combat and construction: us army engineers in world war i

7/29/2019 Combat and construction: US Army Engineers in World War I

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US Army Corpsof Engineers

. C o m b a t a n d C o n s t r u c t i o nA r m y in W o rld W a r I

by Cha r les Hendr icks


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of History

U.S. Army Corps of EngineersFort Belvoir, Virginia

1993


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Fo r ewo r d

As the United Sta tes commemorat es the 75th a nmversa ry of

the en d of World War I, th e U.S. Army Corps of En gineer s recallsthe dedicat ion and sacrifices of its engineer soldiers, officers,andcivilians.

The United Sta tes was n ot involved at when t he great warbroke out in Eur ope in th e summer of 1914. Not u nt il 1917 did th iscoun tr y determ ine tha t its vital na tiona l int erests were at stake in

th e conflict. Amer ica th en committ ed its powerful huma n an d

technological resources to support th e West E ur opean democra ciesengaged in the st ruggle.

Within t wo year s, Amer ican military forces tipped the ba lance ofpower in Eur ope The U.S. Arm y Corps of En gineers was essent ialto this effort -engineers fough t on t he front lines a nd cons tr ucted

facilit ies needed t o tr an sport an d supply Amer ican tr oops.

honors th e cont r ibut ions of th ese engineers who

fought to protect democra cy and restore peace

ARTHUR E.

Lieutenant USACommanding

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Services of Supply of the American Expeditionary Forces

S P A I N

100 200

General Headquarters A. F. @Headquarters S. 0. l Port used by 0.

0 Important Town of Jan.

- - - - - - - S e c t i o n B o u n d a r y Numbers indicate base sections

ii


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C o m b a t a n d C o n s t r u c t i o nU . S . A r m y E n g i n e e r s i n W o r l d W a r I

The U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers provided diverse militaryser vices du rin g World War I. The

Corps formed the large

engineer regiments of the Americancombat divisions. Army engineersbuilt port facilities, roads, and

ra ilroads essent ial to moving wa r

materiel to the battlefront. Theyalso ha rvested t imber for m ilitar y

construction and operated search-lights in anti-aircraft defense.

The engineers organized the firstU.S. Army tank units and developed

chem ical war far e mu nitions a nddefensive equipment. Armored units

an d chem ical war far e becam e soimport an t t ha t t he Arm y in 1918creat ed a separa te Tank Corps

an d a Chemical War far e Service.Brigadier Gener al Amos F ries, acareer engineer officer, headed theChemical Warfare Service in France.

seeks recruits the 11th Army recruited state and

regional

Engineer plans for a railway near the in France


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T h e E n g i n e e r s

The U.S. Army engineers whoserved in World War I brought withthem varied military experience,

Most senior officers were graduatesof the Military Academy.These Regular Army engineershad devoted most of their careersto supervising domestic river andharbor improvements, althoughmany had also served with U.S.Army units abroad, primarily in

Cuba or the Philippines.

Other commanders who hadbeen civilian engineers joinedthe National Guard or OfficersReserve Corps shortly before theUnited States entered the war.

But most of the 240,000 engineers

who served in Europe during the war

engin eer constru ction

troops.

R ecru it in g poster

had no prior experience withmilitary service. Some 40,000 of

them were African-Americans.

R ecru it in g poster

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ofengineer troops Camp New Jersey

Firs t

After th e United Sta tes declaredwar on Germa ny on April 6, 1917,th e Brit ish and Fr ench government s

as ked t his coun tr y to give top priorityto deploying American engineers toFr an ce. By the end of August , ninenewly organized engineer r ailwayregiment s and t he combat engineerregiment of the 1st Division ha dcrossed the At lantic. Severa l of thera ilway regiments were assigned toBritish or Fr ench m ilitar y form at ions

pen ding th e ar rival of more Amer icancombat tr oops in the summer an dau tumn of 1918.

Fir s t Casu a l t i es

Sergeant Matt hew Calderwoodand Pr ivat e William Bran igan ,11th En gineers, became th e wars

first , front -line U.S. Arm y casu alt ies.They were wounded by Germ anar tillery fire on September 1917,while serving with th e BritishThird Arm y near the village ofGouzeaucour t in northern Fra nce.

In lat e November t he 1 lth En gineersabandoned its r ailway work a ndhelped the British const ru ct newdefensive posit ions, stopping aGerman effort to regain terr itory

near Cambrai.

B u glers of Com pan y C, 5th E n gin eers,7th

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C o n s t r u c t i o n

U.S. Army engineers madeth eir most visible cont ribut ions

in Fr ance behind t he front lines.Near ly 2 million fresh Amer icantr oops, who joined a lar ger En ten teforce drawn from var ious na tionsand ter ritories ar ound the world,could fight successfully only if theyhad adequa te logistical support .

