965th Engineer Maintenance Company in WW2

[Johan Willaert]

Looking for all and any info about the above unit, especially its composition and organisation during WW2.

Would like to find out what specialty the different subunits or platoons of this company had.

 

Thanks,

 

Johan

[Johan Willaert]

Would it be correct the say that an Engineer Maintenance Company during WW2 was composed of:

 

*Company HQ

*2 Maintenance Platoons

*1 Contact Platoon

 

I assume the primary mission of the MT platoons would have been maintenance of all Engineer equipment in their zone but what would the primary mission of the contact platoon have been?

[Jeeper704]

Just a guess; supervizing the different tasks they had to perform?

And maybe oversee coordination with other units?

 

Erwin

[Johan Willaert]

Thanks Erwin,

 

Any other ideas?

[Guest anderson150]

John, I have the 965th Company History written by Lt Benjamin Booth, I have over 300 pictures taken by their company photographer. I have identified over 150 soldiers who served in that unit and have located 11 soldiers still with us. Most of the men in there unit came from the New England Area. I also produced a 4 hr long movie based on their company history and the Corp of Engineers. I have also produced several movies of the men who were killed. You can google the name and their tree is on Ancestry.com

 

Lenny

[Military Engineer]

Engineer Maintenance Companies performed 2nd and 3rd echlon maintenance.

[Johan Willaert]

Thanks!

 

Any more ideas on the Contact Platoon?

[Jeeper704]

Have you asked on the Engineer Forum, Johan?

They have a lot of good information on Engineer untis.

 

Erwin

[AAF_Collection]

This is a very interesting subject for me,as I have an album put together by the unit showing their activities from arrival in England through to the end of the war. The album is in the format of a unit history but the pictures are all prints held in the book with photo corners and most are titled on the reverse with details of date and location. The actual text in the book is very limited indeed and I get the impression the album was intended to form the bases for a printed unit history.

 

I thought this album/history was probably a "one off" due to the work it must have taken to compile,but now having read Lenny's post above I wonder if several were in fact produced?. I will add a few of the pictures later.

 

Matt.

[Johan Willaert]

Thanks Matt...

 

Looking forward to seeing some pictures, especially if they show verhicle markings...

[AAF_Collection]

Here you go Johan!. The majority of the 300+ pictures show equipment,but few clearly show the 965th's own vehicle markings,in fact there are more shots of captured German equipment than anything. The shots below do show 965th unit markings,though you might need to enlarge them to get the detail.

 

Matt.

[AAF_Collection]

A couple more shots,no unit marking though.

[P3B RADIOMAN]

My dad is 101 and still here, he was attached to the 965th and was in Cherbourg on the fateful night of Christmas Eve.  He has been recalling many of the details and he has a vivid memory of his time helping the survivors and those that didn’t survive.

Are there resources here I.e. photographs etc. that are available?  He’s the tall guy under the blue arrow below.  Thank you for any information you may have.

His info: PFC Joseph Malloy, Beverly Mass.