Posted on 03/11/2015 2:53:12 PM PDT by Kaslin
Long ponderous movie about this battle - but amazing story.
A couple of days later my late father-in-law, a field artilleryman in the 78th Infantry Division crossed the bridge to establish the northern flank of the penetration.
Ever wonder if the Germans knew the war was lost and wanted the Americans to advance as far east as possible rather than have the Russians occupy more German territory. Too bad those German engineers weren’t interviewed after the war. That is not to deny the heroism and courage of those young American soldiers.
Your father-in-law was a brave man. A few days after that, the bridge fell, but by then the bridgehead had been established. Under cover of Americans on both sides of the river, engineers were able to erect pontoon bridges to take the weight of traffic streaming across.
The Germans should have kissed our asses, for the alternative would have been a much larger East Germany. Maybe only a rump West German state west of the river.
It was mostly luck along with American initiative.
An American tank shell had cut the detonation cable to the main charge. From what I saw in an interview, it was not a little line but was as big around as your arm.
They set off an emergency charge but it was composed of nitrate explosives because the German Engineers did not have any military grade explosives.
The Ludendorf bridge is long gone, all that stands now are the two towers on the west and east side. The one on the West side has a small Museum, the one on the east side appears closed. There is a regular shopping center behind the west tower. Really not much there to see. Funny, the museum has us as the “America Liberators” I guess after the Battle of the Bulge we suddenly became “Liberators”?
Operation Plunder would have been another Market Garden casualty-fest. Monty was hugely overrated in the European theater.
One of the soldiers on that bridge — and who barely managed to get off it in time — was a young Warren Spahn, who would receive a battlefield commission and be honored for his bravery. Imagine how different the story of Major League Baseball would be if the winningest left-hander in its history (and the winningest pitcher in the game after 1920) hadn’t gotten off the bridge in time. The war cost Spahn three years of pitching, but he always said it made him a more mature pitcher — and enabled him to keep pitching until age 43, after going a mind-boggling 23-7 the year before.
Remember reading a book on the crossing of the Rhine at Remagen some 50 years ago. Don't remember the name of the soldier who made it across first but remember he was from Omaha, NE.
Great Story!
Thanks for posting!
If one steps back and looks at the multi-decade effects of Hoge’s actions, he even did Germany a favor. They are far better off now than they would have been under the monster Hitler.
American initiative...http://www.lonesentry.com/gi_stories_booklets/9tharmored/index.html
“Next, engineers raced across to the far side of the bridge to cut the main cable. Sgt. Dorland squeezed the cable with a pair of small pliers but couldn’t even dent it. Without hesitating, he fired three shots into the cable with his carbine, smashing the line completely.”
Note that the members of the patrol who made the dangerous run across the bridge to prevent demolition were a Lt, SSGT, and SGT- leaders have to lead.
Nice pin. And just two months before that the old guy with the busted nose in the photo, age 42, was part of the greatest pitching duel in baseball history: sixteen innings, one run, seven future Hall of Famers, more than 200 pitches by each pitcher . . .and Spahn lost to 25 year-old Juan Marichal thanks to a home run by Willy Mays. That was one tough guy.
Yup...I’m a big Spahnie fan. I got that pin at the ballpark.
(I was 12) :{)
Or under Stalin. The soviets would’ve continued westward and gobbled up more of what ended up being West Germany.
IIRC Hitler had them all executed.
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