The End is Near

During the time period encompassing the Ruhr Pocket, the 300th rotated through several divisions and an army reassignment. On February 12, they were attached to the First Army, Seventh Armored Division. On March 25, they moved to the Fifth Armored Division and on April 4, to the Third Army under the command of General George S. Patton. They arrived in Kattenbach, Germany and were housed in the barracks of a former German airfield. Until just before VE-Day (Victory in Europe), they were attached to the Fourteenth Armored Division.

On April 14, 1945, the mission of the Co. C of the 300th was to build a Treadway bridge over the Isar River at Moosburg near the Austrian border. General Patton crossed the Isar over this bridge telling the 300th it was "a damn good bridge."

300th Engineer Warren Chancellor describes building the bridge at Moosburg:

I had been temporarily assigned to Co. C as an aid man at the bridge site. The Isar River was a mountain stream with extremely rapid currents. There were quite a lot of large boulders in the river and this was a great aid in anchoring the ropes that held the pontons in place. Company C did a tremendous job in constructing this Treadway under the adverse conditions. They definitely should have received a unit citation for this job. As you know, Gen. Patton appeared (standing in his command car) shortly after the bridge was completed and exclaimed "damn good bridge." This was the only time I ever set eyes on the general.

300th Engineer Leonard Burke described General Patton at Moosburg:

C Company was building the bridge and we were on the enemy side. We had our machine guns set up. I said, "I'm going to the other side." I went across the bridge and there were all these tanks lined up in the mud. I walked up to this guy standing by the tanks and said, "How are you doing Joe?" He turned around and had a full eagle on his shirt! "Excuse me, sir!" I said as I saluted him. He said, "That's all right son. Don't worry about it." That was Patton's aide.

When they got it [the bridge] ready, they said, "Get ready! Get ready!" Old Patton came up from the water line and went to the first tank. He gave these instructions, "Get those sandbags off all these tanks." They had sandbags on the tanks. I couldn't hear what else he said but he was giving them hell. He got in the tank and they were gone.

It was near Moosburg that part of the 300th participated in the liberation of a German POW camp - Stalag VII A on April 29, 1945. The prisoners were American, British and Canadian personnel as well as from Allied European countries taken earlier by the Germans. A large portion of the prisoners were Russians. They all were starving and living in filthy, deplorable conditions.

The German POW camp was made up of tightly spaced rows of rundown, one story barracks built to house 10,000 troops. By April 1945, it housed more than 100,000 prisoners of which 8,000 were American troops.

By the time the Allies drove three Sherman tanks through the fence at the front entrance, all of the German guards had abandoned the camp. When the American flag was raised to the top of a nearby church steeple, the American prisoners, as one unit, stood together at attention and saluted it. Many of the now freed American prisoners climbed onto the trucks with the 300th and moved southward with this part of the battalion.

The 300th moved to Schroding, Germany on May 1, 1945 setting up a water purification station. The men of the 300th celebrated news of VE-Day on May 8, 1945 in Schroding. After VE-Day, all units were returned to General Status to locate and collect all abandoned German guns and ammunition as well as other post-war duties.

300th Engineer Jerry Barton describes how he spent the night before VE-Day:

H & S Company B was progressing east to the Inn River, about 20 miles from the border of Austria. We had encountered no opposition for some time. After many days with no place to rest except in the command car and with a May snowstorm in process, the three of us sat down on bales of hay and slept the night away warmed from the body heat of the cows in that barn. It was so comforting compared to what we had been riding in for days without being able to bed down. The next day, May 8, it was announced that Germany had surrendered.

The 300th, now focusing on reconstruction and rebuilding without the threat of enemy fire, had plenty to do. They operated saw mills that provided the raw materials for reconstruction, opened the Main River for boat traffic, reopened railroad lines, guarded steel and tar plants and continued general engineering work in the area.

The 300th worked their way back to Aschaffenburg, Germany which became their base of operations for working in and around the area. A detail of the 300th built a park for children on the banks of the Main River complete with swings, sandbox, a slide and refreshment building. In addition to the much needed road work, they also set up several water purification stations for the civilians and troops alike.

300th Engineer Randy Hanes describes recreation after VE-Day:

We had commandeered this local boat after VE-Day on the Main River in Germany. The war was over and we had plenty of gasoline because the Americans had plenty of everything. This was a captured boat and it was ours now. It was a civilian boat that accommodated about six people. It was a really nice boat and we had a lot of fun. We would swim and then take a boat ride. John Durant was in the boat with us and Charles Farley, who later would be my best man at my wedding. Sgt. Don Geiser was also in the boat. Just some sergeants having fun in a captured boat. The war was over, no one was there to fight and yes, we had a damn good time. Not too many times you got to go riding in somebody else's boat. The best part was the war was over.

