Bridge Rebuilding by the 40th Engineer Combat Regiment
After the bridge busters did their job to disrupt the Axis supply and communication lines,
the damage usually needed to be repaired, sometimes within a few days or weeks
by U.S. Army Engineering groups so the Allied forces could get through.
Don Jackson of the 40th Engineer Combat Regiment sent me these photos (see below) showing
a bridge at Livron, France being repaired by his unit after Operation Dragoon (August 15, 1944).
According to the
340th Bomb Group mission records, a bridge at Livron (N-968775) was attacked on August 7, 1944,
my father's 23rd combat mission, and again on August 16th, one day after D-Day.
I don't know if it is the same bridge or which other USAAF bomb groups, army artillery units, underground groups like the Maqui,
or even German units may have attacked this bridge,
but it looks like it was pretty well busted up by the time the 40th Engineers arrived.
I'd say they had their work cut out for them.
