Commendations

SUBJECT: Commendation.

TO: Commanders, All Engineer Units, Attached XII Corps.

1. A letter of commendation, dated 5 February 1945, from the Army Commander to the Army Engineer Officer is reproduced on the reverse side for your information and distribution to all elements of your command.

2. Let me take this opportunity to add my own accommodation to that of General Patton 's for the Magnificent contribution of the engineers of XII Corps to the success of our offensive effort. Your work in the maintenance of roads, in the preparation of defensive barrier systems, and in the installation and removal of mines and booby traps has been superior. Most spectacular of all, however, and most to the undying credit of the Corps of Engineers, have been your heroic and ingenious achievements in the support of assault river crossings and in the construction of bridges. In the face of fearful conditions of flood, weather, and formidable defense works, you have enabled this Corps in operation after operation to continue its historic drives through France and Luxembourg into Germany.

TO: The Army Engineer Officer, Third Army.

1. Please accept for yourself and pass on to the officers and men of your units the sincere appreciation and admiration of all the other elements of the Third Army for the work you have accomplished.

2. Over countless rivers and tank ditches in the flooded Lorraine you constructed, and maintained innumerable bridges. You cleared and reconditioned thousand of miles of road.

3. Your work in the recent operation in Belgium and Luxembourg has been equally outstanding and has been accomplished under still more intolerable conditions of weather and terrain.

4. Without the stimulus of combat, yet suffering losses from enemy fire, you have built the Bridges lacking which the German penetration could not have been obliterated.

5. Each and every officer and man of the Third Army Engineer Units is hereby highly commended for the superior manner in which his tasks have been performed.

6. You will apprise all units concerned of the contents of this letter.

reproduced by XII Corps, 3 March 1945.