Engineer officers and troopsdominated the const ruction effortin Fra nce tha t was essent ial tomoving and supplying the AmericanExpeditiona ry F orces

Edgar

Will iam

Major General William Lan gfittserved as th e Chief Engineer .

Brigadier General Edgar J adwinwas the Director ofConst ru ction an d Forest ry. Helat er became Chief of Engineer s.

4

GeorgeMajor General George W. Goetha lsheaded the War Department slogistical effort s in th e Un ited St at es.He was a car eer engineer officer a ndchief builder of th e Pa nama Cana l.


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l

L u m b e r

Timber was the engineers

basic ra w mat erial in World War I.

The 20th Engineers, the U.S.

Armys lar gest regiment , andoth er Amer ican forest ry t roops in

Fr ance produced some 200 millionboard feet of lumber, 4 million

ra ilroad ties, and t housands oftimber piles. Lieut enant Colonel

Henry Graves, on leave as th eChief Forester of the U.S. Forest

Service, helped organ ize the effort .By October 1918 American forest ry

engineers were opera ting 107sawmills, primar ily in sout hern

and cent ra l France.

Troops of the 20th Engineers bring

in logs forests in the Vosges,

France.

The 107th Engineers,

32d Division, construct a bridge

in Cierges France, onAugust three days

the division drove the Germans

the town.

While training at

Gondrecourt France,

in January 1918, soldiers of

the 1st Engineers, 1st Division,use sandbags to test a bridge

they built.


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Por t Cons t ruc t i on

American soldiers, under t hetechn ical supervision of engineer s,used th ese timber pr oducts t oconst ru ct new a nd

Engineer comman ded mixedcrews of engineer , cavalry, marine,an d labor t roops; prisoner s of war ;an d Spanish a nd Chinese civilians,who built a lo-ber th pile dock a t

below Bordeaux. A 3-berth

facilities for Amer ican t roop an d pier built at Mont oir on th esupply ships. Becau se Brit ish Loire River, t ogeth er with its

vessels clogged French ports on rail conn ection to shore, required

th e English Channel, American 6.8 million boar d feet of lumber.ships ha d to dock a t Atlan tic Dredging by Fr ench cont ra ctorsport s from Brest t o Bordeaux made the docks a t Mont oir andor a t t he Mediterr anean port Brest ava ilable to vessels withofMarseilles. drafts.

T he 33d E ngineers carry a ma s t a stevedore derrickat th e port of Brest France, in October 1918.

The derricks at this American-built dock at could

cargo ship h olds an d place it directly in w aiting

railroad cars.

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R a i lr oa d s

Fr ench railroads were largelyadequate to tr ansport Americanmilita ry supplies to the bat tlefront,but the use of American engines and

rolling stock and t he construction ofra il yar ds an d repair facilities wasrequired. Most of the 1.5 million tonsof engineer equ ipmen t t he Amer ican sbrought to France related t o ra ilwayconstruction or opera t ion.

Before the Armist ice, the engineer sbuilt 937 miles of sta nda rd-gauge

ra ilroad tracks in Fra nce, primar ilyat docks and stora ge facilities.A notable addit ion t o Fr ancesra il lines wa s a cutoff theAmer ican engineers built t o avoid arail bott leneck in Nevers. The cutoffincluded a br idge overth e Loire River, t he longest bridgebuilt by th e Amer ican s in Fra nce.

Engineers work on a narrow-gaugerailway built carry supp lies field

artillery positions.

Eight engineer regiment s builtnarr ow-gauge ra ilroads between t hera ilhea ds of sta nda rd-gauge lines a ndth e bat tlefront. American -opera ted

light ra ilroads hau led 860,000 tonsan d per sonn el.

T he 316th En gineers, repair

railroad tracksdam aged in thewar at

Flanders),B elgiu m .

A railroad crosses

the old

gauge tracks atsouth of

Saint-Mihiel, France.


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R oa d s

Road construct ion employedeven more forward tr oops, alth oughpioneer infan try regiments providedmore labor th an did engineer

un its. A quar ry operat ed by th e

28th Engineers support ed theroad-buildingeffort,producingmore tha n 10,000 cubic yards ofcru shed st one in 1918.

A the Engineers,

26th a road-cutt ingm ade by an Am erican artillery shellthe area ruptured du ring

th e campaign ,September 1918.

Th e 4th E ngineers

road between and of

night the

began. operated

the protection of Am erican barrageThis photo scrapbook of an officer

the 4th Engineers.

