page_title: 1269th Engineer Combat Battalion (United States)
section_title: Germany
hierarchical_section_title: 1269th Engineer Combat Battalion (United States) / History / In the ETO / Germany
caption_attribution_description: German Experimental Pile - Haigerloch - April 1945 The original caption reads: Dismantling the German experimental nuclear pile at Haigerloch, 50 km S.W of Stuttgart, April 1945. Rupert Cecil nearest camera, 'Bimbo' Norman extreme right, Eric Welsh standing on outer rim, the second man behind Cecil American soldier at upper left is Lieutenant Colonel John Landsdale, Jr., from the Manhattan Project. See Pash (1969), pp. 32-33
context_page_description: The 1269th Engineer Combat Battalion was an engineer combat battalion that served in the United States Army in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. It saw action in France and Germany, serving notably with the Army's T-Force intelligence assault force in the capture of German atomic weapons facilities and personnel as part of Operation Big.
context_section_description: The battalion reached the battle front at Frankenthal, Germany on 23 March 1945. Operating under the command of the 6th Army Group T-Force intelligence assault force, the 1269th advanced to the Rhine River at Ludwigshafen on 24 March.  Under a heavy artillery barrage it seized and held T-Force targets there, including the I. G. Farben factory.  At 08:00 on 29 March the battalion decamped, crossed the Rhine on a pontoon bridge near Worms, and advanced to T-Force targets in Mannheim.  In the weeks thereafter the battalion moved with the battle front, rushing forward with assault forces to secure vital intelligence targets with their records, equipment, and personnel intact.  Heidelberg, an open city, was entered on 1 April—the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute being a main target there.  Würzburg followed on 10 April, then Heilbronn the 16th, and on 22 April the column brushed the outskirts of Stuttgart, heading for the Black Forest.
  The 1269th was now functioning as the combat arm of the Alsos Mission, a military Intelligence assault force commanded by Colonel Boris Pash directed against the Nazi atomic weaponry program.  In the final rush to seize the atomic research center at Haigerloch, Alsos and the 1269th ECB, less Company B, crossed through the French First Army's spearhead column en route to Sigmaringen and Stuttgart (contrary to Sixth Army Group command).
  On 22 April at Haigerloch, and for six days thereafter in the towns of Hechingen, Bisingen, Tailfingen, and Thanheim, the 1269th ECB participated in taking atomic scientists into custody, seizing laboratory records and equipment, and securing uranium, heavy water, and other items and materials important to the U.S./British Manhattan Project.
  Leaving the Alsos Mission on 28 April, the battalion became one of the first combat units to enter Munich, advancing with Company C, 30th Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division.  Elements of the battalion were among the first troops to come upon the concentration camp at Dachau.
  In Munich the 1269th was responsible for exploiting and guarding T-Force targets, disarming mines and booby traps, and other combat engineer duties.
  Units of Company A were sent to Berchtesgaden in support of the 101st Airborne Division on 5 May and thereafter, to exploit intelligence targets in that area.  While there it played an important role in uncovering art treasures hidden in a cave near Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring's home.
  The unit's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Willard White returned to Austin, Texas after the war. In August, 1945 he hosted a dinner party that featured table linens and over one hundred pieces of silverware looted from the site. White has been called the "a strong candidate for the top souvenir collector at Berchtesgaden." Later in life, he sold his collection.
caption: T-Force 1269th engineers dismantle the nuclear pile that German scientists had built up under the Uranprojekt program in Haigerloch, April 1945
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