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.
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.
IIRC Hitler had them all executed.
“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.”
Agreed with the last part - but nonetheless an interesting thought.