Troop Quality: Experienced, Morale: 8 Headquarters and Headquarters Company 1 command stand, 1 jeep, 1 small boat, 1 LCVP, 1 staff radio truck Boat Maintenance Company Quartermaster Battalion Medical Battalion Signals Company: provides staff for brigade 3 Engineer Boat and Shore Regiments, each with: Headquarters, with: 1 command stand, 1 small boat, 1 LCVP, 1 jeep Boat Battalion, with: 3 Boat Companies, each with: 1 command LCVP, 7 LCVPs, 7 LCMs Shore Battalion, with: 2 Far Shore Companies, each with: 1 beach master stand, 3 engineer stands 1 Near Shore Company, with: l command stand, 3 engineer stands Notes 1. Deployment: There were six Engineer Special Brigades. The units served in the following theatres: 1st Brigade-the Italian, Normandy and Okinawa campaigns, 2nd Brigade-Southwest Pacific and Philippines cam­paigns. 3rd and 4th Brigades in the Southwest Pacific, 5th and 6th Brigades­Normandy and Western Europe. In the Normandy campaign the 5th and 6th Brigades were paired under the Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, which landed on Omaha Beach. Following Omaha the 5th and 6th were disbanded. 2. Employment: Individual Engineer Boat and Shore Regiments were often used to support an individual division's landings. A boat company typically can transport an entire Battalion Landing Team. The Shore Battalion troops are used as the core of the shore party for unloading landing craft. These units are often supplemented with reserve infantry battalions and additional engineer troops, both combat and general service units. 3. Support Units: The quartermaster, signals, medical, near shore com­pany and boat maintenance units will almost never be present on a battlefield. These units are usually located at the port of embarkation until the beachhead is secured. Sources Dod, Karl C. United States Army Operations in World War II, The Technical Services, The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Japan, Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of he Army, Washington D.C. 1966. Stanton, Shelby L., Order of Battle, U.S. Army, World War II, Presidio Press, Novato, CA, 1984. Back to Table of Contents -- Command Post Quarterly # 8 To Command Post Quarterly List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Greg Novak. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com