232nd Combat Engineer Company In Action

Sixth Army Group, France — Working and fighting in the rugged Alpine mountains along the Franco-Italian frontier, an engineer combat company of the Japanese American 442nd Infantry Regiment is systematically laying a vast network of defense against possible enemy attack.

Included in the engineers are: Purple Heart winner, Pvt. Toshiro H. Kanbara, son of Mrs. Tokuyo Kanbara, 6-3-C; S/ Sgt. Gengo W. Okura, son of Mr. and Mrs. Saichi Okura, 2-3-E; Pvt. George T. Noda, formerly of 9-11-E and 2nd Lt. Haranobu Tsukuno, center relocatee, all of Heart Mountain, Wyo.

As part of Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Divers’ 6th Army Group, the company has laid hundreds of anti-personnel mines in an estimated 40 mine fields and erected thousands of yards of barbed- wire entanglements over the treacherous mountain terrain. Bridges and vital roads are prepared for demolition in the event of German counterattacks. At the same time, the engineer company is making it possible for its own patrols to probe enemy defenses by clearing the winding trails and roadways of obstacles.

In Italy and in the bitterly contested Vosges Mountains fighting, the company cleared approximately 70 minefields, constructed 35 by-passes, 40 culverts and six bridges, often under direct enemy observation and fire.

Several times the combat engineers have gone into the front lines as infantrymen. Serving as infantry patrols near Florence, Italy, they were among the first allied soldiers to cross the Arno river. In this same sector, a bulldozer operated by Sgt. Alfred G. Tomita, Burley, Idaho, led a group of tank destroyers into a key Italian city.