The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
|
| Previous: Engaru | Table of Contents | Next: Engineers |
U.S. Army. Via Wikimedia Commons
Engineer Special Brigades were U.S. Army engineer units trained and
organized to man the landing
craft required for amphibious
invasions. They
were authorized by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 9 May 1942 and a
training center was activated on 5 June 1942 at Cape Cod. Two brigades
were activated shortly thereafter. By the end of the war, six Engineer
Special Brigades had been activated. The 2,
3
and 4
Engineer Special
Brigades saw extensive service in the Southwest
Pacific under MacArthur,
while the 1
Engineer Special Brigade was initially deployed to Europe and
transferred to the Pacific just in time for the Okinawa campaign.
Each brigade was equipped to transport and land a division. This required a force of
7340 men, 540 LCMs and LCVPs, and 104 command and support
boats.
The Navy regarded the Engineer Special Brigades as an institutional
encroachment on its responsibilities and was persuaded to accept
their activation only with great reluctance, and only because the Navy
already had its hands full in the Pacific and Atlantic. None served
under Nimitz, who
insisted that
landing forces should be brought ashore by Navy or Coast Guard crews.
References
ESB:
Engineer Special Brigade (accessed 2008-6-27)
Morison (1953)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2008-2009, 2011 by Kent G. Budge. Index
