Company C, 36th Engineer Regiment, Fort Bragg Snapshots, WWII 240

[Photograph numbers], Company C, 36th Engineer Regiment, Fort Bragg Snapshots, WWII 240, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.

The collection is composed of 11 original small photographs from an unidentified U.S. Army soldier who served as a truck driver in Company C, 36th Engineer Regiment, from 1941 to 1942. Some of the photographs depict the lives of the men in the 36th Engineer Regiment from 1941 to 1942, while they were participating in the Carolina Maneuvers in the fall of 1941 near Norman, NC. The rest of the photographs document units of the 36th Engineer Regiment while it was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC, from March 13 to August 15, 1942. Images show life and buildings at Fort Bragg before the WWII construction buildup of the camp. The unnamed soldier who owned and took these photographs is pictured in several images, with him marked by words or an "X" in blue ink on the front of the prints.

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The photographs are arranged by date of year the photographs were taken.

The Carolina Maneuvers were part of the U.S. Army GHQ Maneuvers of 1941, which included several states. They were the largest military exercises ever conducted in the United States' own territory, which pitted entire armies or corps against one another in simulated combat across multiple U.S. states. Due to the ongoing World War II, the Army used the 1941 Maneuvers to test existing and emerging doctrines, organizational structures, and new equipment. They were also designed to measure the performance of field grade officers, giving them field experience they would otherwise not have before actual field actions occurred once the U.S. entered WWII.

The Carolina Maneuvers were fought on public roads, on public and private lands, and brought crowds of South and North Carolinians to watch the movements of Army troops and supplies along the roads in their communities. The maneuvers proved a sort of spectator sport for a time in America where there was little entertainment apart from the newspaper, radio, public dances, reading, fishing and swimming, and camping. Civilians came out to watch the troops go by on the back roads, and take photographs of the troop movements. The exercises were major news in the Carolinas, donning front pages with updates on Army planned targets and troop movements.

Women would come from local civilian defense recreation committees or community groups from local counties to serve food to, entertain through dances and shows, or other activities. Recreation centers were being setup wherever space could be provided in public, civic, and private buildings, such as community centers, city halls, YMCAs, and churches. Those centers were manned by locals as well as female-led city and county recreation committees.

The 36th Engineer Regiment was activated for regular U.S. Army service on June 1, 1941, at the Plattsburgh Barracks in Plattsburgh, NY. The unit consisted of nine combat engineer companies trained for amphibious assault and support operations, organized in three battalions. The regiment was originally supposed to be stationed at Camp Edwards in Massachusetts in order to be part of the Engineer Amphibian Command that was supposed to be headquartered there. The U.S. Navy fought against the Army's involvement in amphibious assault landings on foreign countries' shores. The 1st and 3rd Battalions remained at the Plattsburgh Barracks, while the 2nd Battalion was stationed in England by late 1941. After spending some time stationed at various locations in Massachusetts-including Fort Devens-in August 1941, the regiment returned to Plattsburgh on September 12, 1941.

The 36th Engineer Regiment traveled to Fort Bragg, NC, from September 13-19, 1941, to participate with other New York-based Army units in the Carolina Maneuvers. Company C of the 36th Engineer Regiment arrived at the town of Norman in Richmond County, NC, on September 19, 1941. Company C would be stationed in the towns of Eagle Springs, Bloomington, back to Norman, and Ridgeward in North Carolina from late September through December 1941. Company C traveled to pick up newly-constructed Army trucks from Atlanta, Georgia, that they would be taking back with them to the Plattsburgh Barracks after the Carolina Maneuvers ended. Company C, 36th Engineer Regiment, traveled back to the Plattsburgh Barracks, arriving on December 7, 1941-the same day that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

With the United States officially entering military involvement in World War II in December 1941, the plan for the 36th Engineer Regiment seems to have changed. Company C of the regiment would spend time stationed at Fort Devins, Massachusetts, and Bangor, Maine, from December 1941 to January 1942. After returning back to the Plattsburgh Barracks on January 6, 1942. The regiment and Company C remained until March 11, 1942, when Company C left Plattsburgh, NY, for Fort Bragg, NC, where they arrived on March 13. From March 13 through August 15, 1942, Company C, 36th Engineer Regiment, would be based out of Fort Bragg while going through training there and at other military installations, including in Virginia and Maryland. For example, Company C served aboard the U.S. Navy's USS Rutledge out of Naval Operating Base Norfolk, Virginia, in mid-July 1942. The company also conducted landing maneuvers at Solomons Island, Maryland, preparing for amphibious assaults.

Company C, 36th Engineer Regiment, left from Fort Bragg on August 15 for Camp Bradford, Virginia, with a later station at Camp Pickett, Virginia. On October 23, 1942, Company C boarded two U.S. Navy ships, the USS Thomas Jefferson and USS Bliss, leaving on October 24 for French Morocco in the North African Theater during WWII. The 36th Engineer Regiment would be reordered and renamed the 36th Engineer Brigade while overseas in the war. They participated in the North Africa Campaign, including Operation Torch, being stationed in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia from December 1942 to July 4, 1943. The regiment then moved to Sicily to participate in the Allied invasion of Italy in the summer and fall of 1943. The unit returned to Tunisia for a period from August to September 1943, before staying in Italy from September 10, 1943, through June 1944.

The 36th Engineer Brigade landed in East La Croix, France, on August 15, 1944, and participated in the Allied invasion of Europe that was part of the D-Day landing operations. Company C of the now brigade would remain in France, Germany, and Austria through at least May 9, 1945, with Victory in Europe Day being announced the day before.

[Much of the information for the unit history of Company C, 36th Engineer Regiment, camp from a copy of an official bivouac history of the company published online on the 36th Combat Engineers unit page on a public VI Corps Engineer Combat Regiments history webpage, begun by family members of members of units in the VI Corps. The bivouac history was viewed online here: www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/docs/36th/36thEngineerCoCBivouacs001.pdf. Information on the Carolina Maneuvers comes from multiple sources, including: "Part I: Carolina Maneuvers of 1941," June 28, 2013, regarding exhibit at the South Carolina Military Museum on the Carolina Maneuvers, viewed online at https://www.thecolumbiastar.com/articles/ part-i-carolina-maneuvers-of-1941/; and Christopher R. Gabel, The U.S. Army GHQ Maneuvers of 1941, Center for Military History, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C., 1992].

The collection was deposited with the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina by a private donor in March 2021, with the donation completed in April 2021.