History of 603rd and 604th US Army Engineer battalions, doing
camouflage construction in WWII.

Big Hal,

Fascinating question...thanks for asking.

There is a lot of information available on the 603rd.

A good overview of the engineering batallions and their role in WWII
can be found at:

http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/usarmy/engineers.asp

A site at:

http://nasaa-home.org/23rdhqs.htm

gives the history of the 23rd HQ Special Troops, the so-called "Ghost
Army" to which the 603rd belonged, and their very unusual mission:

"A forth unit, the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion had already
been experimenting with deceptive installations for nearly two years.
It was given the responsibility for camouflage and dummy equipment."

There's a lot more info at the site itself, and there's more history
at:

http://www.laynor.org/phantom.html

"The 603rd epitomized the creative character of the 23rd. It was
composed largely of artistic types who had been recruited from New
York, Philadelphia and Chicago. Some of them had known each other
while attending various colleges and universities, and such
prestigious art and design schools as the Pratt Institute, Cooper
Union and the Art Institute of Chicago. The average IQ of the 603rd
was 119, rumored to be the highest in the Army."


*************

As for the 604th, that's a different story...as far as I can tell,
there was no such Engineering Combat group.  I suspect you're
referring instead to the 406th, which was also part of the 23rd
Special Troops.  The laynot.org site says this about them:

"The 406th Engineer Combat Company, a disciplined fighting unit
trained in desert warfare, was put in charge of all around security
and tough construction jobs."

Beyond that, there isn't much.  Not all of the information about these
missions has been declassified, and much of it was declassified only a
few years ago.  There does not appear to be a lot available on the
history of the 406th.

Hope this is what you were after.  Please let me know if it is, in
fact, the 406th you're interested in...I'll see if I can find some
more.

Dave

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Request for Answer Clarification by bighal-ga on 17 Jun 2002 18:42 PDT

Thanks. The purpose of this question was to address a request of my
father's, who said he was in the 604th and was confused by obituaries
of Bill Blass, which cited the 603rd. Perhaps his recollection was
faulty. But my dad's unit was assigned to the US Ninth Army and was
under command of British General Montgomery. He said that most of
his battalion was assigned in Paris doing camouflage construction
work, but that his company was in [near] the front lines and crossed
the Rhine.

Is there any website having more detailed unit-level history?

Hal

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Clarification of Answer by davidsar-ga on 17 Jun 2002 19:51 PDT

Hal,

Didn't find anything more detailed than what I provided earlier, but I
did come across another reference to Bill Blass that places him in the
603rd.

The Los Angeles Times for Nov. 11, 1986 (Metro Section pg 1) has an
article "HE FOUGHT A WAR ARMED WITH AN AIR COMPRESSOR; SECRET WWII
UNIT MISLED THE GERMANS WITH INFLATABLE TANKS ", that featured the
story of one Irwin VanderHeide.  But there's also this mention:

"The 603rd was composed largely of artistic types, many who came from
art and design schools. Some achieved success after the war. One of
them was Bill Blass, a 22-year-old fashion designer."


You might want to check your local library for a full copy of the
article.

If your dad is anything like my dad, he has stashed away a whole box
of paraphenalia from WWII.  If that's the case, there might be
something to more concretely identify your dad's unit.

...And tell him thanks, from all of us.  

Dave

I was disappointed that I got essentially a web search-engine result. I had
been hoping that the money I offered might cause some research into military
history sources not available on the web. The answer returned was OK, but
it was info I found myself.