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Platte County
Keith Bryan Veterans Service Office Telephone
Veterans Service Officer Court House Locust 4-6279
Columbus, Nebraska

April 23, 1958

Miss Frances Ward
Readers' Digest
230 Park Avenue
New York, N.Y.

Dear Miss Ward:

I am pleased to read in the April 26 issue of Army Times that a
history of D-Day, June 6, 1944, is in the state of preparation for pub-
lication in Readers’ Digest and in book form.

Having served with one of the Amphibious Engineer units that hit
the beach on D-Day and continued to handle supply operations there until
late in the summer, I am very anxious to see the role of these Engineer
troops reported in the Readers’ Digest history. It was the Allies’ abil-
to build up on the beachhead and to maintain an ever increasing flow of
supplies and equipment acress the beaches that kept the Germans off bal-
ance from the earliest days in Normandy to the Siegfried Line.

My unit was the 348th Engineer Combat Battalion, a component of the
5th Engineer Special Brigade, which in turn was teamed up with the 1st
Infantry Division for landing operations on Omaha Beach. The l6th In-
fantry Regiment and one of our battalions, the 37th, suffered terrific
casualties landing at Colleville-sur-Mer. This was on Easy Beach.

The 6th Engineer Special Brigade was paired with the 29th Infantry
Division for the landing on the west half of Omaha Beach. Up on the
Cotentin peninsula, at Utah Beach, the 1st Engineer Special Brigade was
a teammate of the 4th Infantry Division. These three brigades, more
for administrative purposes than any other, were under the Provisional
Engineer Special Brigade Group commanded by then Brig. Gen. William Hoge,
who later as a major general and then with an armored division established
the bridgehead at Remagen.

In 1947 I wrote and published a history of the 348th Engineer Bat-
talion, a copy of which I will be glad to donate to you. In writing my
history I referred to the history of the 5th Engineer Special Brigade,
a copy of which could also be made available to you.

Very truly yours,
KEITH BRYAN