This website is dedicated to the men of the 555th Heavy Ponton Battalion who served in the European Theatre in World War II. The enlisted men of the battalion were primarily from the Midwest; Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin. This unit was one of nineteen such battalions formed during the war, their primary mission being the establishment of pontoon bridges for infantry and mechanized troops. These vital transportation routes were naturally a primary target of enemy artillery, and the 555th saw their share of such action. The battalion arrived in Europe in 1945, and participated in the Rhine crossing and the drive into the heart of Nazi Germany. At wars end in Europe the 555th was in Bavaria, in southeast Germany, in the vicinity of Ulm. Men from the 555th were present during the liberation of the horrific Dachau concentration camp near Munich. The unit was in the process of redeployment to the Pacific Theatre when the war ended. As veterans, they came home, built their lives and communities, and their descendants number in the thousands.
That is their legacy.
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
- Ronald Reagan