NEW MATERIAL 27 Jul 2006

NEW MATERIAL 27 Jul 2006

The 1054 Engineer, Port Construction and Repair Group consisted entirely of experienced construction stiffs doing the work they knew best, but in uniform and in war. By recruiting the needed specialists directly from industry, a high level of proficiency was attained with a minimum of training and preparation time. In fact, the 1054 and her sister groups may well have set a record by going from recruitment to overseas deployment in less than 4 months.

The 1054 was the 4th of six PC&R Groups created by the Spring of 1943 at Ft Screven on Georgia's Tybee Island. The group was constituted by the War Department on 10 MAR 43 and formally activated 1 APR 43. These groups were the result of an organizational theory that called for small Engineer units that could be combined or recombined and brought forward quickly as needed. Originally planned as 500 men units, these groups were restructured to less than half that size at the behest of Eisenhower and the European Theater generals.

A Port Construction and Repair group consisted of 17 officers and 230 enlisted men divided into a diver section, a shop section, and two dock sections containing the heavy equipment. Administrative functions were incorporated into the dock sections and these units' mail addresses were given as HQ of HQ Co., 105? Engineer, PC&R Gr.  Due to direct recruitment, the personnel had a very high skill level and what training they were given was essentially just enough construction work to let them learn to work together as a group and get the most from the particular equipment they would have. Some cross training of equipment operators was included. The basic military training they received was, according to one commander, "... barely enough ... to make the men recognizable as soldiers."

The real existence, and the work of the 1054th began 19 JUL 43, as soon as the recruited men had arrived at Ft. Screven. Some of this work was in nearby Savannah and the new Camp Stewart because the Tybee Island bridge could not support their heavy equipment. One such job for the 1054th began on the 9th of August and no one shaved 'til the bridge was completed. Army brass was left to soothe their chagrin with the fact the job was completed in less than half their estimated time. The men were back at Ft. Screven, showered and shaved on the afternoon of the 14th. Then began the processing and crating of their equipment, which was completed by 9 SEP 43. On that date, all furloughs were canceled and the group was put on alert to move out. By the 16th, the men had qualified at Camp Stewart on their newly issued M-1 carbines. They then learned they would be the first of the PC&R Groups to deploy to the Pacific instead of the European Theater. More new equipment arrived, including a factory new Quickway crane, and this materiel too, had to be processed and crated for shipment. By the 12th of October, the riggers were in California delivering a load of 1054 materiel. This was the first of three transcontinental trips required to get the group's equipment to the Point of Embarkation. It was during the October equipment moves that the unit was given a change of address from Ft. Screven to a San Francisco APO

With the machinery at Camp Stoneman, at Pittsburg, CA, the men were mustered at Presidio, Monterey for a few days of processing. An incident at the Presidio well illustrates the importance of the port construction groups to the war plans. The commandant over three bases (Ft. Ord, Presidio, and Hunter-Ligget) tried to hold a man 2 days.  In what would normally have been a routine administrative matter, that officer was unable to exercise authority over a 1054 NCO.

The 1054th departed the United States about the 11th of November, sailing on the maiden voyage of the U.S.A.T. Cape Mendocino skippered by Capt. Gregory Cullen. They crossed the equator 22 NOV 43, en route to Brisbane, Australia.

Australian and American troops halted Japanese expansion in southeast New Guinea in November 1942, and for two months the Allies successfully continued pushing the Japanese back. Then Allied ground efforts were shifted eastward to the small islands in Adm. Nimitz' operational area. It was not until October of 43, while 1054 riggers were moving the group's machinery to the California POE, that Allied efforts were again directed to New Guinea and the western Pacific.

When the Group left Brisbane on Christmas day '43, they began an odyssey that would be the most arduous 20 months of their lives. Although censorship and time have obscured most of the details of the group's movements, indications are that the first five months of 1943 were spent at various locations along the north coast of New Guinea. In several locations they had occasion to work with the Aborigines, whom they seemed to like. This collaboration saw men of the 1054 in and out of native villages and being invited to feasts and celebrations.
 
 
 

Celebration held at the departure of Japanese soldiers.

Near the end of May 1944, when operations had carried them to the west end of New Guinea, the group began to experience short break ups  as the sections were moved separately. This had been the conceptual plan behind the small units. Three officers, and 41 men of the 1054, along with 80 attached men were moved to a new location. There is no mention of the name of this island, but this roughly coincides with the taking of Biak.

By July 3rd, some of the group was assembled on an island of the Dutch East Indies, and conditions reached a new low. In addition to working 12 hour shifts around the clock, they were averaging 4 air raids a day and sleeping with their loaded rifles. It was about this time they began using captured Japanese machinery, possibly as replacement for their own equipment losses.

The next island was even worse. Water and conditions were so bad the Army limited the time anyone could could stay on the island. Considering the conditions Pacific soldiers had  to endure, this must have been indescribable.

Air raids continued as they moved through the East Indies. At one place, an AA gun crew had 28 flags painted on the barrel. Eventually, air raids and the incessant noise of artillery subsided, but the pace of work never seemed to change.

The sections of the group that had been scattered about the East Indies were reassembled at Biak at the base that had been built there.  Loaded aboard ship, they left Biak in a storm 1 NOV 44 and crossed the equator 2 hours later, en route to the Philippines. The next day, they had to turn east to Palau to avoid a naval battle. They laid over at Palau one day before heading for Leyte. The 3rd and 4th of November were spent enjoying Navy chow and lots of sleep before landing in the Philippines.

