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 Dated:  March 31, 2020 


Photos from 310th Engineer Battalion

Dedicated to

Private Lee McCloud
Company C, 310th Engineer Battalion,
85th Custer Division

These photos were provided by Al McCloud, whose father served with 85th Custer Division in Company C of the 310th Engineer Combat Battalion.  Private McCloud was wounded on September 13, 1944, while the 85th Division was assaulting Mount Altuzzo on the Gothic Line.   For a detail biography, go to Private McCloud.
  
   See also a group photo of  Company C taken at Camp Shelby, MS in February, 1943.


Private McCloud, taken at Camp Shelby, MS in February, 1943.

 * Click on the image to enlarge and open into a new window.

    
 
Private McCloud outside of his tent.  Photo taken during
desert training in Yuma, CA.     [CLICK TO ENLARGE]
 This Photo was taken during desert warfare training at Camp Pilot Knob,
CA, in 1943. Private McCloud is center on back row.

     A government photo showing Engineers at work on a
road in Italy during the fall rainy season.
       Living quarters during field maneuvers. 
Private McCloud sitting on cot, writing a letter. 

Private McCloud in Italy with some other
members of Company C. 
     Private McCloud and 3 fellow GI's touring Rome. 
  [CLICK TO ENLARGE]
Tec5 John Hommer, 310th Engineers, Company C, at the
wheel of this German jeep wearing a German helmet. 
  [CLICK TO ENLARGE]

 A group of GI's sitting in the same jeep and wearing captured
Iron Crosses and one German helmet.   [CLICK TO ENLARGE]

 Would you believe the soldiers had time to form football teams?  
I guess this was during their Stateside training.
   Engineers building a road
    Engineers using a bulldozer to prepare roads and culverts blown by
    the retreating Germans. Photo from collection of Corp. Deyo Montanya
   of Company C, 310 Combat Engineering Battalion.

 

   GI's inspecting a crashed German "Stuka" dive bomber, late April 1945.
Photo is a probably a Ju-87D.  The pilot was said to be defecting
and crashed behind Allied lines but crashed in the rough field.

   I had some doubt that the Germans still had many of these old dive bombers left at the end of the war. But here is a quote from the book "Air War in Italy, 1944-45":

23 April 1945
   "NAGr 9 flew dusk to dawn attacks entailing 21 Ju-87 and Fw-190 sorties in front of the Fourteenth Army in the Viadana-Modena-Mirandola area. "
27 April 1945
   "Five Fw-190s and 13 Ju-87s made their excape and once in Austria the Focke-Wulfs were reportedly destroyed, as was at least one Junkers."

NAGr = Nahaufklarungsgruppe - Tactical Recon Group

 

For more photos of the 310th Engineer:  Group Photo Company B &   Group Photo Company C .

Biographies of 310th Engineers:  Lt. Stancy Lewis ,  T/Sgt Winfred Tolbert,  Pfc Warren Stitchenotch, &  Pvt Lee McCloud.

For an official history of this unit's service to the 85th Division, go to Operational Report of 310th Engineers.

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