Image description: U.S. Engineer Special Brigade insignia, worn as a shoulder patch. It consisted of a gold Thompson (Tommy) sub-machine gun, anchor and eagle. The insignia was actually designed by Lord Louis Mountbatten (Prince Philip's Uncle, as you may have seen portrayed in "The Crown"), as the Brits' Combined Operations used the same design, but with a red background. The components of the insignia are meant to symbolize combined operations of land, sea and air.
Norman Nigh was a Technician Fourth Grade (T/4) with the U.S. Army's 593rd Engineer Boat & Shore Regiment (EBSR), which was part of the 3rd Engineer Special Brigade (ESB). The 3rd ESB was activated in August 1942 at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts. It was one of six ESBs established during WWII. The 1st ESB was sent to England in 1942 to stage for a planned European invasion, which was ultimately scrapped, and consequently the 1st ESB was dissolved and its members reassigned elsewhere in the European Theater. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th ESBs all served under General Douglas MacArthur in the Southwest Pacific and collectively made 148 landings. The 5th and 6th Engineer Special Brigades served in the European theater and were heavily involved in D-Day operations.
The ESBs were a new and necessary amphibious, or "combined operations," unit of the U.S. military during WWII. After the Dunkirk Evacuation in France in 1940, the stinging and lingering memory of the WWI Gallipoli Campaign, and Japan's advance through the Pacific using its own amphibious forces, Allied leaders contemplated how to up their amphibious game and develop methods of effectively accessing (and withdrawing from) the enemy via the shore. They needed outfits that could successfully facilitate landing large numbers of combat troops and supplies on beaches and shores, move easily between shores, and develop beachheads as primary bases for invasion.
Image description: "Our first hdqts (sic) on Victoria Point in Borneo." (Personal collection of Norman Nigh). The sign behind the ladder should read "593rd EB and SR" and features the logo of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers above it.
In early 1942, the U.S Navy took a stab at this newfangled warfare by attempting to design specialized craft for amphibious landing operations. However, Navy top brass soon fully comprehended the massive numbers of troops (this was before the Navy could participate in the draft) and resources needed for such an effort. The Marines would have been a good fit for such an amphibious endeavor, but it also didn't have enough manpower. At the same time, the Navy was reeling from the destruction of its Pacific Fleet after the Pearl Harbor attack and had its hands full exhaustively patrolling Atlantic waters for Nazi U-Boats. Thus, the Navy decided at the time against taking on such a large project that would span both European and Pacific theaters, and the project was handed to the Army. (Though later on, as it rebuilt its fleet and enhanced its manpower with enlisted personnel, the Navy reclaimed its role in amphibious operations.)
Meanwhile, in March 1942, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff separated the Pacific Theater into four operational areas of command. The Navy would take charge of the North and Central Pacific (under Admiral Chester Nimitz) and the South Pacific (under Admiral William Halsey). Meanwhile, the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) was assigned to General Douglas MacArthur and the Army. Due to the foreseen "island hopping" and shore-to-shore nature of action in the SWPA, the Joint Chiefs further pledged support of an "expedited and expanded" amphibious training program for the Army. The project then went to the Army Corps of Engineers, who formed amphibious brigades consisting of both boat specialists to effectively operate landing craft, as well as shore engineers to oversee beachhead development once ashore.
Image description: Seahorse patch typically worn on pocket of Army amphibious engineers' uniforms (though notably missing on Norman's uniform recovered by my aunt). The image is a seahorse patch previously up for auction on www.flyingtigersantiques.com.
The next course of action was establishing a training center. This was accomplished in August 1942 at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The 3rd ESB was activated shortly afterwards. Incoming soldiers were trained in amphibious warfare tactics including piloting and handling their barges- LCVPs and LCMs (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel and Landing Craft, Mechanized, both designed and built by Higgins Industries). Soldiers were also rotated out to locations such as Higgins Industries in New Orleans and the Gray Marine Motor Company in Detroit for further specialized training. In October, 1942, the Brigade moved from Massachusetts to Camp Carrabelle, (later Camp Gordon Johnston) Florida. Six months later, the Brigade moved training locations yet again to Fort Ord, California for further intensive amphibious training.
Image description: "View of East Garrison from a hill." (Personal Collection of Norman Nigh). This is a photograph of Fort Ord, California, near the Montery Bay area, where Norman officially joined up with the 593rd EBSR.
It was at Ft. Ord in California that Norman Nigh joined the party in August 1943. He trained with the 593rd for the following months. Then in December, the 3rd ESB moved one last time while Stateside- up the California coast to Camp Stoneman (near Oakland), where all of its members, including those of the 593rd, prepared to ship out to the Southwest Pacific. On January 9, 1944, the 593rd departed aboard the US Army transport ship Sea Flasher. This notably was the first US troop ship to travel to the Pacific Theater without an escort. One of Norman's last views of the United States was the Golden Gate Bridge; the ship passed right under it as it began its journey to New Guinea.
Image description: The Sea Flasher, the ship Norman took from California to the SWPA, as featured in Troopships of WWII by the Army Transportation Association, published in 1947. (Accessed via https://history.army.mil/documents/WWII/wwii_Troopships.pdf)
The 3rd ESB (and the 2nd and 4th) comprised three boat and shore regiments (each consisting of both a boat battalion and a corresponding shore battalion), as well as maintenance and medical battalions, along with a headquarters and quartermaster. Each boat battalion comprised 1079 men, while shore battalion would have 704.
Boat battalions were further broken into three companies- A, B, and C. (Norman was in the 3rd ESB 593rd EBSR's Boat Battalion's Company C.) Upon arrival in the SWPA, the boat companies (A, B, and C) functioned as separate units attached to specific (mainly Australian) infantry divisions and rarely worked with each other. They provided transportation for land-based troops, as with the lack of infrastructure in dense jungles in the region, the ESBs' Boat Battalions LCMs provided the most efficient way to travel via coast lines and rivers. Once the troops were deposited on shore for battle, the boat companies would remain nearby for support. Meanwhile, the shore companies would clear jungle to build roads, airstrips, pipelines, buildings, ports and other necessary infrastructure.
Image description: "Sign that stands in front of hqds. (sic) that tells different places we have been. If you notice the last one is just a little premature." (Personal collection of Norman Nigh). This "brag board" of the 593rd set up on Labuan Island lists landing locations- in New Guinea, Morotai and Borneo- of all companies within the battalion. The first 17 are located in New Guinea. The 11 prior to San Francisco are in Borneo. Morotai, in the lower middle column, is where the 593rd staged for the invasion of Borneo.
Fortunately no members of the 593rd EBSR's Company C perished during the war. However, over 150 amphibious engineers from other units were unfortunately killed in action.
References:
Case, Gerard R. and Pounds, James A., Operation Borneo: The Last, Untold Story of the War in the Pacific, 1945, (AuthorHouse Publishing, 2004)
Paquette, Ernest W., Our Business is Beachheads: The 3rd ESB and 593rd EB&SR, (Self-Published, 1993)
Watson, Robert Meredith, Jr., Seahorse Soldiering: MacArthur's Amphibian Engineers from New Guinea to Nagoya (Bloomington: Xlibris), p.139-140
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