Thanks to Richard Elverson, whose father was a member of the 344th Eng Gen Serv Reg, Co D, we now have the complete history from the National Archives.
He sent me all the files he copied to a CD, and I converted them into several PDF files. The first time I created just one file and it was WAY TOO BIG!!!
So, visit the link below and scroll down to the links section. There are now eight parts.
I also took the photos and placed them into our 344th Photo Gallery
Here's the letter he sent to me...
Hi Marion. I burned a CD for you this evening and will mail itsometime this coming week.
When you put the records on the VI Corp website, I would like them
attributed to me, please.
The records that I will be providing to you represent approximately
1/3 to 1/2 of what is held at the National Archives @ College Park,
Maryland. Time and digital storage resources prevented me from
obtaining all of the records. I think some of the most meaningful
records are the ~ 12 pages summary of the 344th Engineering General
Service Regiment. It appears to me that they were attached to the 7th
Army for the majority of the time between landing in Operation Anvil
Dragoon at St Tropez, Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur,
France on 15 August 1944 until VE Day in May of 1945. One of the very
meaningful events for this unit was their arrival at Dachau
Concentration Camp on or around 29 April 1945 when they were attached,
I think, to the 45th Infantry Division.
I'm still reviewing the records that I'm sending to you so my
conclusion in the previous sentence may not be correct but I know they
were at Dachau at some point before the majority of the bodies were
buried as I saw pictures that my dad took many years ago.
Thanks,
Rick Elverson
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Nicely done, Marion. I hope others will follow the example of doingthe detailed research (as I did) and nicely organizing it into the
website (as you did). I think this is a great presentation of the
unit history that I had time to capture. This is somewhere between
1/3 and 1/2 of the history for this unit at the National Archives in
College Park, Maryland. At some point, I will try to return to obtain
the rest.
Thanks,
Rick Elverson
Hey, I think we make a good team.
Oh, a bit of advice next time around; make sure you turn off the digital time stamp on your camera. I've actually had several people contribute nice stuff to the site in the last couple of weeks, including a lot of cool old photos, but unfortunately they have time stamps engraved into them. I managed to air brush out quite a few from their photos, but some did not lend themselves to such treatment. Anyway, food for thought...
Thanks again for your contribution and I certainly look forward to receiving more of the history in the future.
Warmly,
Marion
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Excellent stuff, Rick. My dad was in Company B of the 344th. For those interested, I found another son of a Company B man who sold me a CD with images from a daily WWII journal kept by the father during his entire time overseas with 344th. Besides written entries, the journal also features several notebooks of photos that include captions. Although affiliated with Company B, the journal keeper served with the 344th's medical detachment, which put him in contact with men from every company of the regiment. I found this CD to be an excellent resource for 344th activities, as well as personal perspective from the journal keeper. Here is a link to the site http://groups.yahoo.com/group/344thEngineersBCompany/
Hey Keithman, maybe we can get him to join our forum too, this way he could share all the "goodies" with everyone here.
We sure look forward to seeing more documentation and photos. Pleased you became a member.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Marion, I sent an email to my 344th Engineers diary contact regarding the info I'd found from Elverson on your website. I also noted a Company B 344th Engineers route map that was posted on your site, and recognize it from a similar image that I received from the the diary keeper's son, who owns a large framed image of the same map and displays it on his website devoted to his dad. I believe he has someone putting together a book on his dad's diary, but I have no details on that project.
Great. Keep me posted. I hope you hear from him soon. It's exciting to pull all the pieces together.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
