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A Short History
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PRE - ACTIVATION
On March 1942, there was issued in Washington, D.C., a memorandum over the signature of Colonel Arlington, Chief of the Operations and Training Branch, Troops Division, Corps of Engineers, addressed to the Commanding Officers of engineer units to be formed for the militarization of overseas construction. This memorandum stated in effect that several engineer units were being formed for the purpose of constructing and improving overseas installations such as docks and port facilities, railroads, roads, and a variety of barracks, utilities, ordnance shops, engine assembly plants, etc. Among the units to be formed were five Engineer Special Service Regiments, the 333rd was one of these. According to the memorandum, Special Service Regiments were new units designed to meet special conditions in the theaters in which they were to operate, with specialists qualified to operate the equipment to be taken over from former contractors.
Colonel James B. Cress was assigned the task of organizing and commanding the 333rd Engineer SS Regiment. Colonel Cress was of the class of 1914, U.S. Military Academy at West Point and had served in World War I with the 18th Engineers. He had been appointed to the grade of Colonel, Corps of Engineers, in the Officers’ Reserve Corps in June 1923, and was recalled to active duty with the Engineer, Fourth Army, on 14 March 1941.
Colonel Cress personally carried on the recruiting of all his original officers, as well as a large number of enlisted personnel. For his officers, he went to Boston, Mass., where he obtained the majority of them from civil life. Among the men thus recruited were some of the outstanding engineers and contractors in the vicinity. Others were reserve officers called to active duty, and two were former non-commissioned officers of the regular army who were commissioned as captains. The enlisted personnel were provided largely from Reception Centers via Selective Service, supplemented by voluntary enlistments.
The location for activation and training of the 333rd was Camp Claiborne, Louisiana.
The newly commissioned officers destined for service with the 333rd were divided into two groups, one of which was sent to Fort Belvoir, Virgina, for a period of approximately four weeks training, and the other to Camp Claiborne, La, for a somewhat briefer course. These began during the middle of May 1942.
On the 14th of May, 1942, a cadre from Fort Jackson, South Carolina moved into the new west camp at Claiborne. A large part of this cadre was drawn from the 105th Engineers. Many of the enlisted men of the cadre are still serving with the regiment.
Soon after the arrival of the cadre, enlisted men earmarked for the 333rd began to arrive, and by the first of June, a large portion of the Regiment was established in a newly erected tented camp. On the 2nd of June, basic training was begun.
The men of the Regiment trained in the elements of soldiering for about six weeks. Calesthenics, close order drill, extended order drill, military courtesy and discipline, short and long marches, rifle marksmanship, rigging, familiarization with engineer tools, demolitions, erection of barbed wire entanglements, tactics of warfare, scouting, compass work and map reading, and rifle marksmanship, were all part of these first weeks of training. Most of the assigned officers had joined the Regiment by the middle of June and were aiding in the retraining program.
The fourth of July saw the Regiment taking part in the Independence day parade, and passing review for the first time before the Commanding General of the Engineer Unit Training Center at Camp Claiborne, Brigadier General Schultz.
On the 16th of July the Regiment moved on foot to a bivouac area some twenty miles northeast of Camp Claiborne, where a camouflaged pup tent camp was established in and around the Louisiana swamps. The task assigned was to build roads and bridges in the maneuver area there. Discomforts were considerable and will be long remembered by every man who underwent the experience. While the Regiment was thus engaged, a small class in basic training was being conducted in Camp Claiborne for the benefit of newly arrived recruits, as well as those men who had proven themselves somewhat backward during the original course of training. On the 1st of August, Company C was sent to Camp Polk to work on the Claiborne to Polk Railroad.
The entire Regiment returned to its original location in Camp Claiborne on the 14th of August and preparations were made for a final move from the camp. On the 18th of August, the Regiment held a Retreat Parade before General Schultz; three days later the 333rd boarded trains and departed for Ohio.
TOLEDO, OHIO
Upon their arrival in Ohio, the Battalions were separated for the first time. The First Battalion with Regimental Headquarters was located at Toledo, and the Second Battalion at Marion, Ohio. The missions of the two Battalions were similar, however. The Rossford ordnance Depot near Toledo required several miles of railroad sidings before it could begin operation. In Marion, the Engineer Depot needed many miles of trackage as well as a small classification yard.
Both camps were the first military encampments to be established in that section of the state during this war, In a very short time the men became well acquainted in the vicinity, and many soon found homes for themselves. Of all the stations occupied by the 333rd, those in Ohio will probably be remembered as the most pleasant.
