After a 37 day voyage on the USAT motorship Pennant it disembarked at Darwin, Australia, and moved to its bivouac area five miles Northeast.

Two days later April 7 the outfit began working its assigned mission, construction of the 4th Air Depost and allied projects. This task included Tarmacs, quarry and crusher operation, sand and gravel pit operations, concrete work, clearing and grading roads and building sites, erection of warehouses and hangers construction of bomb dispersal bays, roads and aviation gas distribution system.

On July 10 1944 the Regiment was redesignated the 340th Engineer Construction Battalion. Its excess personnel went to form the newly activated 1180th Engineer Constructon Group and the 3014th Engineer Maintenance Company. The unit working at top speed, completed its assigned mission. On the 25th made preparations to move on. Three days later the entire Battalion sailed on the Liberty ships, the Don Marquis and the Sylvestre Escalante, for Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea. It disembarked on the 29th and moved by truck 22 miles inland and established camp on Hill 800.

In mid-September, it moved to the island of Morotai in the Netherlands East Indies. Immediately upon arrival the hardworking Battalion was confronted with the problem of water supply for thousands of troops. Lacking welldrilling equipment, it established temporary water points in native wells. At the begining wells were blasted at three sites and cased wih empty gas drums. Gallons per day were pouring out to troops.

Although Engineer equipmnt was in short supply and spare parts almost impossible to get, the 340th performed its assigned tasks with speed. During the next wo month the unit completed the construction of a "s" shaped taxiway connecting the Wama Strip and Pitoe Airdrome; two station hospitals, instalallation of plumbing, lighting, and sanitary facilities, quarters and recreation buildings, Liberty ship docks, and many other tasks of Major importance.

December 26 the Battalion was on board the LST's 680 and 126 and Liberty ship AK Mercury was once again at sea. The three ships joined a large Naval Task Faorce off Sansapor and proceeded to their destination via Leyte, Surigao Strait, and the China Sea. At dawn on the mornig of "S"day January 9 1945 the convoy entered Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippine Islands. Following heavy Navy shelling and dive bombing the first elements of the Battalion along with other assult troops, beached at 1200 hours followed shortly by the remainder of the men and equipment.

For the next seven months the Battalion was continuously on the move. They built bridges, constructed roads, landing strips, storage areas, dispersal points, hospitals, and various other engineering projects. One company was engaged in probing for mines, removing 155 mm shells buried as mines, collecting and destoying abandoned Japanese ammunition and blating shut the entrances of caves believed to be occupied by Japs.

Following the Japanese surrender the Engineers of the 340th wound up in Korea, where until their inactivation January 25 1949 they directed their effots toward building up the country. They constructed roads, built bridges, constructed and maintained pipelines, airfields and housing. Wells for water supply were drilled, homes rehibilitated, heating systems installed storage facilities erected.

Harland Charles Frederick