Kilroy was here !

    The 488th Engineer Light Ponton Company was activated at Ft. Jackson, SC as a IX Corps unit of the Second Army in Dec. 20, 1943 under the command of James B. Roberts,2nd Lt., C.E.  Two days later, 1st.Lt. Gordon E. Stubbings assumed command, but on Jan. 1, 1944 he was relieved by 1st Lt. G. W. Lewis.  The transfer of Lt. Lewis on Feb. 9, 1944 assured Lt. Stubbings of permanent command.

    Basic training was nothing new to the majority of the men in the company and everything progressed very smoothly.  The first four weeks saw Light Equipage platoon perfecting its close order drill under the inimitable Sgt. Barton, Headquarters platoon engaging in vigorous calisthenics   under 1st Sgt. Haimowitz, First Bridge platoon "gritting its teeth" and acquiring malapropisms "with a vengeance" from S/Sgt. Osborne and Second Bridge falling out on the double at S/Sgt. McKay's whistle.  Then there were such things as realistic night problems, hikes (enlivened by John Olsowy and his clarinet) creeping and crawling, rifle marksmanship, ten minute breaks and the many other phases of training-- all done, as one platoon sergeant was wont to say, "according to explanation, demonstration and application in the form of P.W. (for practical work) on your part."
    Toward the end of this period, the company moved to the Fort Jackson Range, about 35 miles from the main camp and after a formation which if it bore any    resemblance to reveille, was purely accidental and an admonition from   S/Sgt. Osborne to avoid any repetition of such a "fiasco" settled down to three days of practice and qualification firing, which was interrupted occasionally by a southern-twanged voice emanating from the Range Officer's tower declaring, "There's no alibi run for that. That's an improperly assembled rifle!"  After the pits had been cleaned up, the area policed for brass and of course the rifles properly assembled, a check on the scores showed that the results were very satisfactory and that Wayne N. Morgan was the best shot in the outfit.
    Now began the period of Engineer training and M/Sgt.White known in some circles as "Little Six" and in others as "Little J...," came into his own.  Explosives and demolition's, rigging, mine technique, road construction and the intricacies of bridging were the principal items on the training schedule for the remaining 9 weeks of basic training.
  The confusion resulting from the new terminology with which the men had to become familiar chess, balk, transom, duck board, bowline, trestle, sway bracing, bent, abutment, saddle and decking to name a few, was soon dissipated and the shop talk of the pontoneers began to resemble the remarks of Engineers of long standing.  With this came confidence and a hue and cry to stop "dry running" and begin the actual building of bridges. .........After the period of dry land construction the company moved to Twin Lakes on the camp reservation....... A bivouac area was set up and for two weeks in the early summer the cry "Construct the bridge" rent the air at least once a day.  Aluminum ponton bridges, pneumatic float bridges and infantry support rafts were built day after day and no sooner were they completed,  than the order came "Dismantle the bridge".  August 2nd saw the first contingent of furloughees leave for ten days plus travel time but for the remainder of the company maneuvers were in store.  From the 13th to the 24th of the month the Broad River and Sumpter National Park were the scenes of 488th activity, chiefly in the form of tactical ferrying operations.  Two ferries were 
operated twenty four hours a day.  In a three day period, three combat battalions and several other Engineer units with vehicles ranging from jeeps to trailer mounted bulldozers were ferried across the river.........Hamlet NC and the Pee Dee River was the Company's  next destination as 50 of its vehicles loaded with bridging equip. left Fort Jackson on Sept. 3.  Assigned to the XXII Corps, the role of the 488th in these maneuvers to Combat Battalions and the maintenance of the bridges which they constructed....... The 488th was relieved of assignment to IX Corps and assigned to XXIII Corps, Fourth Army on Sept. 24,..... The change in Corps assignments bringing with it the mission of testing new Engineer equipment necessitated a move to Camp Polk, LA.......Twin Lakes Ft. Jackson  ( Just like a day at the Beach)
 
 
 

