549th Engineer Light Pontoon Company
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The 549th Engineers Light Pontoon Company was a combat engineer company of the United States Army during World War II. Operationally attached to the 1150th Engineer Combat Group, it served under XXI Corps of the Seventh Army in action in France and Germany in 1944 and 1945.
549th Engineers Light Pontoon Company | |
---|---|
Active | 1943–46 |
Country | United States |
Branch | United States Army |
Type | Combat Engineer |
Role | Combat Service Support |
Size | Company |
Engagements | World War II (Ardennes-Alsace Campaign, Rhineland Campaign, Central Europe Campaign) |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Captain George B. Lotridge, Commanding Officer |
The 549th was primarily a highly mobile pontoon bridge construction unit, which also provided both M2 assault boats and a selection of infantry support bridging, ferries, and rafts. It was created on 14 January 1943, but was not committed troops until training began five months later at Camp Hood, Texas. The company was composed of black American troops[1] and NCOs, with primarily white senior officers.[2]
The 549th's bridge building, assault troop ferrying, and other combat capabilities were drawn on for the assault of Saarbrücken on the Saar River at the Siegfried Line, the crossing of the Main River and capture of Würzburg, and the Danube at Dillingen, then continued on towards Austria as three separate platoons.[1]
In the European Theater of Operations it was often just ahead or behind the 289th Engineer Combat Battalion during the months of March, April, and May 1945. At various points it detached a platoon to the 289th and traded an officer back and forth in April.[2] On 1 April 1945, the detached 1st Platoon enjoyed Easter Dinner with the 289th at the Mudau Hotel in Mudau, Germany.[2]
By war's end its units were scattered throughout a fast-moving front that saw spearheads of U.S. troops spread throughout southern Germany and into borderlands of Austria and Italy.
The 1st platoon went south from Augsburg to Landsberg, where it bridged the Lech River [citation needed] before ending up on the Chiemsee in southeast Germany just miles from Salzburg, Austria.[2]
The Second platoon ended up in Kufstein at the Inn River in the Austrian Tyrol in support of the 12th Armored[3] and 36th Infantry Divisions.[4]
The 3rd Platoon bridged the Saalach River at Bad Reichenhall to clear the way for the U.S. 101st Airborne and the French First Army in their bids to be first to reach Nazi Germany's Bavarian retreat of Berchtesgarden and capture Adolf Hitler's Berhof and Eagle's Nest.[2]