Unit 3, quartered in Grand Lanaye (population 500), had the closest contact with the civilian population. As Lieutenant Commander Leide euphemistically noted, “although it could not be classed as naval work, it was an outlet for the energies of the personnel and did much to develop petty officers.” 4 The sailors of Unit 2 painted 15,000 road signs and loaded barbed wire on flatcars.

Unit 3 was on standby for a Roer operation from 21 November to 21 December. Unit 1 was put on alert for a move to the Roer River on 6 February-an alert that lasted until 28 February before it was canceled. Enemy tanks drove to within 11 miles of Unit 1’s base, forcing the American bluejackets to evacuate “as a safety measure.” 3Īnother source of frustration were false alarms. The 16 December German offensive into Belgium and Luxembourg that became known as the Battle of the Bulge disrupted the instruction. The Army considered a water span of several hundred yards an interminable crossing. Their boats-wooden craft generally with a capacity of 16 men and a crew of 3 and rubber boats that could ferry 12 men-could only accommodate infantry and were powered by paddles or 22-hp outboard engines. The engineer battalions were the Army’s major resource for river crossings, operating assault boats, and constructing bridges. Unit 1 dispatched three-man teams to teach the Army’s 1120th Engineer Combat Group basic seamanship skills such as knot tying, splicing, and small-boat handling. The boat units thus settled into their bases for what proved to be a long and frustrating winter spent in training and performing a variety of other activities. But as the Allied advance outran its supplies and the weather deteriorated, it became clear that the Navy’s services would not be immediately required. Initially there was a sense of urgency, as a Rhine operation seemed imminent. Assigned to the First Army, it worked to develop “suitable methods of transporting and launching the boats under conditions similar to those expected on the Rhine River.” 2 Unit 2, attached to the Third Army, crossed on 10 November and headed for Toul, France, 50 miles south of Metz on the Moselle River, while Unit 3, assigned to the Ninth Army, landed in France on 9 November and ended up in Grand Lanaye, five miles from Maastricht, Netherlands, on the Maas (lower Meuse) River. Unit 1 crossed the English Channel on 14 October and was trucked from Le Havre to Andenne, Belgium, a town on the Meuse River. Ayers (until 3 December, when he was seriously injured in an automobile accident and replaced by Lieutenant Commander Willard T. Unit 2, commanded by Lieutenant Commander William Leide, and Unit 3, under Lieutenant Commander Willard W. In addition to LCVPs, Wenker commanded a mobile repair, or E-9, unit and a “housekeeping group” of assorted personnel such as cooks, radiomen, drivers, barber, and pharmacist’s mate: in total 11 officers and 153 enlisted men. Task Unit 122.5.1 (Unit 1) was activated on 4 October 1944 in Dartmouth, England, under the command of Lieutenant Wilton Wenker. Three of the group’s task units would be assigned to U.S. Bradley turned to the Navy, which soon organized Task Group 122.5, under the command of Commander William Whiteside.

It was assumed that retreating German troops would destroy the river’s bridges, and Army boats might not be able to safely navigate the Rhine’s swift current.

troops raced across France, Twelfth Army Group commander Lieutenant General Omar Bradley began to contemplate how his forces would cross the Rhine. Arrival on the Continentĭuring the late summer of 1944, as U.S. forces, the possibilities of interservice cooperation, and foresight in putting these large and specialized craft in the right places far from the sea, at the right time, to facilitate the final thrust that brought victory over Germany. Navy’s involvement in breaching this mighty obstruction demonstrated the adaptability of U.S. Now, far from the ocean or English Channel, they were on their way to the Rhine River, the physical and symbolic barrier to the German heartland-broad, swift, and hemmed in by high bluffs for much of its rush from alpine headwaters to the North Sea. These craft were 36-foot LCVPs (landing craft, vehicle, personnel) or 50-foot LCMs (landing craft, mechanized)-boats that had brought U.S.

Boom beach landing craft troops