page_title: 549th Engineer Light Ponton Company
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: 549th Engineer Light Ponton Company / History
caption_attribution_description: English: "WE CLEAR THE WAY - ENGINEERS", 1941 - 1945 - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers World War II recruiting poster
context_page_description: The 549th Engineers Light Ponton Company was a combat engineer company of the United States Army during World War II. Operationally attached to the 1150th Engineer Combat Group, it served under XXI Corps of the Seventh Army in action in France and Germany in 1944 and 1945.
  The 549th was primarily a highly mobile pontoon bridge construction unit, which also provided both M2 assault boats and a selection of infantry support bridging, ferries, and rafts. It was created on 14 January 1943, but was not committed troops until training began five months later at Camp Hood, Texas. The company was composed of black American troops and NCOs, with primarily white senior officers.
  The 549th's bridge building, assault troop ferrying, and other combat capabilities were drawn on for the assault of Saarbrücken on the Saar River at the Siegfried Line, the crossing of the Main River and capture of Würzburg, and the Danube at Dillingen, then continued on towards Austria as three separate platoons.
  In the European Theater of Operations it was often just ahead or behind the 289th Engineer Combat Battalion during the months of March, April, and May 1945.
context_section_description: By war's end the 549th's 2nd platoon had reached Kufstein, Austria, where it had bridged the Inn River in support of the 12th Armored Division in its race to be first to the Brenner Pass.  The 1st platoon rested on the Chiemsee in southeast Germany, just miles from Salzburg, Austria.
  The 3rd platoon was the last to finish its mission, which was in support of the 101st Airborne Division and the 2nd Armored Division of the French First Army in their bids to capture the Nazi high command's retreat in the "National Redoubt" of Berchtesgarden.  While attached to the 48th Engineer Combat Battalion it constructed three Bailey bridges totaling 400 feet to open the road-net to ahead of the competing divisions.  According to the unit's history, "The last bridge, which totaled 200 feet in length, was completed on May 8 and the boys really proceeded to celebrate V-E Day 'royally' in Hitler's 'Nest'".
  Unit headquarters was still at Degerndorf when the news arrived that Germany had surrendered. Rumors were rife about where they would go next, some suggesting Italy, but on 13 May the 549th departed for Oringen, Germany back toward the Rhine.
  There were no changes in assignment and attachments during the 549th's service in the ETO. It remained assigned to the Sixth Army Group, Seventh Army, attached to the XXI Corps and assigned to the 1150th Engineer Combat Group for operational duty.
  A lot of hard work awaited the company when it reached Oringen on 13 May getting its vehicles and equipment ready to move closer to France and eventually the United States of America.
caption: World War II recruiting poster for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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