    The first days at Camp Polk saw the rumor factory going full blast but when the bumper marking on the vehicles was changed to 1944-E everyone was stymied.  The first duty assigned the company was the transportation of divisional bridge equipment from Baton Rouge to the camp, and to this end, Lt. Wilson and 55 men left for the depot on Oct. 11 and returned on the 14th.  Original plans had been that the 488th would work in conjunction with the 550th Heavy Ponton Battalion, but it was soon obvious that the company's assistance would not be necessary.  Accordingly the outfit was given the task working with a new army cableway designed for mountain use and testing its practicability...................  The recreational facilities a Leesville, the nearest town to camp, were vastly inadequate, so the company took to the open road, with Lake Charles, LA and Beaumont, Texas becoming  favorite weekend spots.  The gumbo mud was an ever present problem and the frequent inspections of the company area by visiting officers coupled with the daily inspections of the company officers, necessitated a daily scrubbing of the floors.
    Then came the preparatory overseas movement order, the alert, followed by weeks of waterproofing, packing, crating        and marking of equipment of which there were 3,000 packages; construction of Bailey bridges; orientations on security and life overseas;   preparation for a visit by the Inspector General, for which purpose Lt. Col. Mebis spent considerable time in coaching the company, especially in the correct method of saluting!............. In the late afternoon of Dec. 23, the 488th held its last formation at Camp Polk.    Captain Stubbings addressing the company which was uniformed in complete combat gear declared "Well Men This Is It!" The company looks darn good and I only wish that each of you could come out here and see for yourself!"    A few hours later the unit entrained and started on its way to the New York Port of Embarkation.................

he pontoneers climbed the gang plank to the vessel that was to carry them to the E.T.O.....The ship, one of the largest American owned vessels then engaged on duty in the Atlantic, remained at dock until the morning of the 3rd...........The constant conjecture as to the destination, with England favored, was settled when the Jan. 13 edition of the ships paper announced that the Brazil would land at Le Havre, France.

       ( The Cigarette Camps of World War II Web Page )

    The Aerial photo taken by the 540th Photorecon Squadron on August 27, 1945 shows Camp Lucky Strike as it was when the 488th was at Camp 20 Grand and about to move on to Holland.    In an enlargement of this picture some types of equipment shows up along the run way taxi areas, and very well may be the floating ponton bridging which the 488th brought from the states in January 1945.  After picking up Bailey bridging we left the old floating bridge setting on that runway and as far as I know it could still be there.
  Lady Luck once more smiled on the 488th here.  Even though we bitched and complained about the cold ride to Lucky strike in open cattle type, semi-trailer trucks, during the wee hours of a cold wintry night, it could have been worse.
        Other units that had come to Europe in the same Convoy  were a day later transported to Camp Lucky Strike by train from Le Havre to Saint-Valery-en-Caux.  When the train arrived at the Saint Valery terminal it never slowed down and plowed right through the station.       We of the 488th first learned of this event a day later when some GI trucks stopped at the tent area next to ours and unloaded several piles of duffle bags, bed rolls and other beat up and bloody gear but few if any troops.  Thus we learned that this unit had been on that train and what had happened.

        Just yesterday (08/02/2000), checking the Cigarette Camp page  I found linked a French web page on
Lucky Strike by   Frederic Briere Camp Lucky Strike, Saint-Valery-en-Caux .

        The two pictures above were shown on this page and generated my remembrance of this event.  Though written in French I can decipher that it mentions 53 being killed and 200 or more injured.  The speed of this train and the violence of the collision with the RR station is apparent from the earlier photo on the left which shows the
40 and 8 box cars through the roof and on the second floor of the station.   The photo on the right taken later after some of the debris was cleared and clearly shows the extent of the force and the violence of this collision.

    Imagine my surprise when I received my January 2002 issue of The World War II magazine and the on the Cover was Troop Train Tragedy at St. Valery.  I read this article, naturally, with a great deal of interest and learned that the Author was Russell C. Eustice who as a Medical Officer with the 134th Evacuation Hospital, and his unit had traveled to Le Havre on the troop ship U.S.S. Henry Gibbons was in the same convoy as the 488th which was on the U.S.S. Brazil.  His unit like ours was fortunate to have been transported to Camp Lucky Strike, in the wee hours, on the open, cold breezy, cattle car like semi trailer trucks, as we were.  He and his unit however were called back out to serve at the scene of the train wreck in St. Valery and to make it more traumatic, many of the units that were on the Henry Gibbons with them were involved in the train wreck.
    I wrote to Mr. Eustice, including copy's of this page from the 488th web site.  Just yesterday I had a very nice letter from Mr. Eustice and he included a, much appreciated,  unabridged copy of his original booklet entitled The Train Wreck at Saint Valery.   I find it very informative and it sheds light on a small facet of WW II history that was unfortunately engulfed and lost in the big picture.  As he points out, some veterans who were injured in this tragic wreck have been denied treatment at the United States Veteran's Administration Hospitals in recent years on the basis that "There was no train wreck involving U. S. soldiers at St.Valery.  It never happened."