300th Engineer Don Richter describes Aschaffenburg after VE-Day:

I do remember very well the city of Aschaffenburg where we were billeted in an old German Army Camp in that heavily destroyed city. I went down into the city on Palm Sunday and saw members of a congregation of an almost totally destroyed church standing inside what was left of the building and singing in German hymns that were familiar to me as hearing singing in my home church when a child. I felt that the German people had a great faith in God to have the will to restore their land after the war.

Spring came with beauty in Germany. It was amazing how new growth could so quickly begin to cover the scars of battle.

Now that the war in Europe had ended, decisions needed to be made as to which troops would go home and which would be retrained for the upcoming invasion of Japan. The Army point system was based on a man's age and martial status. Those who were younger and not married were marked to be retrained and reassigned while others would be sent home.

Many troops of the 300th were in the process of being reassigned to the 51st Combat Engineer Battalion when history again intervened. The purpose of the reassignment was to bring the 51st back up to full strength in preparation for training for the invasion of Japan in January, 1946. In early August, the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagaski. VJ-Day (Victory in Japan) and the end of World War II were declared on August 7, 1945.

It was here in Aschaffenburg in August of 1945, that Major Archie Menard created the map of the 300th that is on this web site. The political cartoons were of his fertile imagination and war experience. The captions when the cartoon is enlarged are our interpretation of what the artwork might be saying. This map, some 62 years later, became the inspiration for this web site.

The 300th Combat Engineer Battalion was officially deactivated November 2, 1945 at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia. The ships that carried these brave men back to the United States was as varied as their Points of Separation.

Going Home

After the war ended, the men of the 300th spent varying amounts of time in Europe on R & R before returning home. When it came time to go home, they left from France or England to various ports on the Eastern seaboard. The three types of ships were: Victory Ships, Liberty Ships and Hospital Ships. The conditions on these ships were considered better than these men encountered on the Queen Mary voyage from the U.S. to England. They arrived in the U.S. at various ports and then traveled by train to their home towns. Although most of the men were discharged soon thereafter, a few went on to military careers.

Tec. 5, Charles Olive, 300th Co, B, left Marseille, France on the USAT Groucher Victory at the end of October 1945 bound for Hampton Roads, Virginia. The 10-day voyage covered a total of 4052 miles and Charles chartered the miles for each day ranging from 373 miles on the first day to 423 miles on the eighth day.

Charles brought home the main meal menu distributed to the men for 1 November 1945 with the message from the Captain:

Roast Chicken with Dressing and Gilbert Sauce
Kernel Korn a la Vincent Peas au Belvin
Snowflake Potatoes
California Cup Cakes with Chocolate
Indiana Ice Cream
Preserves
Bread, Butter, Frozen Milk, Fresh Fruits

The Master, Captain Aage Hedegard, and crew of the S.S. Groucher Victory wishes the doughboys a Bon Voyage and a happy reunion with their families and friends.

300th Engineer Jerry Barton describes arriving home:

In November, 1945, I departed the Paris, France area and headed for LeHarve where, with thousands of other returning servicemen, I boarded the USS Constitution for home. We steamed into Boston Harbor on December 3, 1945 - exactly two years to the day after we left New York as the 300th Combat Engineer Battalion. Immediately upon arrival, I placed a call to the school at Blanket and asked to talk to my sister, Chlorene. I told her I was back in the United States. Mama still did not have telephone service out on the farm.

Train service, paid for by the military, carried me from Boston, Massachusetts to Tyler, Texas where I was discharged on December 10, 1945 and left the Army camp about 5:00 p.m. I caught a commercial bus from Tyler to Brownwood. From Brownwood, I took a taxicab to home on the farm where Mama and my siblings had been expecting me. I arrived there about 4:00 a.m. and they were all asleep. I remember that immediately after daylight that Mama and I drove around for me to greet the neighbors and relatives that lived nearby.

The 300th Combat Engineer Battalion was a well-trained, capable and dedicated combat unit. They were awarded five Bronze Battle Stars for participation in Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge), Rhineland and Central Europe. They were awarded the American Campaign Medal, ETO Medal, Victory Medal and Occupation Medal. There were more than 140 Purple Heart recipients as well as Silver Star and Bronze Star recipients. Six members were awarded the French Cross of War with a Bronze Star.

300th Engineer Kenneth "Cowboy" Morris describes why they were there:

We knew why we were there and you looked around and saw the destruction and what those people had to live through in the occupation. Then you realize if you could keep those guys [Hitler] from coming over here. You didn't hear anyone griping why we were there. Everyone realized what we were there for.

You put out every ounce of energy to do what you're supposed to do. That's just the way it was. You felt like you had a job to do and you had to do it.

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