Wwii D-Day 6th Engineer Special Brigade M1 Helmet

Omaha Beach, D-Day; a U.S. Army M1 steel helmet with helmet liner. A US Army M1 steel helmet and liner, with the insignia, 6th Engineer Special Brigade, to both liner and the steel helmet. The heat stamp of the shell is 742B. The straps show wear. The liner was made by Mine Safety Appliance and shows consistent wear to both the liner and the shell. Excellent. Engineer Amphibian Command: In addition to training combat units in amphibious warfare, the Army also had to train personnel in the operation and maintenance of landing craft. Operating the necessary landing craft was estimated to require 48,000 men, organized into 18 boat operating regiments and seven boat maintenance battalions. Each boat regiment had three battalions, each of three boat companies. It was agreed with the British that boat units deploying to the UK would receive their initial training in the US, and final training in the UK. A consequence was the amphibian engineers' adoption of the British Combined Operations shoulder patch, but with the colors switched to gold on blue. The War Department also authorized the wearing of a pocket patch showing a scarlet seahorse on a white background, these being the colors of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Engineer Amphibian Command was created on 10 June 1942 at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts under the command of Colonel Daniel Noce, with Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Trudeau as his chief of staff. Noce was answerable to Brigadier General Clarence Sturdevant, the Assistant Chief of Engineers for training. Additional training facilities were established at Cape Cod. The beach south of Buzzards Bay was selected for shore facilities, and Washburn Island was leased as a training site. Some $1.6 million was spent on dredging and the construction of roads, camps, piers and utilities. Noce and Trudeau considered how the boat units would operate in combat, and noted the importance of well-trained shore parties to load and unload the boats, and establish supply dumps on the far shore. Since combat engineers were not specifically trained for the task, and would in any case have their hands full dealing with obstacles and fortifications, they felt that a permanent organization was required. They drew up a structure for an engineer shore regiment that would combine the functions of a Navy beach party and the Marine Corps shore party. About half the size of a boat regiment, a shore regiment would consist of three battalions, each with a near shore company and two far shore companies. Each shore regiment would be grouped with a boat regiment, a boat maintenance battalion, and support units to form an engineer amphibian brigade capable of moving an entire infantry division. The proposed organization was approved, and authority was granted to form eight engineer amphibian brigades. The table of organization and equipment for an engineer amphibian brigade provided for 349 officers, 20 warrant officers, and 6,814 enlisted men. The Army searched its personnel records for men with appropriate marine experience. Arrangements were made to train ships' carpenters and marine mechanics at the Gray Marine Motor Company in Michigan, Higgins Industries in Louisiana, and Evinrude Outboard Motors and the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in Wisconsin. In all, 3,368 personnel were trained by these companies. Another 1,481 were trained at the Army Ordnance School at Aberdeen, Maryland, the Naval Operating Base at Toledo, Ohio, and the Army Motor School at Fort Holabird, Maryland. The majority, some 33,627 men, were trained at schools run by the Engineer Amphibian Command. Instructors were obtained from the British Army, Royal Navy, and the United States Coast Guard, Marine Corps and United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Of the 37,651 enlisted men assigned between 10 June 1942 and 31 December 1943, 20,244 came from replacement centers, 11,898 from reception centers and 5,509 from other units; of the 2,899 officers, 634 came from other units, 825 from the Officer Reserve Corps, 965 from Officer Candidate Schools, and 475 through direct commissioning from civilian life. The Engineer Amphibian Command estimated that it required 1,000 36-foot (11 m) landing craft and 225 50-foot (15 m) tank lighters, but it was soon discovered that this exceeded the number available. The Navy agreed to turn over 300 36-foot craft from new production in June and July. Initially the Engineer Amphibian Command used whatever landing craft were available: the 36-foot landing craft, personnel (LCP); landing craft, ramp (LCR); landing craft, personnel (ramp) (LCP(R)); and landing craft, vehicle (LCV); and a small number of the 50-foot landing craft, mechanized (LCM). Some were petrol-, and some diesel-powered. The 36-foot boats were later superseded by the landing craft, vehicle, personnel (LCVP), which combined their attributes. The shortage of landing craft meant that enough were available for only one boat battalion at a time. The practice of alloc