                                                                                                                                January 18, 2002

Mr. James P. Autenrith
18 Grant Street
Potsdam,  NY    13676

Dear Mr. Gates

    Russell Eustice sent me your address after you wrote him about the article in the W.W.II Magazine.  That was interesting to learn that you had gone across in the same convoy with our 1471st Engineers.  Was your ship, the Brazil the one that hit the mine going into the harbor at LeHavre?  We were just behind the ship when it hit the mine so I thought it might have been yours.   I remember seeing a soldier blown off the rear of the ship from the force of the explosion but they got him out o.k.
    You were fortunate that you got to Lucky Strike by truck!  We were on the train that cracked up at St. Valery and three of our men were killed, one in my own section, and many others were injured.  The boxcar I was in was just behind the ones that were totally demolished so we were very lucky that day.
    A man named Condino or Contino from Carthage, NY, was in the 782nd Tank Bn., that was on the train with us.   I tried to get in touch with him before our last reunion to try to get some more stories as his outfit suffered many losses, but he died before I could talk to him.
    My company has had three reunions in recent years but we waited to long to get together and a number of our men have passed away.  We met in Savannah last spring and will have our next reunion in Baltimore in 2003.  We always have a great time together.
    We went from Lucky Strike to an old chateau near Rouen,  all our equipment was supposed to come in at Antwerp but we did not get fully equipped until March when we went to Germany with the 7th Army.  At the end of the war we were in Marseilles expecting to be sent to the Far East so fortunately we didn't have to go over there.  I went back to Germany for a few months as a Chaplain's assistant at 7th Army HQ and got to play the organ at General Patton's funeral before returning to the U.S.  I am now retired after teaching music at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam.   I would be interested in hearing about any of your experiences with the 7th Army so maybe we can get together some time.
                                                                                        Sincerely
                                                                                    Jim Autenrith

   I just finished reading the History of the 488th. It was very interesting. I too am caught up in the train wreck at St valery. My father was killed in the accident. He was a member of the 553rd Ambalance Company (MTR) There was 33 of the 553rd killed in the wreck. Every time I look at the photo of the wreck with all of the 40 & 8s piled up I can almost feel my fathers presence. You see he was in one of the first 4 cars and was I'm sure under that pile some place.
   I have met and got to know Mr. Eustice quite well,he and I have attended some of the reunions of units that were on the train when it wrecked. The unit's were the 782nd Tank BN and the 1471st Engr Co. It was great to meet people that were on the train and the same ship,the Gibbons. My father  was a guitar player and did play on the ship. I had hoped to find some one who remembered him. I haven't had any luck so far. I did find my fathers Commanding Officer a fine gentleman that lives just west of Chicago,IL His name is Dan Polich.My fathers name is Ivory Carl Baker,he was a driver in the 553rd.
   Another item of interest is a book I located that has a mention of the wreck. It was written by a DR George G. Ritchie. He was in the 123rd Evac Hosp that was also on the Brazil with your unit. The book is titled Return from Tomorrow.
   Again I enjoyed the reading of your units History and thanks for all you did for us during those troubled times.
 

The area to which the 488th was assigned, B-19 was at first
nothing but a snow covered stretch of ground on which squad tents had been erected.  The men were cold, tired and hungry but cots had to be assembled, stoves set up and fuel procured before they could rest.  The heat from the stoves served to thaw the dirt floors and transform them into ankle deep mud. To remedy this gravel was hauled in pails, steel helmets and any other container that could be found.  The paths leading through the rows of tents were also graveled and the situation was beginning to improve.  By the time the company departed for the front most of the tents had wooden floors and doors, shelves and cabinets, a softball diamond, volleyball and basketball courts had been constructed; day room and theater tents had been set up; a company newspaper, The Panel was being published weekly under the editorship of Alvin Davis; and electricity had been provided, all of which is living proof of the ability of the G.I. to adapt himself even in the most adverse conditions and to strive constantly for improvement............ Twenty four hour passes were available to LeHavre, Rouen, Fecamp and Yvetot.    Since bathing facilities at camp were non existent, one of the first places visited by men on pass was the Red Cross shower room.  Perhaps the next most popular spot was the Hotel Metropole in Rouen, where for a price just about anything could be obtained.  It was also while on pass that most of the men had their first experiences with French wines, cognac, calvados and benedictine.  After the arrival of the stock of Bailey bridge a training schedule was put into operation.   Including machine gun classes under Sgt. Campbell, bulldozer operation taught by McCollum and Weir, outboard motor maintenance and repair under the supervision of Cpl. Burke and George White and French classes under the tutelage of Sgt. Walsh Grunes and Capen, this program was halted by the receipt of orders to "move up" ........   The following day after spending the night at Rheims the company acting under new orders, moved through Luneville to Thal, a few kilometers south of Saverne.

