Documenting the War for Patton

"This was one of my darkrooms, Honey, some Nazi officials office."

View of construction of a fixed wooden bridge from the top of a double Bailey bridge

"Building bridge under bridge"

Jones and Dennis Wile in front of darkroom tent

Crawford: And your assignment in those days, was as a photographer?

Wile: Well, as I understand the 1270th Engineering Combat Battalion's function, since third army was moving so rapidly, they had a shortage of Bailey Bridges, and our function was to go beneath the Bailey Bridges that were up and construct Bridges and as soon as the new bridges were usable, to tear down that Bailey Bridge and transport it ahead to use it again at another site in a crossing over a river or stream or what ever it was. And in order for this to work in each instance, and give [General George] Patton the direction he wanted, what we were doing was taking bridge-type pictures, ahead of putting up the next Bailey Bridge. We might take three or four site pictures and then come back and develop them in the field and then deliver 'em to Patton's war room.

Crawford: What happened to the pictures you developed and printed?

Wile: Most of them went to Patton's war room. The preservation of these prints for hypo and all that stuff there. Some of these were done in tents. The men would set the tent up for me, and they treated me like I was General Patton, himself because I was taking pictures of them, and they were sending pictures home. Officers on down, it didn't matter. If you were a photographer, you had first class go about what you were doing. It was an amazing thing. They never picked out the photographers to do anything, but to make him feel wanted.