tone of the explanation suggests the latter. I will check.

There was a plan to use German PWs to assist in the enormous number of trucking assignments involved in shipping troops to Cherbourg, and other ports, for transit back home (I find this fascinating, for my Grandfather-in-law was an Estonian volunteer in the Luftwaffe, flying Arados in the Baltic...sinking Sov. subs...but ended the war in western Germany, and then 7 months as a PW, in France. I wish I had asked him more about things he did as a PW...). This was necessary because of so many men having points to get out, leaving fewer and fewer men to get the mundane jobs done. After a number of accidents, the Germans were moved to the right side, as observer/helper, and the GIs drove. He spoke of driving ALL OVER the ETO, picking up troops and getting them to the ports, so it was a much larger task than just moving his BN. As the operation was coming to a close, they would drive convoys of trucks to depots, where the bulk of the trucks were turned in and parked. Then the drivers would be loaded up into remaining trucks, and taken to the port for transit. His dates of departure and final ETS coincide with dates given by Richard Horrell, so he was reunited with the 253rd before shipping out.

He is going on an Honor Flight to Wash., DC, on the 21st of April, and I am fitting him out with a complete uniform for the trip. He never got involved with any Veteran's groups after the war, and now regrets that a bit. He spoke of looking for the name of a friend whose name may be on the memorial. He was atop a large shipment of explosives that detonated by accident, as he said "...left nothing, no truck, nothing." Anyhow, I have his rank, svc bars, and shoulder patch, am awaiting a set of ribbons and bolo badges, but have not found any unit crests, but he is thrilled with the fact that he can wear a complete uniform again. OK, he wears orthopedic shoes, but otherwise....

We took him to a WWII reenactment held that we (my sons and our "unit") participate in, at a train museum down here in Fl, and he had a good time there. Walked all over the place on his own...a very fit man!

Tom's two brothers were also in the Army, but one is deceased, and the other has no interest in any honor flights. This will be a high point for him, and if there is anyone else out there that has or knows of a remaining 253 man, do let me know. As I come up with more of his story, I will pass it on.

Michael Belanger

SFC (Ret), SF

St Petersburg, Fl