Toward the middle of October, a few small jobs were assigned and handled by detachments from Company “D”, in the vicinity of Columbus, Ohio. By November 15th the railroad jobs at the depots were nearing completion, and two days a week were being spent at training in tactics. A short while later, orders were received to move the Regiment to Camp Sutton, North Carolina, and the packing was begun. Dramatically, however, on the day before entrainment the orders were changed, and on the morning of the 28th of November, amidst the seasons first snowstorm the Regiment departed for the Arizona desert.
DESERT TRAINING CENTER
On the 2nd of December, the Regimental trains pulled in at Yuma, Arizona. Then, almost as soon as the troops had unloaded and stretched their train – weary muscles, there began the first of a long series of jobs that were to extend through eight months of desert dust, desert heat, and beautiful desert sunsets. During this periods the California – Arizona Desert Training Center area, a wide variety of military engineering problems were encountered. The larger tasks assigned were: four 250 bed Station Hospitals, two 1,000 bed General Hospitals (all of “ Table of Organization” construction), and two semi-permanent divisional camps. Altogether, including some 47 lesser projects, the Regiment built and maintained 548 miles of road and constructed the equivalent of six miles of buildings 20 feet wide. These operations required dispersion of the Regiment over a wide area, extending from the outskirts of Los Angeles to Hyder, Arizona and from Ibis, California to Yuma, Arizona. Normally, during this time, the Battalions were separated and frequently the companies were on their own.
The hospital jobs proved to be excellent construction experience, especially in working out operation problems under difficult war-time conditions. Two of the 250 bed hospitals were completed at Yuma, Arizona and a similar pair at Needles, California, and here construction was only partially completed when the personnel of the 13th General Hospital moved into the area. Soon after, patients began arriving and the facilities of the hospital were put to an early test. The General Hospital at Banning, California was started and the materials largely assembled when the Regiment was ordered to participate in the June-July desert maneuvers.
The construction of these hospitals was simple, but because of the size of the projects, considerable problems in the organization and supply were encountered, which the following figures will indicate: The completed hospital buildings totaled 508,000 square feet of floor space, equal to a one story building 20 feet wide, 4.8 miles long; 7.5 miles of water pipe four inches or larger were laid; 6.75 miles of electric line were strung on our own poles; and 8.25 miles of road were constructed. The buildings were furnished with some 2,900 plumbing fixtures and some 5,000 electrical connections. Extensive camouflage provisions were installed at Yuma. At Spadra a sewage disposal plant, induding two Imhoff Tanks, a trickling filter, and detension basins covering six acres were constructed. A 10,000 gallon wooden water tank on a tower was erected at Yuma, and at Needles a 20,000 gallon tank was placed on an 80 foot high steel tower.
At the Divisional Camps of Ibis and Laguna, about 86 miles of roads were built. Two 50,000 gallon elevated storage tanks and two 550,000 gallon ground storage reservoirs were constructed. Over 14 miles of water pipe were laid in these camp areas to provide water for 576 shower heads. Many tent floors and frames were erected and some 350 latrine pits excavated. The numerous smaller assignments included jobs at: Knob Siding, McPhaul Bridge, Araby, East Yuma Yard, Palo Verde Pass, Hyder, Coachella, Horn, Vernon, Goffs, Ono, Camp Young, and Danby.
Desert maneuvers were ahead, and on 19 June 1943, the Regiment was relieved of all communications zone assignment sand attached to the IX Corps, Blue Forces, for duty in the maneuvers as one of two corps engineer regiments. The task included maintenance and construction of about 380 miles of road, operation of a corps engineer distribution point and a water point. A month later the maneuvers ended with a victory by the Blue Forces, and after a few days, the Regiment returned to its hospital construction projects at Spadra and Banning. Here the Regiment remained surrounded by the orange groves of Southern California until the 6th of August, when once again the Regiment boarded trains bound for Camp Claiborne.
CAMP CLAIBORNE
Upon arrival in Camp Claiborne, the Regiment was assigned a bivouac area beyond the west camp. At this location the organization conditioned itself through training, exchange of personnel, and issue of supplies for an overseas movement. An intensive period of training was undergone. Firing for record on the range was repeated with considerable better results than the last time, more than a year before. More than 83 percent of the command qualified for marksman or better. The entire regiment went through the combat infiltration course. All records were put in shape. A large number of new men were to bring the Regiment up to strength, and several men and officers were transferred to other units, some with cadres, and others as individuals. During the last weeks in Claiborne, many pre-embarkation furloughs were granted. Finally, the end of September, an advance party was sent out and on the 28th of September, the Regiment entrained for Camp Shanks, at the New York Port of Embarkation.
