Crossing Paths with Sam McGee The US Army Corps of Engineers crossed paths with Sam McGee in June 1942. Hell bent to build a land route from the lower 48 to Alaska, the Corps descended on Northern Canada and Alaska early in the year. By the end of June three regiments had themselves relatively organized …
Category Archives: Construction of the Alaska Highway
The 340th Gets Started
The 340th Engineers heavy equipment convulsed the Skagway docks again at mid-June 1942. Vessels bearing heavy equipment jammed in one behind the other. Colonel Lyons and his regiment had reached their starting point at Morley Bay in the nick of time. Read more about getting to Morley Lyons’ pre-positioned troops in Skagway, Whitehorse, and Morley …
Climax at the Teslin River
The Climax came at the Teslin River. At mid-June 1942 the black soldiers of the 93rd raced, a long train, through the Yukon woods building a road for the white soldiers of the 340th to the Teslin River. Way behind schedule and burning with impatience the soldiers of the 340th had moved in behind them …
Traffic Jam in the Woods
In June 1942 a traffic jam followed the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineering Regiment as they raced through woods and mud toward the Teslin River, building a road to get the white soldiers of the 340th Engineers into the interior. More on the Race to the Teslin River Colonel Lyons, commander of the 340th, …
East of Tagish
East of Tagish work speeded up. Recall that in April 1942 General Hoge had dispatched the black soldiers of the 93rd to Carcross to build a road to the Teslin River for the 340th. He had done so to get the black men out of Skagway and he didn’t propose to leave them long in …
Getting Supplies into the Woods
Getting supplies into the woods–the next big problem. In Yukon in June 1942 heavy equipment had made it into the interior and galvanized the progress of the 93rd. But General Hoge’s battle with the folks in Seattle, at the other end of his supply line, raged through June. Hoge had, several weeks earlier, urgently …
Colonel Whipple’s Problem
Colonel Whipple, commander of the 97th in early 1942, understood very clearly that his bosses wanted him to keep his black soldiers away from Alaskans. Once he had his men off the Branch, he focused on getting them out of Valdez. Company E had walked through the snow directly off the dock, out to the …
The Demolished Dock
Port of Valdez in 1942 April 30, 1942. The SS David Branch has partially demolished the Valdez Dock; lashed to it anyway; is about to disgorge the black soldiers of the 97th Engineering Regiment. Anything or anybody coming off the David Branch would come to the narrow wooden dock and the warehouse, would traverse …
June 1942, Yukon
June 1942 in Yukon. What was going on The black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers hit their stride. Moving rapidly east from Tagish, Company A led the three companies of First Battalion on a mad dash through the woods. On June 4 Company A moved to bivouac seven miles east of the Tagish River just …
Seventy Miles of Road
Mid-June 1942, the action in Yukon centered squarely on the seventy miles of road from Carcross to the Teslin River and the men of the 93rd Engineers who fought to build it. Never recorded, long forgotten, the performance of the men of the 93rd—especially the men of Company A—during the first two weeks of June …