The 341st moved much too slowly. In March, when he ordered the 35th to rush to Fort Nelson before the winter road thawed to impassable, General Hoge bet that Colonel Joe Lane’s 341st Engineers could create a road across the rivers and through the gumbo to Fort Nelson before the 35th’s supplies ran out. No …
Tag Archives: Alaska Highway in WWII
The Soldiers of the 35th Went Hungry
And the soldiers of the 35th went hungry–the ones who didn’t have serum hepatitis. Read about the Serum Hepatitis When, in March, their commanders dispatched the soldiers of the 35th over the 250-mile winter road to Ft Nelson, they took a hell of a chance. The road behind them would soon melt into impassible muck. …
The SS Nisutlin Forced the Rivers
SS Nisutlin and its Canadian crew forced the Yukon and Teslin Rivers to transport men and equipment for the 340th Engineers. General Hoge had ordered the 340th to build highway from Teslin through Yukon toward British Columbia. On the other side of the Continental Divide they would meet the 35th Engineers coming the other way. …
Gouging a Road through Yukon
The soldiers of Company A, finally gouging a road out of the wilderness powered through Yukon in May. The soldiers of Company B came right behind. For more on the 93rd On May 19th the North Country threw a curve at Company B when a forest fire flared about seven and a half miles from …
Moving Out to Tagish
When I last posted about the Alaska Highway Project, I followed the segregated 93rd Engineering Regiment into Carcross and out on the road toward Tagish. In early May, the Line Companies of the regiment mingled in confusion in the ten miles between Carcross and Crag Lake; and Commander Johnson, his staff and his company commanders …
Bivouac in the Woods
The soldiers, black and white, in bivouac through the North Country wilderness building the Alaska Highway in 1942 achieved something epic, accomplished something nearly impossible. But to do that they first had to live there. For More on the Need for the Highway For More Highway History and a Map Bivouacs moved frequently, following the …
Mosquitoes
The soldiers of the 93rd met mosquitoes as well as muskeg in the Yukon spring of 1942. The spring thaw got started in May, just as soldiers moved into the field. It turned the muskeg into thick brown soup. And it brought mosquitoes out of the ground in endless swarms. For more on muskeg The …
The Yukon Wilderness Fought Back with Muskeg
In May 1942 the men of the 93rd crammed into Yukon in enormous confusion. And the Yukon wilderness immediately fought back–with muskeg. Arriving at Crag Lake, a few miles out of Carcross, Captain Boyd, commander of Company C, ordered SSgt Dunn, his mess sergeant, to spud a hole through the ice to access water. An …
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Confusion and Chaos
In early May 1942 the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers moved out of Carcross–most in total confusion. The first company out of town, Company A, worked well. Their two borrowed bulldozers cleared a right of way; laid down trees, pushed dirt and brush to the side. Soldiers with hand tools scrambled over it, shoveling …
93rd Engineers Making Road
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 Carcross either. Making road, getting the …