It is not surprising that in WWII the U.S. Army was heavily equipped with engineer troops and equipment.  The Army’s officer corps was highly influenced by the teachings of the Military Academy at West Point, which was in fact the first engineering school in the United States.  Fittingly, the Army focused much of its resources and brains on building a force of engineers in the mid to late 1930’s who would later be a critical element in the ultimate defeat of the Germans and the new and accelerated kind of warfare Hitler and his Generals were waging across Europe.

The primary mission of combat engineers was to KEEP THE ARMIES MOVING TO ATTACK, AND IMPEDING THE ENEMY.

The divisional combat engineer battalions were trained to perform most engineering tasks including: demolitions; obstacle emplacement; fortification; bridge building which included mobile, floating and fixed bridges; mine warfare; and establishing ammunition dumps.   Combat engineers, like Solly, were considered to be elite specialists because they were the ones who got sent in before the larger corps of engineers arrived. (Read more in Menu>About).

Based on the number of photos Solly took of demolished bridges and the dates and drawings on The Map we know Solly’s Engineering outfit was also tasked with dealing with the rubble the Germans left behind for US forces as they withdrew further north into Germany.  The Germans not only destroyed all bridges along every road capable of handling military traffic but left behind ghost patrols, machine gun nests, and minefields to inflict as many casualties on forward moving groups of engineers and other infantry as possible.

In my research I am more interested in the “colors” than the simple facts and I found lots of short films shot by the Army Signal corps of Combat engineers “on the move” during WWII.  For more context, I suggest 4 short reels (a few minutes each) of combat engineers from the months of March-May 1945.  They are either Solly’s army (although I don’t see him) or engineers covering similar terrain as he was at the same time, and place.

Cherbourg / Saint-Lô, start viewing at 1 min. 30 secs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGMMo5uShPU

Search for German personnel in Mechernich, Germany, March 8 1945: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zevYR-4M_r8

River Crossing, Mar 23 1945:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZl9zGHgQNI

In the streets of Koblenz, Germany, Mach 1945:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llAFFg8pZEU