121st Engineer Combat Battalion, 29th Infantry Division

121st Engineer Combat Battalion, 29th Infantry Division. “Nihil Timemus” (“We Fear Nothing”). Constituted in May 1802 as the Columbian Brigade of the District of Columbia Militia, the 121st Engineers antecedents served with distinction as infantry in the War of 18 12, Mexican War, Civil War, war with Spain, and World War 1, In January 1921, various DC National Guard infantry units consolidated and converted to engineers. The unit was designated the 121st Engineer Regiment in 1922, and assigned to the 29th Division. Federalized on 3 February 1941, the regiment moved to Ft. Meade, Maryland, to train, dividing into two separate battalions when the division reorganized in March 1942. Only the 1st Battalion, redesignated the 121st Engineer Battalion, remained in the 29th as the divisional engineers. , , The 121st Engineer Combat Battalion (ECB) embarked on HMS Queen Elizabeth for Britain in October 1942 and moved to Tidworth Barracks in Wiltshire. In May 1943, the battalion shifted to Paignton, Devonshire, to begin amphibious assault training. In September 1943, the 121st ECB’s component companies relocated to Cornwall to support the 29th Division's three regimental combat teams: Company A with the 115th; B, the 116th; C, the 175th. The 121st ECB moved into marshalling areas on 15 May 1944 and received orders for the D-Day invasion. Less Company A, the battalion was attached to the 116th Infantry for the initial landing (1) to support first-wave assault troops on the western sector of Omaha Beach and (2) to clear the D-1 Draw at Vierville. , , Two platoons of Company B, led by battalion commander Lt. Col. Robert Ploger, landed between D-1 and D-3 Draws at 0710; elements of Company C followed. Despite heavy losses from artillery and machine gun fire, engineer teams accompanied infantrymen up the steep coastal bluff, penetrating inland and helping secure Vierville at 1000. At the D-1 Draw, a 100-foot-long concrete wall blocked the exit road. Around noon, Ploger and Brig. Gen. Norman Cota ordered several bulldozers, each with a ton of explosives, to move west to the draw. Though interdicted by sniper fire, some twenty engineers hauled the explosives to the base of the wall and, directed by Sgt. Noel Dube of Company C, opened a fifteen foot gap with 1,100 pounds of TNT. Under fire, engineer bulldozers cleared the debris, and by 2100; vehicles could use the exit road from the beach to Vierville. , , Starting at 1030 on the eastern sector of Omaha Beach, Company A accompanied the 115th Infantry ashore, supporting the regiment's advance up the bluff between E-1 and E-3 Draws and entering St. Laurent sur-Mer that afternoon. , , At 0530 on D+1, the enemy threatened the tenuous beachhead in the western sector by launching a counterattack against the 121st ECB south of Vierville, After hours of intense fighting, the battalion repulsed the enemy. The first two days of combat in Normandy cost the battalion 98 casualties, including 27 killed. , , The U.S. Army acknowledged the 121st Engineer Combat Battalion's pivotal D-Day role by awarding it the Presidential Unit Citation. The citation concludes: “The outstanding performance of duty by this battalion was a substantial contribution to the success of the assault operation.” , , Erected by the Association of the 121st Engineers who selflessly contributed to victory on D-Day, 6 June 1944.