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Dep ot s

As American military materiel

moved to th e bat tlefront, it was

stored in million square feet of

covered storage space erected by

the engineers. Requiring quickresults, the engineers constructed

most depot buildings with

corrugated-iron roofs and walls

attached to simple wooden frames.

Noteworthy was the Romorantin

Air Service Depot, which boasted

1.3 million square feet of shopsand 765,000 square feet of

storehouses and hangars.


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Food

The war had h urt Europeanagr icultur e, so the U.S. Armyimport ed Amer ican food to its t roopsin Fr an ce. The engineers a ssured t hat

th e food wa s well preserved en r out e.They u sed 100,000 cubic feet oflocally obta ined cork to insula te a

refrigera tion plan tat th e port of The beefstora ge war ehouse t ha t ColonelEr nest Graves built a t t heDepot in cent ra l Fra nce ha d a

capacity of 5,200 tons. I t was cooledby ammonia circula ting thr ough35 miles of two-inch pipe. A near byice-making plan t pr oduced 500 tons

of ice daily.

Closer t o th e front lines, at th eIs-sur -Tille Depot, the engineersbuilt an electr ically opera tedbakery tha t pr oduced up t o 400tons of bread daily. Amer icant roops would not go hu ngry.

The plant builtby the Americans at

was the largestFrance in 1918.

Soldiers line up a meal.

important

Constructing facilities to bring to the troops was an

France.

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O t h er S u p p o r t

The engineers sought to in centr al Fr an ce. Aprovide as much physical support yard a t t he Mont oir Depot on th eas U.S. tr oops might need. The Loire River could repa ir largePontanezen Barr acks built a t locomotivessimultaneously.Four

Brest could house 55,000 men. lar ge storage ta nks could holdEngineers oversaw the constru ction 2 million gallons of gasoline.of hospital facilities for 141,000 men, Having just completed the Panamaincluding the Mars Canal, the engineers knew how toand hospitals near Nevers think big.

Engineers lay the

for a field hospital

building atFrance.

Base hospital with

walls built by Americanengineers at

France.

Transportation options at

a field engineers


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Ot h e r Mi l i t a r y S p e c ia l t i e s

C a m o u f l a g e

American engineers a lso August us Saint -Gauden s. Em ployingprovided special military services 900 women gar ment workers, the

to the AEF . The engineers section pr oduced more t han 3 million

Camouflage Section opened a square yards of camouflage material

workshop in an old dance ha ll including airplan e han gar covers,in Paris in September 1917 and fish nets, painted burlap, and

commissioned severa l Amer ican sniper su its. The cam ouflage

ar tists r esident in t ha t city. One products were most helpful in

of the sen ior camouflage officers moving ar t illery forwar d without

was Capta in Homer Saint-Gaudens, dra wing the at tent ion ofson of the great Amer ican sculptor Germangunners.

S e a r c h l i g h t s

The 56th E ngineers operat ed raids. Engineers a lso provided

and searchlights sear chlight service for th e Fr ench

to help ar tillery un its pr otect First and Tenth Armies, since th eAmer ican t roops from n ight a ir Fr ench did not develop this specialty.

American paraboloid and searchlight in position to track and attacking

enemy

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Topograph ic

EngineerColonel an d tr oop dispositions and t he

Roger Alexan der led the production of Army ma ps. The U.S.

Topographical Division of the Army base printing plant at Langres

In telligence Sect ion of the AEF produced 22 million maps in 1918.

General Staff. He coordinated the Colonel Alexander also oversawuse of aeria l photographs to obta in th e use of soun d and flash r an ging

informat ion on German tr enches to locate enemy art illery positions.

print m aps

in the room .

T he 29th E ngineers produ ce

m aps in th e l i thographic

press room ofthe baseprintin g p lan t,

France.

Trucks ofth e 29th E ngin eers m obile unit, France, April 1919


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C o m b a t

U.S. Army engineer un itsengaged in comba t from th e

. Vosges Moun ta ins near th e Swissborder n ort h to Oudenaa rde,Belgium . One bat ta lion of the

310th Engineers even served in theArchangel ar ea of northern Russiaafter the Russian Revolution.

Noteworth y among engineer

comba t service was the action ofTogether they successfully

defended t he line before th attwo companies of th e 6th Engineers.They stopped building heavy steel

hist or ic city from a hea vy German

bridges to join British and Can adianassault in March and April 1918.

forces in front -line t renches beforeThese two engineer compa nies

suffered 77 casualt ies.

Wood During Ju ne and J uly 1918, of Vaux in th e Aisne-Mar ne

t roops of the 2d Engineers fought campaign. This regiment sufferedas in fan tr y in t heir divisionsbitter ly cont ested captur e of

casu alties of nea rly percent,

th e Belleau Wood an d the hamletth e highest for an engineer u nitof its size.

