Engineer Port Construction and Repair
The Camp Gordon Johnston WWII Museum knows of several of these units that trained here at CGJ:
1055th, 1057th, 1058th, 1059th, 1060th, 1061st and the 2055th
The Corps of Engineers has a terrific history of the Transportation and Engineer Company efforts in the war against Germany, which covers the 1057th, 1058th and 1061st. There is also an excellent article to be found at http://tothosewhoserved.org/usa/ts/usatse01/chapter17.html
Men of an Engineer Port Construction and Repair Group at ASFTC Camp Gordon Johnston, Fla., build a floating dock from Navy pontoon gear. 9 May 1944
By Signal Corps Archive – https://www.flickr.com/photos/186360156@N02/49769891268/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93958844
This is the PDF of that history found online (outside link)
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A training film for recruits entering the engineer port construction and repair groups can be found here. This is a very clear explanation of what these units faced once they were deployed, including great film footage of several European ports after they were destroyed.
War Dept Film Bulletin 168: Port Repairs, 1945
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John David Dame took his training with the 1061st at Camp Gordon Johnston. His papers state: “The job of the 1061st was to follow close behind the evacuation of the enemy from given port and to make things ready for the port to receive shipments of crucial war materials, men, and machine. You can well imagine the foul disposition of enemy troops forced to evacuate a port they had effectively used against us. They were trained to destroy as much as possible. That’s just a long way around to say that EVERY place that we were called upon to rebuild was a hellish mess.”
The museum archives hold some of the papers of John Dame, including his memories of the unit, along with many pictures taken in both theaters of the war.
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Another good resource is this wikipedia page on transportation companies in the European Theater (outside link)
