Bridges At Midnight: The 1108th Engineer Combat Group, Unsung Heroes Of The Italian Campaign

On the night of June 4, 1944, Colonel Kingsley S. Andersson raced into Rome alongside Brigadier General Robert Frederick's First Special Service Force. His mission: provide the technical expertise to determine whether the Germans had rigged the city's ancient Tiber bridges for demolition. By dawn, five bridges were secure, Andersson had earned the Silver Star, and Rome-the first Axis capital to fall-belonged to the Allies. But that dramatic night was only one chapter in a longer story. Bridges at Midnight follows the 1108th Engineer Combat Group from its formation at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, through the brutal Italian campaign: the Volturno River crossings, the bloody Winter Line, the hell of Cassino, the desperate months at Anzio, and the final drive to Rome. These were combat engineers-trained to build, but called to fight when the infantry needed them. They constructed bridges under artillery fire, cleared minefields by hand, and assaulted German positions as infantry when the tactical situation demanded it. The 1108th's efforts led to a Medal of Honor recipient, Sergeant Joseph Specker, multiple Distinguished Service Cross recipients, and two Presidential Unit Citations. Among its officers was Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Goodpaster, who would rise to become Supreme Allied Commander Europe and after retirement would be called back to active duty to serve as the Superintendent of West Point. Yet like most combat engineer units, the 1108th's story has never been fully told. Drawing on Colonel Andersson's wartime diaries housed at the Hoover Institution, unit records from the National Archives, official citations, and interviews with veterans, Bridges at Midnight recovers the history of these unsung heroes. It is a story of men who built the roads and bridges to victory-often operating at night, often under fire, always essential but rarely remembered. AUTHOR: Brigadier General Norman H. Andersson, U.S. Army (Retired) is a 1974 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served over thirty-six years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve, with assignments spanning combat engineer units in Germany and the U.S. He also served with the original U.S. Space Command. His final military assignment was Deputy Commanding General of Fort Carson and First Army Division West. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College. General Andersson holds a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Utah and a Doctorate in Christian Leadership from Louisiana Baptist University. He is the author of Jerusalem's Temple Now (2015). He is an entrepreneur and currently serves as CEO of Veteran Engineering and Technology LLC and Veteran Information Technologies, LLC, both service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses in Colorado Springs. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Aventa Credit Union.