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The 2007 Military
Expo at Fort Snelling featured re-enactors from the 105th
Engineer Combat Battalion and the 117th
Infantry Regiment of the 30th Infantry Division. They provided
a great display of gear. Some of these items are, of course, reproductions,
but they have a good sense of accuracy.
We start our
photo album with a fine example of the herringbone twill jacket
(it looks like a shirt, but it is called a jacket) and trousers.
These began to replace the blue denim fatigue uniforms in 1941.
They were also used as summer/tropical combat uniforms. The first
re-enactor wears the late war combat service boot, while the second
gentleman wears the canvas leggings and an HBT cap.
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next series shows several tent shelters. Each soldier carried
one half of a tent in his pack. The equipment displayed here,
however, would be belong to just one soldier. Just inside the
opening of the tent in the last photo one can see the blue denim
barrack bag that was phased out early in the war. |
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This display
gives a better indication of the role of the WWII combat engineer.
The equipment includes cardboard boxes of blasting caps and
blocks of TNT explosives (the latter packaged in the wooden
boxes). The two large reels contain red engineer wire used
for setting off explosives. The yellow tubes are blasting
caps. A couple of blasting machines can been seen; these were
used to set off a chain of explosives. The small boxes in
the center of the display, next to the spools of yellow and
white cord (perhaps trip wire for booby traps), are small
shock-proof containers holding non-electrical fuzes. Near
them are a MKII A1 fragmentation grenade and an M18 colored
smoke grenade (in the blue-grey canister).
Atop the
TNT box is a small German wooden "shoe" mine and
a larger S mine. In the last two photos in the sequence we
see the large case that holds the SCR-625 mine detector.
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| Skivies
are airing out in the command post. We see a pair of lanterns,
by the light of which officers would prepare their reports at
the fiberboard field desks. Another table displays the Telegraph
Set TG-5 B (front), Telephone TP-9 (left rear), the SCR-300
walkie-talkie backpack radio (center), and the Telephone EE-8
(right), which was carried in either a leather or canvas case. |
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Reproduction
wooden K-rations boxes serve as a table for some tins of meat
and cans of vegetables. The vegetables were often shipped
overseas with their original manufacturer's labels—a
little touch of home, perhaps. Two styles of insulated food
carriers are shown. The round ones could hold three airtight
aluminum inserts.
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