Steve ROSICH

Source : Bruno Cadeville

 CEMTERY TEMPORARY of  Saint-André N°3572

Story of Cemetery Temporary 

Map of Normandy American Cemetery

Steve Rosich was born on September 8, 1921 from Hungarian migrant parents. He was the third child in the family, joining a brother, George, and a sister, Marie.
Steve went to Cranford schools, from the Lincoln Elementary to High School.
Like many youngsters, Steve was interested in cars and motorcycles. He didn’t feel the need of speed before getting his driving license. He would be involved in a few crashes with other vehicles, including one, in which his van flipped over in the middle of the city’s main avenue. Soon, he earned the nickname of «Spike» in Cranford.
In 1941, Steve found a job as a mechanic in a garage in town. He was highly respected by his team as well as the clients who described him as someone nice, patient and protective. He enjoyed sharing his passion with children who often went to the garage to see him work on cars and motorcycles.
It was with many regrets that his friends and colleagues saw him leave to join, as many of his comrades, the US Army.
Before getting into war, the United States actively deployed the construction of naval and air bases across the world. One of these military bases was located in Wake Island, a small atoll in West Pacific, over 1200 civil builders allowed its construction. On December 7, 1941, it was attacked a few hours after Pearl Harbor ; after two weeks of fights where civilians took the arms to support the Marines, it fell into the hands of the Japanese
Since then, the necessity of a militarized navy and a construction strength, capable of operating in a war zone and defending itself, became a priority.
On December 28 , 1941, Rear Adliral Ben Moreell requested permission to recruit over 60 professiones in construction and ingeneering and assign them to a Naval Construction Regiment made of three Naval Construction Battalions : This is how the Seabees were born, derived from the US Navy «CB» de l’US Navy. Their motto : «Construimus, Batuimus» , «We build, we fight» which was found by the Admiral himself.

Source : Fold3

Source : Bruno Cadeville & livre les bâteaux du Jour J.

Rhino ferries

Source : Bruno Cadeville & livre les bâteaux du Jour J.

Source : Bruno Cadeville

With his mechanical skills, Steve naturally joined the US Navy and the Seabees in 1943. He integrated the Seabees formation center where he would learn how to adapt his skills in civil constructions to the military needs. He learned the military discipline and the use of light weapons. After training for three weeks, a battalion was constituted. Then, he was sent away for six weeks of an advanced military and technical training. At the end of this training, Steve joined the 30th Construction Battalion , stationed in the British West Indies, in the island of Trinidad. German submarines had been located in the waters surrounding the island, therefore a military presence in this area was needed.
At the end of the mission, Steve came back to Cranford, he had a 31-day leave.
At the end of his leave, he entered the 28th Construction Battalion.
Steve volunteered to leave for the operational theatre in Europe.
The battalion left Camp Endicott in Davisville (Rhode Island) on April 19, 1944 and headed to Scotland, where it arrived on April 26 at Base 2, in Rosneath.
Then, the 28th Battalion was split in small detachments in various ports in England : Netley, Fowey, Plymouth and Falmouth and the Headquarters in Teignmouth. From these ports, the battalion was in charge of preparing the preliminary plans for Omaha and Utah Beach Camps as well as the lists of the materials and equipment needed for these camps construction functioning. These lists would be sent to the 81th and 111th Construction Battalion assigned to the camps exploitation.
They were also in charge of booking the crews for the Rhino Ferries operating in Omaha, as well as the Drydock Crews and the Float Crews who would land in Utah.
They did the preliminary study in the context of the equipment of the parts of construction for Drew One (Code name : Watson) Port of Cherbourg, Drew Two (Code name : Drummond) Port of Granville or in case of unavailability, Saint-Malo (Code name : Chatsworth).

Source : Bruno Cadeville

Source : Bruno Cadeville

Monument on Utah Beach

Source : Bruno Cadeville