My Father who died in July 2008, served in the combat engineers. They landed in Normandy but fortunately for them, a few days after D-Day.
They made their way across Europe through Holland, Belgium, France, and Germany. They were in occasional combat, even sharp at times but mostly were building roads, bridges etc. until the final 3 months of the war. from then to the end they were right in the thick of it.
I have their official Army history. It is interesting and a couple of things stood out to me. First of all their officers (who my Father described as fine Christian men) were real engineers, not some yahoos out building things.
The most impressive thing to me was how fast the got things done. For instance the history would have an entry such as: Company A and C assigned to build a railway trestle across some river. A few days later there would be another entry. RR trestle complete, Company A assigned to repair road damaged by artillery fire, Company B and C assigned to clear mine field. Each time the job would be done very quickly and they would immediately be given another.
They put several pontoon and other types across various rivers including the Rhine and Elbe. The one across the Rhine was under continuous artillery fire.
Your dad could have served with one of my brothers as he took the same route and spoke of the Germans floating boats loaded with explosives toward one of those bridges so they would shoot at the boats as they drifted down the river. One night a ricochet off the water killed a officer on the other shore and they had to stop the shooting. I would really like to know what information you have on that unit as I have nothing. That brother died in 1985 of kidney failure from high blood pressure.
When he returned he got a job guarding German POWs who were in a camp in western FResno county where they were picking cotton. The camp wasn’t far from our home and I think I have some photos he took of it. Another brother was shot down over Germany and spent 10 months in Stalag III et al. A sister was a Wac and served in a Army hospital in Long Beach and her husband was in a unit of the 9th air force and they built the first P47 airfield on Normandy and many others.