The Regiment spent six days at the Port of Embarkation. The first three days were taken up with final processing of personnel, records, and supplies, and the last three days were spent in a state of alert, so it was impossible for the members of the Regiment to get out of camp. The days were filled with numerous show-down inspections, physical inspections, inoculations, clothing supply lines, insurance and allotment sales talks, as well as a lot of time spent in trying to figure ways of getting out of camp.
On the 6th and 7th of October, the Regiment moved out of Camp Shanks by ferry and rail to the berth of the US Army Transport, “James Parker”, formerly the USS Panama. With loaded packs, luggage, and embarkation numbers, they boarded the ship, and on the morning of the following day, set sail in the company of the “ biggest convoy yet ” for England.
The sea voyage was without any major incident. The ship was double loaded, which meant two meals a day and twelve hour shifts alternately in the bunks and on deck. There was some rough water and much sea-sickness. On the ninth day out the North coast of Ireland came in sight, and on the 18th of October, the “ James Parker ” docked in Liverpool.
UNITED KINGDOM
The first and principle location of the Regiment in England was at Perham Downs, Ludgershall, near Tidworth, in Wiltshire. The trip to Ludgershall from Liverpool was made by train. It was on this trip that some of the members of the Regiment had their first taste of an air raid. Upon arrival the Regiment was quartered in barracks for the first time in its existence (except at the New York Port of Embarkation). Almost immediately certain of the companies were sent out on jobs of their own. In general, the operations of the Regiment extended from the vicinity of Westbury on the West To Basingstoke on the East, about 50 miles, and from Salisbury and Winchester on the South to Tidworth on the North, about 15 miles.
The process of assigning and beginning work on the jobs was begun on the 22nd of October. These jobs were mostly winter tented camps to house incoming American troops. Construction of roads, erection of Nissen huts, construction of tent floors and frames, and installing plumbing and electrical facilities, messing facilities and latrine facilities constituteing a major portion of the work. The first of these camps was in the vicinity of Tidworth. Later the various companies were dispatched to well dispersed locations until at one time Company “D” alone remained with Regimental Headquarters.
Company “C” was first to move away, to the vicinity of Warminister and Upton Scudamore. On the first of November, Company “E” was assigned to the job at Aldermaston Airport, and another at Fargo. On the tenth of November, Company “E” moved a detachment to Dinton House; on the 14th of November, Company “F” started moving to Popham Scrubb; on the 16th of November, Company “B” moved to Dinton to build the Baverstock Base Depot for the 9th Air Force. Soon Company “A” too, moved to Dinton to build camps for the Air Force Depot. Later Company “C” moved to this vicinity on a similar job of camp construction. During this period there were detachments continually being detailed to receive incoming troops, to provide mess facilities for other units and locations, to provide trucking for troops on training maneuvers, and many other small assignments. Also during this time work was continued on the camps in the Tidworth Area at Windmill Hill A and B, Tidworth Pennings, Tidworth Park, Park House A and B.
At the beginning of the year, 1944, the Regiment, less the first Battalion, was still stationed at Tidworth, while the Second Battalion was located at Dinton. At this time the Regiment was engaged in the construction of some 38 projects. Of these, one was the Baverstock Air Base Depot; ten were summer tented camps to accommodate 20,000 men; two were winter tented camps to accommodate 5,250 men; five were Bolero Reassessments, and 20 werc lesser prospects. (The conversion of existing British camps for accomodation of American troops in the United Kingdom was known as Bolero Reassessments. These were located in Castles, Churches, Schools, etc., thus making each project of that type a problem in itself.)
The Baverstock Air Base Depot was the major project under way in early 1944. It was begun on 18 November 1943, and completed on 15th of April, 1944. The following units were attached to the Regiment for work at the Depot: 416th, 433rd, and 434th Engineer Dump Truck Companies, 500 men from the Ninth Air Force Casual Pool, Companies “A” and “C” of 204th Engineer Combat Battalion, one platoon of 834th Engineer Aviation Battalion.
