Patton's Fighting Bridge Builders: Company B, 1303rd Engineer General Service Regiment (review)

Engineers played a vital role in the US Army's global effort during World War II. A wide range of specialized engineer units were organized to support and sustain operations in all regions of the globe. In order to create some flexibility, many units were structured to fulfill a diverse array of roles in supporting the logistical tail of the US Army. This type of unit, the General Service Regiment, was crucial to the success of the US Army's Northwest Europe campaign. Without this type of support unit and particularly the work it performed to maintain the transportation network, combat operations could not have been sustained for the duration. As there have very few engineer unit histories available as commercial publications, this book addresses new aspects of the effort to defeat Germany in France after the Normandy invasion.

This book is based upon a combat diary. It was brought to light by Earle E. Hall, an officer who served with the 1303rd for the duration of the war, who contributed pictures and the foreword to the book. While the diary's author is unknown, internal evidence indicates that it was someone within the Headquarters of Company B, 1303rd General Service Regiment. This format has its limitations: the range of items which attracted the interest of the author are all that show in the entries. As a result, the text often leaves unanswered many questions about what the unit was doing. Also, the quality of the information varies across the timespan covered, and often there are errors. However, these limitations were recognized by the editor, whose contribution was to provide a contextual basis that expanded upon the information, and provided additional insight.

The book really comprises stories. The first is the diary of an engineer unit, from its inception, through training and movement to theater, and then through several support and combat actions in Northwest Europe. The second story is how the book came into being. Both are interesting for historians. The latter story is delivered through the preface, foreword, and introduction. The origins were assembled and edited through the efforts of several individuals, the absence of any one of which would have prevented this publication. This illustrates that while so much has been written about the war, there still are valuable data waiting to be discovered.

It is clear that the diary provided the editor with an opportunity to enter an unexplored element of US participation in World War II. Joseph Fitzharris took a variety of pieces of information, and has done a good job assembling them into a coherent story. However, his task involved more than just putting the pieces together. Recognizing that there were gaps and problems in the documents he had, Fitzharris added substantial historical information. This addition is helpful in that it takes the information, dates, and actions discussed in the diary, and puts them into a context. This expanded explanation, done through a well documented historical examination of primary documents, puts the engineers' activities in the perspective of what was happening in the bigger picture of the war following the U.S. landings in France in July 1944. As Earl E. Hall, a participant in the unit from start to finish, says in his foreword, Fitzharris "got it right." The only troublesome aspect of the weaving of historical text with original entries is that the publisher did not make the type differences sufficiently clear. As a result, it is sometimes became a problem in noting which was which. Still, it was a good story, well told, and worth the read.

Maps were included to connect the locations identified in the text to the on-going operation. Unfortunately, they lack sufficient detail and thus were not particularly useful to follow the action. More basic topographic detail, and some expanded explanation would have made...