 Thal, a poor but hospitable Alsatian village of less than 1,000 inhabitants billeted the 488th putting two or three men to a house..........Here at the foot of the ancient, scarred Vosges Mountains the pontoneers heard their first bursts of distant shellfire and from here operations were initiated. 
    The tactical situation at this time found the 103rd (Cactus) Infantry Division camped along the Moder River from Pfaffenhoffen to Rothbach.  On the 15th of March when VI Corps components of the 36th & 44th Infantry and 4th Armored Divisions jumped off in their famous northward slash, the 488th was already working with other Engineer units and 103rd dough's had crossed the Moder over 488th and - 2827 Bailey in the eastern outskirts of Pfaffenhoffen to the accompaniment of a tremendous artillery barrage.
    The plan of the overall VI Corps attack was to crack the strong German Moder position in the passage between the Haguenau Forest and the Hardt Mountains.  This was to be followed by a quick thrust to the Siegfried Line and the outflanking of this formidable defense in the Wissembourg gap, to be accomplished by a powerful sweep through the Hardt Mountains where the enemy defenses were weakest.
In the first ten days of the offensive, sixteen Bailey bridges were constructed along the VI Corps front.  Trains (truck convoys loaded with bridging were called Trains, don't ask my why, this was the Army)  of the 488th, the only Bailey convoys in the Corps, in support of both the 36th and 103rd Divisions, hauled bridge to every site from Pfaffenhoffen through Haguenau and Wissembourg to Landau in Germany.
    The first train to move out was composed of men from every platoon under the command of Lt. Barney H. Wilson.  Departing from Thal on March 15, and proceeding to Pfaffenhoffen the convoy encountered intense enemy artillery fire.  The trucks which were dispersed in the vicinity of the railroad station were sprayed with shrapnel and both Franzt's and Pracht's trucks were badly damaged.  The convoy remained here until the early morning of March 17.  At 0230 hours as a task force member the 488th and a platoon of the 2827 Engineer Combat Battalion, spotted well forward in an armored column, proceeded to the little town of Gunstett.  A long blackout drive over secondary roads strewn with the debris of war brought the convoy to its destination just as dawn was breaking.  The road, a draw cut through the crest of a hill, provided a certain degree of concealment for the men and the vehicles.  On a high ridge across the valley on the right, Jerry artillery was active and from the position of the convoy the constant shelling of the bridge site was clearly visible.  Infantrymen, Engineers and Signal Corps men were dug in on both sides of the road leading into town.  Hightowers truck had become bogged down fender deep in mud in the valley directly in front of the enemy held ridge but it was decided to let it remain there for a few hours until things had quieted down.  About 0900 Hanthorn's and Hockmans trucks were taken down into the valley to assist in the retrieval.   It was a difficult task and it was expected that shells would begin to blast the area since it was within enemy observation.  Fortunately it was not until the truck had been towed out that German artillery got the range.  Just as the truck reached the road a shell landed within ten yards of the spot which had just been evacuated............Now that Jerry had turned his fire in the direction of the convoy everyone dug in and spent the rest of the morning in foxholes.
    At noon the convoy moved to Eberbach to eat cold oatmeal and scrambled eggs, the first food in eighteen hours.  After the battle for Gunstett, in which the Engineers had doubled as infantry, had ended it was found that a treadway bridge was better suited for this site.  In the early morning of March 16th, after a hearty meal of K rations, the train moved through burning town of Zitzendorf to Nifferen, the scene of a tank battle a few hours earlier.   It was here that the Light Equipagers had their first view of combat casualties.  Noon saw the convoy at Uhrwiller with the front just a few hundred yards away.  At 1800 orders were received that a bridge was needed at Gumbrechtshoffen.  Reaching the site at 2200 the convoy found that much of the area had been mined, that snipers were still active, and that 88s were hitting the far side of the town.  Aided by the light of the burning buildings the Engineers worked steadily and completed the bridge at 0400...........
