This history of the 299th Engineer Battalion(C) covers the twenty-five month period from February 1959 to March 1961. I was assigned to Co. C. during this twenty-five month period. The 299th Engineer Battalion (C) was stationed from 1954 to 1963 at McNair Kaserne in Hoechst, Germany. The town of Hoechst is located west of Frankfurt on the Main River.
In 1960, the Battalion Commander was Lt. Col. Charles V. Pregaldin, Jr. In a July 1960 Organizational Day message, Lt. Col. Pregaldin stated that “the present members of the Battalion have a proud heritage to carry on. We are here in Europe prepared to defend the peace and preserve the democratic way of life for our nation and allies”.
The 299th Engineer Battalion(C) provided direct combat engineer support part of the Fifth (V) U.S. Army Corps and Seventh U.S. Army defensive plan. For the most part, the defensive plan protected West Germany from Communist control East Germany. This was during the Cold War era which lasted from 1945 to 1991. The relationship between the USA and Russia during this period was often tense as reflected by the Russian demands in November 1958 to have US troops leave Berlin by May 1959 and the shooting down of the US U2 spy plane over Soviet territory in May 1960.
The 299th Engineer Battalion (C) had four line companies A through D, and under NATO standardization of the phonetic alphabet, they were known as Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta. The battalion also had a Headquarters Company. The line companies each had four platoons and a company headquarters. Each platoon had four squads. Each squad had an authorized strength of twelve, but seldom exceeded eight or nine soldiers. The specific missions of the 299th Engineer Battalion(C) was oriented to squads consisting of bridge demolition, road cratering, and small-scale minefields. Each squad had their own 2- ton dump truck, but by 1961, the trucks were 5-ton dump trucks. Each pulled a cargo trailer or pole trailer loaded with explosives and ammunition. Company commanders rode in jeeps with trailers and platoon leaders /platoon sergeants rode in ¾ -ton utility trucks with trailers.
At that time, the line company headquarters had two D-6 bulldozers and two front-end loaders. The battalion’s heavy equipment platoon had three additional dozers, several front-end loaders, three road graders, and three truck mounted 20-ton cranes.
The basic weapon was the Garand .30 cal. M1 rifle. The M1 rifle was replaced in 1960 with the M14 rifle, which was similar to the M1 but fired the standard NATO round of 7.62 mm, used magazine of 20- rounds rather than the 8-round clip of the M1. The M14 could fire full or semi-automatic.
In addition to minefield and demolition training related directly to its wartime mission, the battalion trained continuously on the combat engineer mission of building various bridging types…panel, floating, and timber bridges. The battalion trained for its secondary mission to fight as infantry when required. This training occurred in both classrooms at McNair Kaserne and in the field near Frankfurt and at Wildflecken and Grafenworhr, Germany.
Each month, the army underwent military “alerts”. For the most part, the alerts occurred in the middle of the night. The alerts required loading trucks and trailers with explosives and ammunition and traveling to a designed combat fighting location in the field until the alert was over.
In May 1959, an actual “alert” was called where the 299th Engineer Battalion(C) went near the East German border. This alert marked the end of six-month Soviet ultimatum to remove US troops from Berlin and to close military access routes to Berlin. The Soviet threat ended without an attempt to remove troops from Berlin or to close military access routes.
Company size bridge training took place on the Main River near Hanau, Germany and Rhine River near Oppenheim, Germany. Panel Bailey and floating bridges were built on the Main River and floating bridges were built on the Rhine River. Foot bridges were built on Campo Pond near Hanau, Germany.
In August 1959, the 299th Engineer Battalion (C) participated in the panel Bailey bridge competition on the Main River. This participation was in the 37th Engineer Group Annual Bridge Construction Competition. The bridge spanned a 280-foot distance from the shore to an existing bridge pier in the Main River. The battalion constructed 280 feet of double - single (DS) panel Bailey bridge in 11 hours. It did not beat the record of 10 hours. According to Department of the Army, Engineer Field Data manual (FM5-34), over eighty men probably worked on the bridge. Construction of the panel Bailey bridge required two to three teams of six men each to carry panels weighing 577 lbs. each to the bridge site. The panels were then connected at the bridge site to other panels. Once the panels were connected, a D-6 dozer would push the structure to make the crossing. All together about 160 tons of construction material was handled by hand in the 280-foot span. Once the bridge was built, it was then taken down.
In January 1960, the 299th Engineer Battalion(C) played an important support role during large-scale field training winter exercises in “Winter Shield I” near Grafenwoehr, Germany. It was the high point of winter training for the V and VII Corps and the Bundeswehr or German army. It marked the first time that major units of the new German army participated with the United States ground forces in field exercises. “Winter Shield I“ was a test of combat readiness and provided realistic training under simulated combat conditions with emphasis on the role of the individual soldier and small-unit leader. The NATO exercises were under cold and harsh winter conditions and lasted 30 days. The 299th Engineer Battalion(C) built a panel Bailey bridge near Amberg, Germany to bypass German bridges that were not strong enough to carry tanks during “Winter Shield I”.
In May 1960, the 299th Engineer Battalion(C) participated in Operation “Golden Arrow”. The battalion flew in C-130s cargo planes in a training exercise from Frankfurt, Germany to France. The battalion stayed for only a short period of time in France and then returned to Germany.
In the summers of 1959 and 1960, the battalion spent the entire week training together to bridge the Rhine River using Class 60-treadway bridge. The bridge sites used were just south of Oppenheim, Germany. The spans were 1,020 feet. The Rhine River bridging was in July 1959 and June 1960. The weather was generally nice and the bivouacs were dry. All units including the float bridge companies stayed in the bivouac area. At a given time, the convoy of trucks moved to the river. Timing began when the first powered bridge construction boats hit the water and bridge assembly began. It took less than six (6) hours to construct the bridge at this location. The German government permitted full closure of the Rhine River for the military bridge training. The battalion tried to complete the bridge each year by outdoing its previous record, as well as that of its rival battalion, the 317th Engineer Battalion (C) also located at McNair Kaserne and other combat engineering battalions. After the bridge was completed, a few vehicles would make a ceremonial crossing of the bridge and then the bridge would be taken apart. The huge rubber pontoons were deflated and all equipment reloaded onto bridge trucks. In the July 1959 floating bridge competition, Co. C of the 299th Engineer Battalion (C) was notified that it won the floating bridge competition by defeating the Co. A, 9th Engineer Battalion (C) by fifteen (15) minutes.
In the case of the floating bridge, the Class 60 steel treadway were used, which required the use of cranes to place its 15 ft long treadway sections in the river. Companies of the battalion were also trained on the M4T6 aluminum bulk bridge, which required the bulk of the aluminum to be hand- carried onto the bridge. A floating bridge using the M4T6 aluminum bulk was also build during the one week period.
In August and September 1960, the 299th Engineer Battalion(C) built more than 3 miles of General Paul D. Adams perimeter road at Wildflecken, Germany. The survey for this road was done by Co. C in December 1959 and January 1960.
In January 1961, the 299th Engineer Battalion(C) again participated in winter exercises in “Winter Shield II” near Grafenwoehr, Germany. |