During the latter part of February, 1944, the Regiment received notification from higher headquarters that its assigned missian in the coming invasion of the continent was utilities. Later, however, this was changed to port Construction. About the 1st of March, the Regimental Commanding Officer, Colonel Cress, assumed command of the 1056th Engineer Port Construction and Repair Group, and was later relieved from command of the 333rd. Colonel Guy S. Langstroth, then Lieutenant Colonel, commanding the first Battalion, was named C. O. of the 333rd.
The 1056th Engineer Port Construction and Repair Group was located in Porthcawl, South Wales, and the Regiment, upon completion of its work in England (about the 2nd of April), moved to Porthcawl for training in its new mission. Schools were held by the group in assembling Bailey Bridges, V-trestling, and light steel tubular trestling. In addition to attending these schools, the Regiment put in long hours studying land mines and booby traps, conducting overnight bivouacs and marches, and firing on the range. The regiment also assisted the group in the assembly of a fleet of barges at Port Talbot, South Wales. These “Naval Pontoon” and Transportation Corps barges, tools, material, and equipment which were utilized in the reconstruction of the Port of Cherbourg. Personnel of the 333rd manned these barges for the crossing of the Channel, and they were later all awarded the Bronze Star Medal for their hazardous duties. Despite the contention of many sea-going authorities that these barges could not make the crossing of the channel, they arrived in Cherbourg without loss.
While at Porthcawl, the group was assigned to Advance Section Communication Zone, and the Regiment was stripped of all unessentials and made ready for the coming invasion.
On 2nd of June 1944, the Regiment, less the Second Battalion, left Porthcawl and arrived in Hindon, England, where it went into bivouac awaiting further orders. The Second Battalion remained at Porthcawl. The advance party of the 333rd Engineer Regiment, consisting of four officers and 27 enlisted men, left Hindon and joined the 1056th PC & R Group. With the group, they arrived on Utah Beach on 25 June 1944 (D+19), bivouaced for the night in Transit Area “B”, near St. Mere Eglise and on the following night in the vicinity of Valognes. On 26th June 1944, the Port of Cherbourg was captured. The 1056th Engr. PC & R Group, plus the advance party of the 333rd, moved into the city and the port area on 27 June 1944 (D+21).
FRANCE
Back at Hindon, orders finally arrived to move up, and on the 27th of June, the Regiment moved into the marshalling area in the vicinity of Dorchester, On the 29th the Regiment, less the Second Battalion, went to Plymouth and embarked for the cross channel voyage. The next day the arrival at Utah Beach was followed by debarkation from landing craft and a march to the transit area near St. Mere Eglise, On the 1st of July the unit moved by truck to the Port of Cherbourg to commence construction operations. The Erst location of the Regiment was at the Seaplane Base near the Naval Arsenal.
On the fourth of July, the Second Battalion moved from Porthcawl, Wales, to their marshalling area near Winchester, England. From there they went to Plymouth on the 8th of July and embarked for France, where they arrived at Utah Beach on the 12th. It was on the 13th of July that the Second Battalion joined the Regiment in Cherbourg and commenced construction operations.
Due to the close association of the Regiment with the Group Commanding Officer, Colonel Cress, some of the officer personnel of the Regiment headed up group functions. Among these were Lieutenant Colonel Langstroth as Deputy Group Commander and 1st lieutenant Timothy F. Cronin as Group Motor Officer.
Upon its arrival in Cherbourg, the Regiment actively engaged in reconnaissance for materials, enemy equipment and under-water obstructions; made an estimate of demolition damage; operated the first water points in the city and began the removal of mines and booby traps. Reconstruction of the docks for the Darse Transatlantique and construction of the Terre Plein barge wharf got under way. The Regiment was also assigned the task of operating a Group Motor Pool to service all units attached to the Group. At the peak of its operation the Motor Pool had 520 pieces of equipment in operation on a 24-hour basis, requiring some 200 operators in addition to maintenance and service crews. A total of 250 tons of various sized cable, 225 caterpillar and grader blades, and large amounts of first echelon parts and major assemblies were used. The Group equipment daily consumed approximately 9,000 gallons of gasoline and diesel oil, plus several hundred pounds of various grades of grease and oil.
Later, the Regiment was charged with operating the civilian rock quarries in the vicinity of Cherbourg for road ballast and furnishing concrete aggregate for the use of all attached units on dock construction. The Regiment was also assigned the continuous operation of the City Power plant and responsibility for the generation and distribution of electrical power throughout the North end of the Chesbourg Peninsula. The construction and operation of a retractable Bailey Bridge at the Bassin A Flot was another job completed. Water points in the North end of the Peninsula were operated during the winter.
