112th combat enginner battalion D-Day

USS Thomas Jefferson (APA 30)

 

USS Thomas Jefferson





Normandy Invasion, June 1944. Up the Landing Nets. USS Thomas Jefferson (APA-30), at a British port and “sea taxis”, landing craft, swarm alongside packed with troops. Up the landing nets go its fighters and over the side with Coast Guardsmen giving the boys a hand, June 1944. Official U.S. Coast Guard Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. (2015/5/19).



Various ships and small craft in the harbor at Portland, England, circa 30 April- 5 June 1944. Ships and small craft present include from right to left: LCT(6)-814, LCT(6)-815, LCT(6)-768,LCT(5)-364 and APA-30 Thomas Jefferson at anchor while making preparations for Operations Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, France.
TimeLife. TimeLife_image_16688928, Photographer David Scherman. For personal non-commercial use only.

 

Thanks for this! His name was Cpl Nicholas Morello

 

Oh, sorry, I was replying to the person who started this thread………

But I’ll have a look for your name also

Cheers

 

Other documents which name either the 1121st Engineer Combat Group or the 112th Engineer Combat Battalion








Neptune Operations Plan - TracesOfWar.com

 

A short description of their action at Omaha Beach, 06.06.1944:

At Exit D-3, the Les Moulins draw between Dog Red and Easy Green, the 112th Engineer Combat Battalion commander was killed early on D-day, and the men were pinned down by enemy fire behind a seawall. Even with the assistance of a platoon of the 147th, which came in with most of its equipment during the day, the 112th Battalion was not able to open Exit D-3 until 2000.

Source for the above: Normandy - The Technical Services : Corps of Engineers



The sectors of Omaha beach were given the codenames of Charlie, Dog, Easy, and Fox (west to east). The first wave of landings, scheduled for 0630 at dawn, was to consist of 96 tanks, the Special Engineer Task Force, and eight companies of assault infantry.

The Special Engineer Task Force was comprised of both Army and Navy demolition specialists whose mission was to clear paths through the obstacles in preparation for the remainder of the landing force. The accompanying tanks and assault infantry were to provide covering fire.

Along the beach, a strong current flowed parallel to the coast from west to east at speeds as strong as 5 miles per hour. This caused nearly every team to land further to the east than anticipated. In some cases, in addition to landing in the wrong areas, the teams of engineers landed where no tanks or infantry were able to provide protective fire. The teams, of course, were laden with equipment and explosives. They were often dropped in deep water and weighted down which made them especially dangerous targets. And, since the landings were launched at the beginning of low tide, they found that the tide was already beginning to cover some of the obstacles. But, despite so much lost equipment and a 41 percent casualty rate, the engineers were able to blow six gaps in the obstacles, although many of these could not be properly marked and thus, became useless during high tide.

The infantry landed at the same time and most ran aground well before their intended landing points. As they approached, they could hear the bullets hitting the ramps that had yet to be lowered. Many were weakened from seasickness and once reaching shore, had to cover another 200 yards of open beach until reaching the seawall.

MilitaryHistoryOnline.com - D-Day, Normandy, France June 6, 1944





112TH ECB - HQ - COMMANDING OFFICER: MAJOR WILLIAM A. RICHARDS
112TH ECB - HQ - EXECUTIVE OFFICER
112TH ECB - HQ - S-1:
112TH ECB - HQ - S-2:
112TH ECB - HQ - S-3:
112TH ECB - HQ - S-4:
112TH ECB - HQ - CHAPLAIN:
112TH ECB - HQ & SERV. CO. - COMMANDING OFFICER: CAPTAIN RANDALL EDWARD R
112TH ECB - MEDICAL DET. - COMMANDING OFFICER:
112TH ECB - CO. A - COMMANDING OFFICER: CAPTAIN BAILEY HARRY T
112TH ECB - CO. B - COMMANDING OFFICER: FIRST LIEUTENANT BIENVENU GRANDISON K
112TH ECB - CO. C - COMMANDING OFFICER: FIRST LIEUTENANT GRAHAM LLOYD R

 

Working on this, going thru all my stored records ( I have over 200 GB of data stored)…….and low and behold, I had the “landing table” that shows ALL of the vessels the 112th was on on D Day, here they are in order of “timing”