289th Engineer Combat Battalion (United States)

289th Engineer Combat Battalion
Shoulder sleeve insignia
Active	1943–46
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army
Type	Combat engineer
Role	Combat service support
Size	Battalion
Engagements	World War II (Ardennes-Alsace Campaign, Rhineland Campaign, Central Europe Campaign)
Commanders
Notable commanders	Lt. Col. Linnel Wallace

The 289th Engineer Combat Battalion was a combat engineer battalion of the United States Army during World War II. It served under XXI Corps of the Seventh Army in action mainly in France and Germany in 1944 and 1945.

Its principal combat assignments in the Alsace and Rhineland included ferrying assault troops across the Saar River near Saarbrücken; escorting an ambulance corps across the Rhine at Worms near Mannheim; and ferrying troops and equipment across the Neckar River near Heidelberg.

Following these the 289th moved east towards Wurzburg to support the assault of that city. In the latter stages of the War it campaigned south and southeast through communities straddling the states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Company B continued on assisting rapidly moving armor in the Seventh Army's race to head off German entrenchment in a feared National Redoubt and seal off Alpine passes to Nazi escape.

By early May forward elements of the battalion were spread as far afield as Austria and northern Italy. VE-Day found the Headquarters & Supply company and remaining components of the 289th in Goppingen near Stuttgart

The 289th served occupation duty in three locations in southwest Germany before beginning its return to the United States via Antwerp, Belgium in August 1945.

The 289th Engineer Combat Battalion was constituted at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Little Rock, Arkansas, in December 1942. A cadre from the 299th Engineer Combat Battalion was detached to Camp Robinson to form its core, establishing Companies A, B, C, and HQ and Service. After training, the 289th left New York Port of Embarkation for the European Theater of Operations (ETO) on 22 October 1944. Upon arrival at Bristol on 1 November, it debarked for training in Weston-super-Mare. On 28 December it departed Southampton for Le Havre, landing 31 December.