509th engineer light ponton company

Question

How can I find the operational records for the 509th engineer light ponton company during WW2? 
 It was my Dad's unit. 
 thank you

Textual Reference Branch, Archives II · Accepted Answer

Hydro1381 
 
 Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

The Textual Reference Archives II Branch (RR2RR) has custody of the Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1917- (Record Group 407) and the Records of U.S. Army Operational, Tactical, and Support Organizations (World War II and Thereafter) (Record Group 338). Military unit files among these records consist mostly of historical reports, after action reports, unit journals, and general orders. These records do not include personnel information, nor do we have a name index to these records. 
 History files and operations (or &ldquo;after action&rdquo;) reports tend to be narrative accounts of unit actions either by the year or month, respectively. Journal files (a.k.a. &ldquo;daily diaries&rdquo;) are usually daily and hourly accounts. The journal files are usually written in pencil. Sometimes they list incoming and outgoing messages, and sometimes they include brief descriptions of information. If you are interested in an overview of unit activities, you may wish to concentrate on the histories and operations reports. However, if you are interested in actions covering a few specific days, journal files may prove of value to your research. 
 General orders, as referenced above, do include information about the official bestowal of medals on individual service personnel. However, these records are arranged by unit, thereunder by date and thereunder by general order number. We would need this information to search our records. If you have a copy of his discharge certificate, this information might be included therein. 
 We have reviewed our available finding aids and located the following information regarding the records of the 509 th Engineer Light Ponton Company in our custody: 
 Record Group 407 
 Entry (NM3) 427 
 Box 15424 
 Operations (&ldquo;after action&rdquo;) Reports: August 1944-November 1944; January 1945-March 1945 
 G-1 (Personnel) Weekly Periodic Reports: 28 January 1945-7 April 1945 
 
 Record Group 338 
 Entry (UD) 37042 
 Box 605 
 Unit History 1944-1945 
 
 Record Group 498 
 Entry (UD) 494 
 Box 3206 
 Organizational Unit History, no date. 
 We invite you to continue the conversation with community members on History Hub, but should you have follow up questions for the staff at Archives II, please email us at archives2reference@nara.gov so that we can assist you further. 
 We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research! 
 Sincerely, 
 Textual Reference Archives II Branch (RR2RR) [24-05104-PBB]

Nyce61 · Answer

I am new here . My father was in the 509th engineer light panton in WW2 
 I just stumbled on to this website looking for more information on them .

Nyce61 · Answer

Hi Hydro1381 
 I just made contact with Chessie509LP as my father also was in the 509th Engineer Light Pontoon . I&rsquo;ve been looking over her pictures trying to find him in them . I also shared with her his honorable discharge papers . I would love to find out why he received 5 bronze stars . What did he do to earn them ? My father&rsquo;s name was Joseph Hanlon but he often went by Pat or Patty because he looked so Irish . We all come from around the Washington DC area .

AHarlow · Answer

Teresa, 
 I bet they were together. I have the photo of Dad's class, a group photo with typed names on the back, could be the group he finished basic training with but it doesn't have your dad's name in it so maybe they were togetherr once they got to Europe. I searched for Joe or Pat or Hanlon in my names on the photos (per his ID's on the back) I saw a few Joe's but different last names. Do you know where your father trained. I have photos of bridges that they built here while training (Fort Gibson, OK) and photos of bridges they built in Europe, some of those photos have people in it without names. 
 Dad received a Bronze Star for Nov 9-10 1944. It was for a specific 30 hour period that he spent working in the icy waters and ferrying injured men back and forth across the river under fire. I have the citation for it, with a note in his handwriting to his mother to keep it for him. I think if he had received others he would have kept the citations also and only one is noted on his discharge papers, though multiple campaigns are listed. 
 I would like to see the Facebook page you mentioned, maybe my father is in that photo also. 
 I feel fairly confident that I have photos of Dan Malley's father, I am hoping he sees these posts so I can get copies to him. 
 My dad was 44 when I was born and he passed in 2002, I wish I had asked him more questions but I was young and didn't see the urgency. I regret that. I did video tape him telling a couple stories but not many. 
 Annette Harlow

AHarlow · Answer

I just posted a long post about having photos and wanting to email them to family and sent it off before taking a great look at my Dad's photo notes. I have 3 photographs that have someone he called Sgt Malley in them. This could certainly be your father. I don't know if I can attach images here, if not I can send them to your email. 
 Annette Harlow

Nyce61 · Answer

Annette 
 I am Teresa which as you can see also had a father in the 509th ENGR LP Co. What caught my eye is March 1943 which is the same month as my father till Dec 1945 
 But my dad possibly went by several nicknames . Either Joe since his name was Joseph or like I said before maybe Pat or Patty as many called him Pat his last name was Hanlon 
 But now I&rsquo;m again confused about the bronze stars 
 why did your father get 1 while mine got 5 if they represented the campaigns. But one thing is they probably trained and ship out together based on March 1943 and again his name was Joseph Hanlon . I do know the VA made quite a fuss about his service when I called to inform them of his death and like you I also have a couple but not many stories he told over the years. But the only pictures so far I&rsquo;ve seen is of a Facebook page a women made about her Grandfather which included a large group picture which took me several days and talking it over with my older sister to figure out which one was him. He was so young at the time but the one I do believe is him is because it looks similar to my 16 year old grandson. Strong family resemblance . I&rsquo;m glad to see that now there are several of us now asking about them since for many years prior I couldn&rsquo;t find anything on this troop online yet knew they were very active in the war 
 
 Teresa Nyce

Hydro1381 · Answer

Hi Annette 
 I replied to your post about the 509 Engineer Light Ponton Company and your photos referencing Sgt. Malley, who is my Dad. History Hub would not approve my post because I included my email, which goes against their policy. I don't know how to proceed with this . If anyone at History Hub who reads this would provide a way of getting these photos without violating the email posting police, I would be grateful for the help. 
 Best regards 
 Dan Malley

509th engineer light ponton company

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