question about world war 2 combat engineers

[Old 44 Guy]

My hat goes off to all the WW2 servicemen. I've known several in all branches of the service but Combat Engineers. One in particular hit Omaha beach DD+ 3. He was a tank retriever driver for Gen. Patton. Never told me what he was armed with however.

 

[bennettfam]

What kind of holster did he use to carry the bulldozer?

I think it was an LST.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

When I was in the 12th Engineer Battalion, 8th Infantry Division 1970-1971 we had M-2 50 Calibers on the APCs, no M-60s, M-14s, then M-16s, M-79s, M1911A1s. In "my" day combat engineers are "officially" employed as part of the "division slice", we supported the 2nd Brigade. In combat units are generally more casual about adhering to the TO&E for small arms, thus in WWII many rifleman would "trade" their M-1 Garand for the lighter and more handier M-1 Carbine. In infantry units in the ETO 1944-45 it was found they needed twice as many automatic weapons as the "official" TO&E called for.