Brigad ier Gen era l Ben jam in and

his adjutant examine a map of theS oldiers of th e 6th En gineers, 3d Div ision,

Marn e battlef ield atbuild a t restle-crib brid ge the

at of

France, Au gust 9, 1918. France,

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Hin d e n bu r g Lin e

A bat talion of th e 1st Engineers, blocked the American a dvance.fight ing as infan try, joined the He used a captured German grenadeAmer ican forces assault ing Hill 269 to kill one enemy machine-gunn er.in th e Romagne Heights a long th e Colyer th en tur ned tha t German

Hindenburg Line on October machine gu n against th e oth erSergeant Wilbur E. Colver enemv nests and silenced them.

of South New York,volun teered to locat e a group ofGerma n machine-gun n ests th at

The 11th Engineers build a road

around the town of destroyed by German shelling during the

at the start of theoffensive, September 26, 1918.

received the meda l of honorfor his a ct ions .

Men of the Engineers work

on a road in the Argonne Forest,October 1918.


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River

Soldiers from the 7th Engineers,5th Division, won recognition forbridging the River.

Major William Hoge, Jr., earneda distinguished service cross forhis heroism in reconnoitering asite for a ponton bridge across thatwell-defended waterway north of

France. While underenemy observation and artilleryfire, Hoge selected the bridgesite during the daylight hours ofNovember 4, 1918, and directedconstruction of the bridgethat night.

After German destroyedthree ponton boats supporting thebridge, Sergeant Eugene Walker;Corporal Robert Crawford; andPrivates Noah John Hoggle,and Stanley Murnane jumped intothe icy river and held up the deckof the bridge until replacementpontons were launched and installed.These enlisted men also receivedthe distinguished service cross.

This bridge was one of 38constructed by U.S. Army engineersduring the criticaloffensive, which ended withGermanys surrender.

E n gi n eer troop sbuild a ponton

bridge in Fra nce

A br id ge bu il t by U.S . Arm y

engineers at Stenay, France.This town on the

was tak en by theon the morning of

N ovem ber 11, 1918.

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Mis s ion Accom p lis h ed

Dur ing World War I t heU.S. Army Corps of Engineers

. redirected its efforts fromimproving rivers a nd h ar bors in

the United States to providing

structures and services needed to

transport, supply, and assist over amillion American combat troops on

th e bat tlefield in F ra nce. En gineer

officers quickly developed a diverse

group of troop units that provided

a broad range of support servicesto the American Expeditionary

Forces.

The engineers combined courage

under fire with critically needed

technical skills. Their contribution

was essen tial t o the su ccess of the

U.S. Arm y in World War I .

Mobile engineer searchlight

equipment in the York

parade.


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S u g g est i on s for Fu r t h er R ea d i n g

Bought on , Van History of the Eleventh Engineers, United States

Army, February 3, 1917, to May 8, 1919. NewYork , J . J . Litt lean d Ives Company, 1926.

Columbia to the Rhine, Being a Brief History of the Fourth Engineers,and Their from the Columbia Riven in the State of

to the Rhine River in Germany.Germany, Westdeut sche G.M.B.H., 1919.

Graves, Er nest. Construction in War: Lessons Taught by the World

1917-1919. Occasional Paper No. 64, The En gineer School,U.S. Arm y. Washington, Government Pr int ing 1921.

Pa rsons, William B. The American Engineers in France NewYork,Appleton, 1920.

Amer ican Expeditiona ry Forces, 1917-1920. En gineerDepartment.Historical Report of the Chief Including all

Operations of the Engineer Department, American ExpeditionaryForces, 1917-1919. Washington, Government Pr inting1919.

U.S. Army. Firs t Army. En gineer Sect ion. Report of the ChiefFirst American Expeditionary Forces, on the Engineer

in the St. Mihiel and Offensives,

1918. Occas iona l Papers No. 69, The Engineer School, U.S. Army.Wash ington, Govern ment Pr inting 1929.


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A bou t t h e A u t h or

Charles Hendricks obta ined a Ph.D. in history fromCorn ell University in 1976. He has been a historianwith the U.S. Army Corps of En gineers since 1981.

Marilyn Hu nt er, editor, supervised production of th is

publication.

All photogra phs were dra wn from t he Na tiona l Archives

an d t he collect ions of the Office of History, Headqua rter s,U.S. Army Corps of En gineers

Ad d i t ion a l Cop ies of Co m ba t a n d Co n s t r u c t io n

Copies ofCombat and US. Army Engineers

in World are available with out cha rge Write t hepublicat ions depot and ask for EP 870-1-47.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

PublicationsDepot2803 Avenue

MD 20781-1102


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combat and construction: us army engineers in world war i

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