Greetings from Missouri

Woohoo for MO! Love the place. Five years and counting.

 

SymphonicPoet you are the closest. I 'm from Centralia.

 

Welcome - there are quite a few people here who will be able to help so you have come to the right place.

 

Hello buk2112, Im also from Mo, Grew up in Knox Co, Now in the Springfield area, MY father Ralph W Richardson served in the 292nd Combat Engineer Co A as a truck driver. The 292nd was in the 9th army, they arrived in Merkstein Germany Dec 23 1944 under fire, during the war they built bridges, crossed the Roer river with the 84th infanty, spearheaded with the 5th armored div, attempted to cross the Elbe river april 13 1945 but was turned back by enemy fire, they met the russian army at Osterberg Germany april 15 1945, they built prison camps for the S.S. troops and built camp Top Hat a staging area for U.S. troops. If you are interrested I have the names of many of the men who served in the 292nd and a map that shows where and when they went. rwrich51

 

Thanks so much for your reply. Yes I would very much be interested in the info that you have. My grandfather passed away when I was 10 years old, so I was never able to talk to him about his WWII experiences. I am familiar with the map that you mentioned, although I do not have a copy myself. Thanks again.

buk2112

 

Give me a few days to have some copies made and I will send them to you. My father told me about riding home on a bus from Jefferson Barracks with a man named Clark and that the got off before he did but he did'nt remeber where. I would bet this was your grandfather but no way of knowing for sure. rwrich51

 

Ah yes, Centralia. Lovely town. I have some friends up there. Looking foward to a certain dinner train that's supposed to be linking our two towns in the near future.

 

Folks,

I realize this is a bit of an old thread. However, as a new user, I found these posts and as a grandson of a 292nd Engineer, H&S Co. veteran I thought I'd jump in. Finding much information on the unit has definitely been difficult. Bakcground: My Grandfather, Randall Gates, volunteered for the Army at the beginning of 1944 despite the fact he had four young sons to support and being in his med-30's. He came to Europe in Dec of 1944 with the rest of the unit as a mechanic (he was an auto mechanic in civilian life). We have letters that he sent home giving us some info on his service (subject to censoring) and was injured twice, once in a truck accident and once in the bombing of a building that he was in.

I would be interested in any information that anyone may have on the unit and would welcome the chance to exchange anything that I and my siblings may have (from my grandfather's letters). I am so happy that there are others searching for info on this little documented unit and the men who were assigned to it.

I am so thankful to have found this forum and this thread and for the honor to be able to post and contribute. Thanks

 

Sure glad to have you aboard sirgator!

It is awesome to make contact with family of another 292nd soldier, you are just the second I have come across.The first was rwrich51 who replied to this thread right after I joined. His father and my grandfather both were from Missouri and both served in Co. A of the 292nd. rwrich51 and I have met in person once a few years ago and we keep in e-mail contact sharing info, photos etc. I think it is a safe bet to say that we have more info on the 292nd than anyone, so you certainly have come to the right place. We have acquired the Unit Journals, After Action Reports, and History of the 292nd from the National Archives, totaling around 250 pages of documents. I have been to the NPRC in St. Louis and examined and copied many Morning Reports of Co. A, and we have numerous photos, letters etc. from our personal collections. I will absolutely be glad to share everything I have about the 292nd with you, and look forward to what you may have to share in return. I am going to send an e-mail to rwrich51 telling him about you since he is not active on the forum. Nice to meet you sirgator, have a good one!

 

My friend,

Thanks very kindly for your reply. I would love any info that you might be able to offer either as paper documents or digital and would be more than willing to send along payment for any costs that you may have if material are forwarded. I would truly love to here from your other from rwrich51 and would be willing to forward an email to the both of you for a more direct contact method. I discovered on another forum within the last few days another guy whose father was also in the H&S company of the 292nd. His father took many photos which he has since scanned and uploaded to Flickr. After scanning though them I believe I have found one that has my grandfather, "the motorpool gang", which was undescribable when I saw it. here is the link to his posting which contains the Flickr link:

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/engforum/index.php?showtopic=8285

Have a great one and look forward to the exchange of converstion and materials in the near future.

 

Welcome

 

You are my "Ace" and Thanks for the Welcome!

 

Welcome to the Forum, Gary.

 

Hey Gary,

It will take me some time to forward the documents to you but I'll make sure you get them. I have not digitized them but it maybe the way to go since there may be others wanting them. I have e-mailed rwrich51 but have not heard back from him yet. I'm sure he wouldn't mind but I would like to ask him before I give out his e-mail address. I'm sending you a PM giving you my e-mail address in case you would like to communicate in that way. Thanks for the link to the awesome photos, it's great most all of them are labeled with names and locations. I have quite a few of my grandfather's war time photos but few of them are labeled, leaves ya asking more questions. The photo I use as my avatar is an example of this, it is of my grandfather posing with his Thompson but date and location are unknown, would be nice know. A story you may find interesting about this photo is that when rwrich51 saw it he immediately recognized it as a similar photo to one in his father's collection. I have attached a copy of it below.This photo is not labeled either and it is not of his father but another unknown soldier probably from Co. A. Have a good one Gary, talk you soon.

Randy




View attachment 22823

 

Randy,

Just some food for thought. If you need assistance in getting the documents scanned then let me know. I've ben working on scanning a ton of our family's pictures and documents and have a very high quality scanner to do this with. I would be more than happy to scan anything that you forwrd to me so that others can easily get copies. I found long ago that in these types of historical searches that working with others incencert is the way to get find and gather the most info and be able to dissemninate that info.

You let me know what you think about all of this and I would imagine we'll move our way into email messages eventually to exchange personal info so as to get what you have out to as many as possible. Thanks so much, my friend! You are truly a brother on a similar search to the path that me and my siblings have taken.

 

Thanks so much TD_Tommy for the warm welcome. I look forward to many conversations about similar subjects of interest.