We were attached to the 1159th Engineer Combat Group and received the task of putting in a bridge at Kripp — about a mile upstream from the railroad bridge. The 552nd Engineer Heavy Pontoon Battalion was attached to us, along with a company from the 51st Engineer Combat Battalion. The 51st Engineer were also given the job of far shore security.
The Battalion arrived at Zulpich late the night of the 8th of March, parts of it not closing until early morning on the 9th. By 0730 we were on our way again — this time to Bad Neuenhauer some 75 miles away. These words cannot tell the story of that day, however. First Army was on the move — Divisions, Combat Teams, Engineer Units — everyone — and in a hurry about it, too. The destination for all was Remagen. Traffic looked like the bottlenecks back home on the Fourth of July.
Colonel Martin and the Company Commanders made a fast reconnaissance of the site that morning ; it was fast because the Jerries didn’t seem to like us very well. They came back with a good idea of what awaited us.
At 1500 on 10 March the final orders came through. We had started once before but had been chased off by the small arms fire. Now we were to receive small arms fire, strafing, shelling and bombing. It was no picnic.
The Rhine River was 969 feet wide at this point. The bridge, when completed was the longest ever constructed up to that time. The current, to put it mildly, was most erratic. On the near shore it was like a mill pond… further off it ran four to five miles an hour… and in the channel just off the far shore it varied from eight to twelve miles per hour — it had to be bridged!
Our power boats, veterans of previous operations, were the first to succumb. One of the first was trapped on the upstream side of the bridge by the current and was carried underneath. The operator managed to escape by climbing onto the bridge. From there on it was a field day.
Debris floating down the river rammed and sunk other powerboats; another fouled in the anchor lines and went down like a plummet. At last we were reduced to using the Navy’s LCVP’s until more powerboats could be secured.
The German artillery wasn’t neglecting us either. From the time the bridge started until long after it was completed the shells kept coming in… near misses mostly before they did damage and took years off our lives. When the shells weren’t bothering us, the planes did. The Luftwaffe, long reported dead, came out in force to stop this critical crossing. Flak, during air attacks, fell like hail and planes venturing near the area took unbelievable chances but even so some came through. The bridgehead was reputedly more heavily defended than the Normandy beach head.
One of the worst problems was anchorage. Our 150 pound anchors didn’t begin to hold. We used guy lines, extra anchors, and prayers to get that bridge to stay in place. At the end we had LCVP’s holding it in place against the current.
