300TH COMBAT ENGINEER BATTALION

On March 3rd, 1943 the only thought in Tomme Elliott and Randy Hanes minds was where in the world are we.  The 300th Combat Engineer Battalion had been activated at Camp White, Oregon on that date.  Members of this new unit included Tomme and Randy who were from Texas and other young men from Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.  They would undergo their basic training at the Camp and in eastern Oregon.  The unit would eventually be sent to the European Theater.  Tomme would be assigned to the 276th Combat Engineers and Randy would serve with the 300th as a reconnaissance officer.

Both of these veterans can recall their stay at Camp White.  They remember competing with the Northerners in the 299th Combat Engineers. The 300th shared the western portion of the Camp with the 299th.  Tomme mentioned that on more than one occasion, he encouraged members of his platoon to move a little faster as they would not want to be second to the Yankees of the 299th.

Arriving at Utah Beach in Normandy on June 15, 1944, the unit would suffer 33% casualties during its first 6 days of combat. By, May 7th, 1945, the Battalion would suffer 36% casualties.  These loses would include the 300th's commander, Major John Tucker. 

While at Carentan in June of 1944, the Major became frustrated by the German's continual bombardment of the bridge the engineers were constructing.  In an effort to encourage his Battalion to continue to work under hostile fire, Major Tucker moved to the bridge during a German barrage.  The officer was killed as a result of his efforts.

The Battalion would continue it's work on the bridge under constant mortar, artillery and small arms fire.  It would become the first fixed bridge at Carentan and would be named after Major John Tucker.

The campaigns in which the 300th participated included: Normandy, Rhineland, Central Europe, The Bulge, and Northern France.  After the Bulge, the 300th was transferred to General George Patton’s 3rd Army.

On April 29, 1945, General Patton met with the Luftwaffe Commander of the Mooseberg Prisoner of War camp in an attempt to have the facility surrendered to the 3rd Army.  The Commandant, under the direction of an S.S. officer, refused to give up the compound or it's prisoners.  General Patton warned the Commandant that if any harm came to the prisoners, neither the commandant nor any of his guards would live to tell about it.

Mooseberg contained the prisoners from Stalag Luft III.  When the Russians began to move into eastern Germany, the POWs had been marched across Germany to the camp at Mooseberg.  The prisoners were allied officers who had been shot down over Germany.  Most felt fortunate they had survived first capture; during which many were hung by civilians, then the march to Mooseberg, which had been made during the German winter.  Now, they were afraid that should the Germans refuse to surrender the camp, they might die during a bloody siege.

By 8:15am on the 29th of April, the Germans found themselves engaged with Patton's 3rd Army.  The fighting was concluded in a matter of minutes with the loss of one POW's life.   Hanes recalls the POWs crowding around his jeep and emptying his 30-caliber machine gun in jubilation.  In 1961 during a telephone conversation with Bruce Kilmer, a fellow board member of his boy’s baseball team, Randy would discover that Kilmer was one of those jubilant POWs, which Hanes had helped liberate.

On November 2, 1945, the 300th would be inactivated at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia.  Like many other WWII units, the 300th would eventually become part of the Army Reserve.  In April of 1947, the 300th Combat Engineers were activated at East St. Louis, Illinois.

Del Hussey
Camp White Historian