The invasion of Leyte was the largest hostile operation for the 1054, and presaged their biggest jobs of the war, which included the rebuilding of Manilla Harbor and one of the longest docks in the world. The Philippines was the site of some of the fiercest fighting the Group would see. Four officers and eleven men of the 1054 were involved in the first landings, wading ashore at Tacloban. The rest of the unit landed at Dulag in late morning of 5 NOV 44 but had to lay out in the bay all the next day because the action was too hot to take the equipment in. On 7 NOV 44, some sections were moved 20 miles to Tacloban but were caught in a 100 mph gale and spent 8 NOV 44 trying to keep the barge from sinking. The air raids resumed when the storm broke on the 9th, but the equipment was successfully unloaded and work begun.

On 12 NOV 44 a Japanese suicide dive caused 500 causalities but unit designations of the killed and wounded are not known. One dock section was aboard a ship lost to Kamikazis and spent time in the water. The work continued, and a 200 foot pier was completed in 2 days and another started on 15 NOV 44.  An approaching typhoon caused 20 NOV 44 to be spent tying down the equipment. The storm left and work resumed 2 days later, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner with the C. B.'s on 23 NOV 44. Some of the C.B.'s and 1054th men had worked together on civilian construction jobs.

By the end of November, reinforcements brought to Leyte had effectively doubled the US forces on the island. Rain and raids continued around the clock until 28 NOV 44 when the air strikes finally ended. The rain continued unabated 'til 9 DEC 44, when the men got 2 days off with no explanation. A new 142 ft dock was started on 11 DEC 44, and the next day a Zero bombed the dynamite dump killing 35. Work continued 'til Christmas day when the island was declared secure. The 1054 worked half a day on Christmas but was assigned no work until New Years Day.

The first week of 1945 was spent building pontoons, then the group went to nearby White Beach and began construction of a 400 ft. pier. Dock work continued at White Beach, Tacloban, and Dulag 'til mid April when the unit was put to work in the Engineer assembly yard. On 29 APR 45, the 1054th loaded up and sailed to Manilla towed by a Coast Guard tug. Manilla harbor was clogged with 367 sunken Japanese ships, 62 of them in the 1054th's way. Sections of the group worked at Manilla, Subic Bay, and Bataan, suffering sniper fire and night infiltrations right up to the Japanese capitulation in August, when the first sections left for Tokyo.

In spite of the tenacity of the Japanese Army, and the scale of the harbor work, their time in the Philippines was a respite for these men since it was the "first civilized place since Brisbane." They were treated to shows, began to have vegetables and fresh food again, and the work schedules allowed time to visit the towns and relax a bit.

A traditional Christmas dinner for 1944 had been the first big meal since the wild boar feasts in the native villages of New Guinea. Letters from 1944 seem to contain an unusual amount of wistful preoccupation with food, and the men had lost 20 to 40 pounds during the 10 months preceding the Philippine landings.  For most of their time in the western Pacific, the staples of their diet had been Spam and peanut butter. Many of the 1054 vets refused to ever taste them again.

Lt. Turnipseed at Group HQ in Yokohama's Yamashita Park

The group went to Japan piecemeal, the first section going to Tokyo in August, while the last left the Philippines aboard the U.S.S Corvus  in October. The entire group was then assembled in semi permanent headquarters in Yokohama, and fresh troops began replacing the old timers. The last of the original Ft. Screven men came home just in time for Christmas 1945.

It is common for armies to suffer more from disease than battle, and for the 1054th this was exacerbated by fatigue, poor nutrition and work injuries. Hospitalizations exceeded 10% in the first 2 weeks in New Guinea, mostly to dengue fever. Malaria, dengue fever, foot rot, hepatitis, boils and stomach problems beset these men while they suffered broken bones, burns and concussions at round the clock work. Prior to the Philippine landings, half a day off on Easter 1944, was the only rest they got except for the short trips between islands. Although battle casualties are not known, by the end of 1944, total attrition had reached 50 percent, and the original men were beginning to feel like strangers.

In 20 months of war in the SWPA, the 1054 readily set the work records in their ports. In fact, this seemed to be the norm for the early PC&R Groups formed at Ft. Screven. The 1051, 1052, 1053, 1054, 1055, and 1056 had benefited from the special recruitment programs that took journeymen directly from industry. Across the board, these units performed in a manner that "cannot be overvalued." But that special recruitment program began to fail as the pool of available specialists turned out to be smaller than expected. Some civilian construction projects enjoyed a high priority rating, and power projects such as Shasta and Coulee Dams had employment in the thousands. Also, totally unforeseen at the beginning of that recruitment program, the A-bomb development would use construction workers by the tens of thousands. The Hanford Works alone would employ 50,000 people.

Although these early PC&R Groups turned in stellar performances, it came at a cost to the Corps of Engineers. The most highly skilled men were concentrated in a few units, and when the special recruitment program dwindled, skilled people for training and leadership were in short supply. The Corps later concluded more benefit would have been realized by channeling these people into supervisory positions throughout the PC&R groups. The propagation of their knowledge would have resulted in a greater contribution from the units formed later.

As befits an old soldier, the 1054 PC&R Gr. just sort of faded away. Inactivated 20 DEC 1945, the Group was reactivated in June 1949  and saw service in Korea. After participating in the Korean War, it was deactivated then reactivated, renamed, and absorbed into the 2nd Engineer Battalion as the E Bridge Co. Coming full circle, the 1054 Port Construction & Repair Group became the 50th Bridge Co  fifty years after the unshaved recruits built their bridge in Georgia.

1054 PHOTO GALLERY
view photos of  1054 soldiers

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last updated 27 July 2006