The Germans had extensively mined and booby-trapped the Port and City areas of Cherbourg, as well as the coastal regions and other towns along the Peninsula. The knowledge and experience the Regimental Mine and Booby Trap Teams acquired in England proved to be of great value. In addition to land mines and booby-traps of the regular American, English and German design, the enemy had placed devices using marine and sea mines, depth charges, hand grenades, artillery shells and many other improvised killers. In the Gare Maritime, 24 car-loads of sea mines were found under the debris. These were all deactivated and removed. While carrying on its assigned work of mine removal, the team gave lectures and demonstrations to many combat outfits arriving from the States, prior to their departure for the front, on the latest types of devices found. As of 7 December 1944, the teams, in addition to checking buildings, equipment and water lines, had swept 2,102 acres for mines and booby traps.
When ASCZ moved forward on 11 October 1944, the Group came under the control of Normandy Base Section of the Communication Zone. When the 1056th left Cherbourg on the 31 October 1944, the six Engineer units which were still a part of the Group were attached to the 333rd, and on 23 January 1945, the 333rd was designated the Chief of Engineer Service by Utah District of Normandy Base Section.
In the early stage of work on the docks at Cherbourg, prisoner of war labor was made available and was used for the first time by the companies of the 333rd. The first POW enclosure was erected near the site of the larger dock jobs, and a Regimental detail put into operation. At first only 500 PWs were employed, but as the work went along and the assignments increased, this figure grew, until in January of 1945 the Regiment employed 4,500 POWs and 500 civilians on its various tasks. At the end of its eight months stay in Cherbourg, the Regiment had been assigned and had successfully completed some 196 projects. As an indication of the vast amount of work accomplished in Cherbourg by the combined forces of the United States, tonnage figures show us that it was, during the month of November 1944, the leading port in the world in tonnage offloaded. Although the Regiment was held directly responsible for the dock construction in the Darse Transatlantique and Terre Plein Barge Wharf areas only, it had indirect responsibilities throughout the port. The unloading facilities made available by all units engaged in the port reconstruction were: 28 Liberty Ship Berths; 13 Coaster Berths; 14 LST Berths; 75 Barge Berths; 2 Twickenham Ferry Berths; and 1 Tanker Berth. A total of 28,000 tons per day can be unloaded with these facilities.
Having completed its primary mission in Cherbourg, on the 28th of February 1945, the Regiment moved to the vicinity of Le Havre. While at Le Havre, approximately ten projects were assigned. The Regiment moved about 3,000 German POWs by LST from Cherbourg. In only a few days, however, orders were received to move from Le Have, leaving a large part of the assigned work unfinished.
About the 10th of March, the Regiment once more reverted to ASCZ and moved (by 40 and 8 box cars for the first time) to the German border, in the Saar sector, some five or ten miles behind the static front in US Third Army temority. The new location of Regimental Headquarters was Bouzonville, Lorraine, France, and the Second Battalion was at Falck-Hargarten, not far away.
GERMANY
The new mission of the Regiment was the rehabilitation of railroad track and bridges through France and Germany to provide the maximum possible railroad facilities for General Patton’s Third Army. To accomplish the mission, ASCZ Engineer Group “B” was formed, headed by the 347th Engineer GS Regiment, and the 333rd was attached to this Group.
When the Third Army started its Saar push, the Regiment immediately began the job of reconnoitering the line in the vicinity and toward the front. The amount of damage to the tracks and bridges had to be known before the selection of the proper line to rehabilitate could be made. Reconnaissance parties were also sent out from the Regiment in search of captured enemy materials which could be used in the work. Two French Engineer Companies were attached to the Regiment to assist in pushing the lines forward. The day after Saarlautern, Germany was cleared of the enemy, the Regiment moved in and established its Headquarters there, with the city still burning. The companies were located in a widely dispersed area around the city, and the job of line and bridge reconstruction was begun. On the 14th of March the job from Falck to Wadgassen was begun with the French Companies working on the line from Falck to Benning. As the enemy was pushed frm the region, the work went ahead, and finally the bridge site at Saarbrucken over the Saar River was cleared and designated for reconstruction by the Regiment. This job was started on the 26th of March with the help of Company “C” of the 347th Engineers, and in four days this 485 foot, 8 span bridge was completed, using 200 tons of light steel trestling. The Regiment had had no previous experience with LST until this time.