  Still another convoy under Sgt. Hoelzle rolled to Pffanenhoffen on March 17.  This town which had been lost by the Germans a few days earlier and which they were intent on recapturing proved mighty hot for the First and Second Bridge men composing this train.  By 0700 on the 18th the Jerries had been forced to with draw, leaving only rear guard defenses and the shelling which had been almost constant finally abated.   Then on the 19th Hoezels convoy and one platoon of the 2827 Engineers, with the mission or erecting another bridge across the Moder, encountered pointblank artillery fire and were forced to withdraw from the site until the enemy positions had been eliminated.   Before this was accomplished three "Seahorse" Engineers  had been killed.
    German Artillery was not the only enemy activity to make this bridge difficult since Jerry planes twice strafed this site.     A few days later this same convoy met rough going a Wissembourg at the door of the Siefried line.        Lloyd (Buckshot) Stom,    Lloyd told me this was one of the few times in his life, when he was tickled to be short.   In that he had to sit on a cushion to see out and those 88 fragments went into the seat below.     American planes piloted by the Luftwaffe, periodically bombed and strafed the town.  The bridge was constructed the next day.  Then on through Bergzabern for a short stay at Annwiller, followed by a move to Germersheim on the Rhine.  At 2200 the trucks headed for the river and after coming within 200 yards were turned around and brought back into town.  It had not been planned to erect a bridge there and this action was merely a ruse to divert attention from the actual site of the bridge, proved successful.  Enemy artillery began to bombard the town just as the last 488th truck departed for company hq. at Schifferstadt.  One of the most difficult bridges in 488th experience was erected at Merzwiller on the 17th.  A mongrel convoy was impeded by German Artillery which had zeroed in on the site and by small arms fire which was pouring down from the entrenchment's on the heights overlooking the Zinsel.  Casualties that night were comparatively heavy............... On March 23, while the Company was still in bivouac it was assigned a role in the Rhine River crossing.  In addition to the decoy bridge at Germersheim this other phase brought two groups of motorboat specialists into action.  The first of these groups composed of Sgt. Jandrinski, George White, Kay, McCauley, Glass, Hanthorne and Hightower went directly to an outpost on a canal which cut into the Rhine and ran parallel to the river for the greater part of its five mile length.  Several trips were made up and down this canal in a motorpowered assault   boat in an unsucessfull attempt to draw fire.
    At 1700 on the 28th operations were resumed with White and McCauley transporting a machine gun section across the canal.  At 2300 a ten man infantry patrol in a 488th assault boat set out to cross the Rhine under the covering fire of the machine guns which had been set up at vantage points earlier in the evening.  After paddling since absolute silence was necessary to the junction of the canal and the Rhine they encountered machine gun and burp gun fire from the far shore.  This fire was so concentrated that the mission had to be canceled and the men returned to the company.
    The other group Cpl. Burke, Wachenheim. Lazewski, Shuman, Ashe and Dubie employed utility power boats to assist crews of the 364th Combat Battalion and the 1051st Port Engineers in obtaining measurements of the piers and estimates of the damage done by the Germans in blowing the bridge at this point.  In the afternoon Laszewski's boat became entangled in a mine cable he and his crew were thrown into the water.  Laszewski and an Engineer Major caught on the cable were subjected to machine gun fire but were finally rescued by an A.A. duck which was also engaged in the operation.  The following morning Burke and Dubie after the construction of an assault boat ponton, to which an outboard motor was attached instituted a personnel ferry service and reconnoitered the river as far upstream as Mannheim.
    At about this time, reorganization of the Bailey trains was effected, with the object of having a convoy from each platoon.  Each of these trains was assigned to a different unit and followed different prongs of each offensive.  For that reason it has been decided to treat the experiences of each train separately.

