The Press on to Germany
The advance of the 40th Battalion after the Battle of the Bulge
With back of the Bulge broken, the Allies pressed westward again. Intensive bombardments preceded the fighting advances of the 1st Army into Julich. Linnich, and Neuss. The cities were in ruins.
The 40th went back into Germany via Belgium. First there was the open wire lead from St. Vith, Belgium to Prüm, Germany. Lt. Wood was injured surveying that one by one of the mines left behind the Siegfried line. There was an aerial cable job at Jülich, then an open wire line from the north of Jülich to Eupen-Gladbach.
An article on the 40th Battalion from the Pittsburgh Courrier – March 7 1945 download this article in PDF
This next open wire job went thirty-two miles from Bad Kreusnach to Wiesbaden. But 1745 feet of that distance was across the Rhine river. A respectable enough job in itself, but also, it was the first wire across the Rhine. The 40th was first again!
Stanley Barriteau of the 40th in Bingen – 1945
From the 10 to the 25 March 1945, the battalion swept a path through the Siegfried Line minefields west of Prüm, Germany to permit the construction of an open wire line. A large number of mines were encountered.
There was some spiral four to be placed around Wiesbaden, work around Koenigsburg and Erlingen, then a thirty mile open wire lead from Frankfurt to Long Gons. The thirty-seven mile open wire job from Ensler to Nuremberg was under way as the war ended. Victory in Europe at last!
Posing at the Siegfried Line – 1945
This, however didn’t stop the Battalion’s activities. They needed to supply further lines all over Germany to support the occupying troops. On the twenty-fifth of May, the battalion was reorganized under a new T/O&E as the 40th Signal Light Construction Battalion.
The 40th at Zeppelinfeld in Nurnberg,Germany – a month earlier, the 163rd Battalion Company had blown the huge swastika off the middle of this building
The next assignment was an open wire lead from Nuremberg towards Munich.
With the core of operations of the European Theatre completed, Allied forces began moving in mass to the French coast for deployment to Asia.
The 40th’s operations in Europe stopped on the 11th June 1945.
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Troop Movements
On, Belgium (B Co) – 18 Jan 45 to 6 Feb 45
Vielsam, Belgium -31 Jan 45 to 10 Mar 45
Bliealf, Germany – 10 Mar 45 to 20 Mar 45
Sasserath, Munchen-Gladbach, Germany – 20 Mar 45 to 30 Mar 45
Bingen, Hessen, Germany – 30 Mar 45 to 20 Apr 45
Rudesheim, Hessen, Germany – 4 Apr 45 to 20 Apr 45
Selingenstad, Germany – 20 Apr 45 to 22 Apr 45
Friedrichsdorf, Germany -22 Apr 45 to 7 May 45
Veitsbrona, Nordbayern, Germany – 7 May 45 to 31 May 45
Schwartzenbruck (Near Nuremberg)Germany – 31 May 45 to 28 June