During the 63 days following the break-through of the Third Army on the Saar sector, the Regiment was continually on the move, right on the heels of the advance. During this period, 78 railroad bridges were built at the rate of 1.2 per day, and 438 miles of railroad track were opened to the Third Army as a result of these reconstructed bridges. The Regiment itself rehabilitated 121 miles of track, The reconnaissance parties of the Regiment reconnoitered 1.315 miles of track, an average of 21 miles per day, to determine the lines with the least demolition and to ascertain necessary information for their rehabilitation. Many additional miles were flown along the track on aerial reconnaissance. The men in the reconnaissance parties continually worked in the forward elements of the Army advance and kept informed of the tactical situation by constant contact with the Cavalry patrols. These parties removed many demolition charges which the enemy had set and failed to fire in their haste to withdraw. The Regiment, in the course of its work, captured 250 prisoners and suffered two casualties from enemy action. Company “A” was strafed three times in one night at Horchel while working on the Horchel River Bridge, and Company “D” was subjected to an artillery barrage at Uberherrn.
Following the completion of the bridge at Saarbrucken, the Regiment moved to Mainz-Gustavsburg on the East Bank of the Rhine River to commence work on the single track railroad bridge in conjunctioa with the etire Group “B ”. From the time that work began on this bridge, all materials for construction except LST were obtained from captured enemy stock piles. In seven days the Regiment had completed its portion of the Rhine River bridge. The bridge was begun on the 4th of April and completed (open for traffic) on the 13th of April. This bridge was named the “Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Bridge ”, in memory of the President who died during its construction. It was the second railroad span over the Rhine, the erst having been completed by Colonel Cress and his 1056th Group at Wesel on the North German front. Since no highway bridges of sufficient capacity were available, it was necessary, in the construction of the railway bridge, to assemble barges of Naval Lighterage Pontons in order to float the Regiment’s heavy equipment to the East bank where they were used.
The Regiment moved to Bebra, Germany after completing the Rhine Bridge, and the track and bridge work was distributed all the way from Hanau to Erfurt, and eventually almost into Leipzig, Germany. Just as the completion of the line into Leipzig came into sight, the Regiment was pulled out of this sector and moved to the vicinity of Nurnberg, in the wake of the southward bound Third Army. Regimental Headquarters was established in the village of Feucht, southeast of Nurnberg, and the companies were moved into the vicinity.
On the 24th of April, the Regiment was assigned the task of track and bridge rehabilitation from Nurnberg to Munich, via Donauworth and Augsburg. 40 bridges on this line had been demolished by enemy action. Work was begun on the 24th of April, and the line was open into Munich on the 18th of May. The Regiment’s first major construction accident accured during the building of a bridge over the Wornitz River at Donauworth when a run-away diesel locomotive with Din beam launcher attached ran off the incompleted bridge. No casualties were suffered.
Late in April, Regimental Headquarters moved to Weissenburg on the Nurnberg to Munich line, and there it stayed until the time came to move out of Germany. On VE Day, work carried on as usual with the companies distributed along the line; Company “A” was at Pleinfeld, Company “B” at Weissenburg, Company “C” at Treuchtlingen, Company “D” at Augsburg, Company “E” at Meting, and Company “F” at Donauworth. First Battalion Headquarters was at Weissenburg, Second Battalion Headquarters at Augsburg, and Headquarters and Service Company was at Weissenburg. On the 13th of May, the Regiment took a day off, the first in a long time, to celebrate the Third Anniversary of its activation.
In the days that followed, the Regiment was assigned the reconstruction of the Munich to Salzburg line, and reconnaissance parties were sent into Austria. Company “B” moved to the shores of a small lake near the Chiem See in the shadow of the Bavarian Alps near Rosenheim, to work on the Salzburg line, on which the demolition was not extensive. Company “A” moved to a quarry near Treuchtlingen to double track one of the bridges there.
Companies “D” and “B” moved to locations near Munich where they were improving the Augsburg to Munich line. The Medical Detachment remained in Weissenburg with Regimental Headquarters until the end.
About the 21st of May, the 333rd was relieved of attachment to Group “B”, its assignment to ASCZ, and was assigned co Communication Zone, Oise Intermediate Section. On the 22nd of May, the entire Regiment once again loaded up equipmeat and personnel board trucks, box cars, and captured German coaches, and set out for Mourmelon, near Rheims, France, where they arrived on the 26th of May to undertake their new assignment, the construction of several AAC Redeployment Camps in that vicinity.
MORE (Final History)
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