---

    The chief activity however centered about the resumption of a sports program.  With the assistance of the unit's engineer equipment, a few docile germans and excellent cooperation from all members another Engineer Bowl was built.
.    In the pastoral beauty of Obberammergau at the foot of the Bavarian  Alps a beautiful stadium,complete with stands and players benches was constructed.  The baseball began in earnest real dyed in the wool American sandlot stuff.  George Carr did a very fine job in arranging schedules, compiling averages and many other directorial details. ..........But as all good things must come to an end the company's stay Oberammergau was no exception.  On June 26 the entire unit, its vehicles once more loaded with Bailey, started on the return trip to France.  The trip over many of the same roads that the company had traveled in its eastward movement, was uneventful.  Rain was an almost constantly present source of discomfort and the overnight stops at Ansbach, Kaiserlautern and Soissons will long be remembered.
           Oberammergau,   Sat.  Nite  -- Lts.  Childs,  Robinson,  Roberts,   Wilson & Capt. Stubbings
.
.
.

AND 

  The hope of redeployment via the States to which some of the men had clung, was voided shortly after the 488th re-established it's Hq. at Camp Lucky Strike.  The company's fleet of trucks proved to be its undoing and from July 2nd until 23rd the drivers were busily engaged in hauling construction supplies in and around the installation.  Living conditions had improved but slightly since the company's previous stay at he camp and the lack of facilities remained acute.  Camp Twenty Grand located at Duclair was the next home of the 488th............ The new company area was  ideal, a hard surface lot on which new tents were erected and the company found recreational facilities here a vast improvement over Lucky Strike.  Rouen a scant ten miles distant soon developed quite an attraction for many men in the company.  (Scuttlebutt, later confirmed, had it that the 488th was to ship out to Burma via: the Suez Canal, there to stage for the anticipated invasion of Japan.)
    At about this time however, developments in the Pacific war had taken an unexpected turn.  Word of the atomic bomb and the devastation it had wrought was viewed as the death knell of Japanese resistance and the word unconditional surrender was anxiously awaited day after day.
    On August 15, when word was received of the willingness of Japan to comply with the terms of the Potsdam ultimatum, the company realizing full well that it would not now see service in the Pacific was preparing for another move.......  

    The trip from Camp Twenty Grand to a destination supposedly at Maastricht, Holland ended on Aug.. 18, when the company moved into a four story factory building at Roermond, Holland...... The 488th was attached for operations to the 1254 Engineer Combat Battalion and the operations consisted of the removal and transportation to the Port of Antwerp the gasoline and oil pipelines, which had been laid on the ground across Europe during hostilities.  These pipelines were complete with pumping stations that among other things had prefab buildings complete with kitchens etc. which in some cases were used as hotels during this operation. Within a few days all three line platoons were dispatched to various points in Holland and Belgium and the work was soon underway.

   Upon leaving Camp Twenty Grand the unit embarked upon a completely new phase of military existence.  The war with Japan was over, things were in a state of flux.  As operations gradually came to a standstill, the much discussed point system laboriously creaking was put into effect and soon men were on the move.        John Hicks who submitted this picture claims the reason for all the empty bottles was that just that day they all had signed up for local adopt a highway program at Fort Jackson.   If you buy that I've got a Bridge across the St. Lawrence at the 1,000 Islands to sell you!!      (The point system, was based on seniority, in that it was based on months of service with overseas duty weighing more heavily.  Also points for various medals being counted, for instance I recall a Purple Heart being worth 5 points. The magic number was 50 with all under that allegedly to be assigned to the   Army of occupation for a least a year.  Most of my group, i.e. the youngest had about 45, causing some wonderment if it was to late to pick up a Purple Heart some way.)   In time there was a gradual trickle of men departing for the Zone of the Interior.    It was instantly apparent upon arrival in Roermond that there was little opportunity for recreation and entertainment.  Captain Stubbings with the yeoman assistance from Lt. Childs and M/Sgt. White organized and enlisted men's club and the necessary building was secured an orchestra was hired, beverages purchased and appropriate personnel to operate the club were molded into the Entertainment Committee.  Among this group were all first three graders, bartenders and maintenance personnel.................

    The change did not come as too great a surprise as it dovetailed with the current trend of adhering strictly to point scores, even to the extent of disbanding units.  That the 488th as a unit was in its waning days was a foregone conclusion.  It was now only a matter of time.   On Nov. 8, 1945 the company made the move to Maastricht setting up headquarters at the Juvenaat Der Broeders, a Catholic Boys School............ Some men were transferred to units slated for the occupational army and the long awaited break up order arrived on Nov. 14.
    All that remained now was the administration of transferred personal.  One hundred and thirty two men  were transferred to the 38th Engineer Service Service Regiment and the remaining men all sixty pointers were shipped to the 89th Division for the return home.  On Nov. 16, eighty four men were sent to the 38th, where they were further assigned to various companies within the command  The balance of the men with the exception of a skeleton close out force were dispatched to their new stations on Nov. 20.  Lt. Radice formally turned over the company's organizational records to port authorities at Le Havre, France on Nov.21st.
        The close out force busy with last minute details, completed its task on Nov. 24, thus bringing to a close and spelling finis to the 488th Engineer Light Ponton Company as a tactical unit.  The name of the company was utilized as a carrier designation, shipping 290 enlisted men and two officers from Le Havre to the United States on Nov. 25th.  Not one man of the original 488th was present for embarkation......................  

HOME PAGE