Excerpt from American Engineers Behind the Battle Lines in France Last December when Mr. Tomlin, formerly managing editor of Engineering News-Record, went to France as war correspondent of the McGraw-Hill engineering publications, he went as a pioneer. No other technical publication in this country was similarly represented at the front, and though he went armed with letters of introduction and the authority of our War Department to get and print whatever the British and French censors deemed proper, there was no certainty that the busy officers directing the great engineering programs would have tune to tell him their stories, or that the censors would permit him to publish them. Mr. Tomlin writes in glowing terms, however, of the full cooperation he has had from officers and censors. Everywhere he has been shown over the work and been given as much information as could be consistently done - and everywhere there has been appreciation of the journalistic need for prompt attention. The first articles, of course, were largely general. The work was just being organized. The first, second and fourth articles are confined to the organization of road building, railway yard and terminal development, and light railway construction, and an outline of some of the problems to be solved, and the third, also in the general preliminary class, relates to the inspection of French quarries by American engineers. In the fifth we first see the engineers actually on construction, in the varied activities of the railway regiment. In the remaining articles, with the exception of that on "Water-supply at the Front in France," which again tells only of the organization and the general problems - we also get details. Besides the views of road building and the light railways at close range, supplementing the first and fourth articles, we have an article on the industrial problems at a shrapnel plant, one on map-making in air and on the ground, one on the construction of an advance depot and two on the work of the army engineer school - which is far in advance of anything of the kind in this country before this year. The articles are here gathered together in book form because of the great interest they have aroused, and the assistance they have rendered army officers engaged in this country in training men for the front. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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George Patton is renowned for his daring tank thrusts and rapid movement, but the many rivers and obstacles his Third Army encountered crossing Europe required engineers spearheading his advance. A Combat Engineer with Patton's Army is the untold story of Frank Lembo, one of Patton's men who helped move the American command in the battle of Argentan in the Normandy Campaign, in the high-speed pursuit of the German Wehrmacht eastward across France, and in the brutal battles waged during the Battle of the Bulge and during the final combats along the borders of the collapsing Reich.Throughout his time in Europe Lembo maintained a running commentary of his experiences with Betty Craig, his fianc� and future wife. This extensive correspondence provides a unique eyewitness view of the life and work of a combat engineer under wartime conditions. As a squad (and later platoon) leader, Frank and his comrades cleared mines, conducted reconnaissance behind enemy lines, built bridges, and performed other tasks necessary to support the movement of the 317th, 318th, and 319th Infantry Regiments of the Blue Ridge Division--Patton's workhorses, if not his glamour boys.Frank wrote about the deadly river crossings at the Moselle, Seille, and Sauer, all under enemy fire, and of the frustrating pauses when supplies were diverted. He participated in the mid-December sprint to Luxembourg and the relief provided at Bastogne during the Bulge, the liberation of concentration camps once Third Army had charged into Germany, and of their occupation duty in Bavaria. Frank's letters go beyond his direct combat experiences to include the camaraderie among the GIs, living conditions, weather, and the hijinks that helped keep the constant threat of death at bay. His letters also worked to reassure Betty with hopeful dreams for their future together.Including dozens of previously unpublished photographs, A Combat Engineer with Patton's Army: The Fight Across Europe with the 80th "Blue Ridge" Division in World War II offers the rare perspective of what day-to-day warfare at the ground-level looked like in the European Theater through the eyes of one of the men spearheading the advance.