page_title: Engineer Combat Battalion
section_title: Capabilities
hierarchical_section_title: Engineer Combat Battalion / Capabilities
caption_attribution_description: English: Bottom half of a composite image captioned: "RIVER CROSSING AT DORNOT. Infantrymen (above) carry assault boat down to the Moselle, and (below) members of 2d Battalion, 11th Infantry, cross the river at Dornot."
context_page_description: An Engineer Combat Battalion was a designation for a battalion-strength combat engineering unit in the U.S. Army, most prevalent during World War II. They are a component of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
  Also known as "Combat Engineer Battalions", they were typically divided into four companies: A, B, C, and Headquarters and Service.
  Best known for pontoon bridge construction and clearing hazards in amphibious landings, their duties also included serving as sappers deploying and deactivating explosive charges and unexploded munitions, mapmaking, camouflage, and a wide variety of construction services supporting frontline troops. They also fielded defensive .30 cal. and .50 cal. machine gun squads, anti-tank rocket and grenade launchers, and were required to fight as infantry when needed.
  Combat engineers played important roles in numerous World War II battles, especially breaching the heavily fortified Siegfried Line protecting the German border and numerous defensive lines established by the Wehrmacht in Italy, including the Gustav Line.
context_section_description: A World War II era combat engineer battalion possessed both combat and combat support capabilities.  These included, but were not limited to: 
  Bridge (mobile, floating, fixed), rail, & road construction and maintenance
  Conducting river crossings by pontoon/raft, motor-powered assault boats
  Demolition
  Placing/de-arming munitions, including mines
  Port & harbor maintenance and rehabilitation, including beachheads:
  Laying roads and unloading/loading supplies, vehicles & personnel from transport and cargo ships
  Camouflage
  Water supply and sanitation
  Map production
  Vehicle maintenance
  Establishing/maintaining supply and ammunition dumps
  Building barracks, depots, and similar structures
  Rescue & road patrols, bridge and road reconnaissance
  Clearing of debris and wreckage
  Unit defense and intelligence
  Fighting as infantry when needed
caption: Combat Engineers ferried infantry and special forces troops in craft such as this M2 assault boat in Europe in World War II
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2003:05:05 11:35:27", "Image ExifOffset": "154", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "292", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6800", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1051"}