CHAPTER SEVEN
Crossing the Bridge
As the noise of the explosion echoed around the valley, Lieutenant Timmermann called out, ‘as you were, we can’t cross the bridge now because it has just been blown’. Yet as the smoke cleared Company A were astonished to see that the bridge was still standing. The charges had sheared a number of girders supporting the upstream truss above the far pier. They had also destroyed a large section of timber decking, leaving a gaping hole in the floor of the bridge two-thirds the way across the river.
As the clouds of dust cleared Lieutenant Timmermann could see that his men could still cross with care and called out, ‘we’ll cross the bridge – order of march 1st Platoon, 3rd Platoon and 2nd Platoon’. He intended to have his only remaining officer, Lieutenant Burrows, cross at the rear of the column. As the company prepared to move out, Colonel Engeman had taken steps to cover their advance with smoke. The tank destroyers and 105mm assault guns attached to his task force were lined up on the hill above Apollinaris Church and began firing white phosphorous shells. 27th Armored Infantry Battalion’s mortar platoon joined in, creating an acrid screen of smoke that drifted across the valley.
The damage caused to the bridge girders above the bridge pier can be clearly seen. National Archives 111-SC-203739
The Ludendorff Bridge, the charges were stacked over the pier to the right.
As 1st Platoon filed up the approach ramp, Sergeant Anthony Samele turned to his platoon leader, Sergeant Michael Chinchar, and gave a few words of encouragement: ‘C’mon, Mike, we’ll just walk it over.’ Chinchar set off half running, half crouching, onto the viaduct followed by Private Art Massie and an officer of the 9th Armored Engineer Battalion, Lieutenant Mott. Samele came close behind and he may have heard Major Deevers’ jest; ‘I’ll see you on the other side and we’ll all have chicken dinner.’
As 1st Platoon made their way onto the bridge, 3rd Platoon, led by Sergeant Joe DeLisio, gave covering fire while the Germans on the far bank returned fire. When Sergeant Chinchar reached the first pair of bridge towers he ordered Private Massie to lead some of the platoon onto the bridge. ‘Massie, you leapfrog me up as far as that blown hole.’ Massie’s replied, ‘I don’t want to go but I will’. The rest of Chinchar’s men entered the towers to make sure they were clear of German soldiers. As the GIs ducked and weaved along the timber walkway, bullets and shells ricocheted of the bridge girders:
Sniper fire rattled around the bridge, along with some 20mm fire from the high ground on the south bank near REMAGEN, also a few rounds of high velocity fire hit the superstructure of the bridge.
Although the first two towers on the west bank were unoccupied, the matching towers on the opposite bank were obviously manned. Machine guns stationed in the upper storey windows were firing furiously sending streams of bullets over the heads of Timmermann’s men as they filed across the centre span. The crackle of fire coming from the enemy-held bank sounded impressive, but Company A suffered no casualties. The Germans in the towers were finding it difficult to find targets through the lattice of bridge girders.
At the same time as Chinchar’s men made there way past the hole in the decking above the second pier, Lieutenant Mott and his two assistants had begun to search for the detonation wiring. They hoped to cut it in case the Germans somehow still had the means to blow the bridge. Lieutenant Mott soon found the metal tubing carrying the cable for the primary charges and placed the muzzle of his gun against the pipe. He fired three shots, blasting open the conduit and severing the cable, thus rendering the circuitry useless.
As Timmermann’s men made their way towards the far bank some wondered if the Germans had machine guns waiting in railway tunnel ahead. If they had opened fire at the last minute, Company A would be decimated. Major Deevers later commented how he ‘was worried more than anything else about guns in that tunnel’.
As Sergeant DeLisio’s platoon made their way past the hole in the decking, anyone who cared to look down would have seen the swirling waters of the Rhine ten metres below. Firing as they ran, 1st Platoon began to get ever closer to the towers on the far bank. Despite the fact that just about every German unit in the vicinity was firing everything they had at the bridge, so far only one man had been slightly wounded:
A small amount of artillery was coming in [maybe it was mortar fire], along with sniper fire, and some anti-aircraft fire, from the south side along the high ground on the near bank.
At last Sergeant DeLisio reached the foot of the right hand tower and smashed his way through the door. The office beyond was empty. As he climbed the spiral staircase, gun at the ready, he could hear the sound of automatic fire coming from above. Moments later the gunfire stopped and as DeLisio burst into the next room he was confronted by three German soldiers huddled over their weapon. A couple of warning shots encouraged the gun crew to put their hands up. Motioning the crew away from the weapon he tipped it out of the window. He asked as best he could about any others in the tower. They assured him that they were the only men in the building, however, DeLisio decided to check out the top floor. Sending his captives ahead of him up the stairs he followed close behind. On the next floor he discovered a further two Germans, an officer and his orderly. A warning shot encouraged their surrender.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Chinchar led two men into the left hand tower. Here they captured a solitary German who had been manning a machine gun at an upper storey window. After tossing the weapon to the ground below, Chinchar shouted down to his men, giving them the all clear.
Sergeant Alex Drabik – the first man across the Rhine. National Archives 111-SC-202534
While the lead men had been tackling the towers others continued to run across towards the east bank:
Sergeant Alex Drabik came up and barrelled across the bridge to win the honour of being the first man across, although no one was thinking of that at the time. Just as he got across, Sgt Drabik stumbled and fell and lost his helmet, which Brigadier-General William C Hoge later picked up.
Company A establish a toehold on the east bank
The first American soldiers set foot on the east bank of the River Rhine a few minutes after 16:00 hours 7 March, 1945. Sergeant Drabik was unaware that Sergeant DeLisio was still engaged in the bridge tower and, after rounding up a few men, he turned left, heading along the riverbank looking for his platoon leader. After two hundred metres, it was obvious that there were no other American soldiers up ahead so Drabik established a firing line in shell craters straddling the railway line. Chinchar’s platoon headed in the opposite direction and established a defensive line at the foot of the Erpeler Ley. Lieutenant Burrows platoon brought up the rear of Company A and joined Drabik north of the bridge. Burrows was the first US Army officer to step foot on the east bank of the river Rhine. By now there were seventy men holding a tight perimeter either side of the bridge.
Once Lieutenant Timmermann had crossed, his main concern was that the Germans could counterattack from the railway tunnel into the centre of A Company’s position. Sergeant DeLisio had just returned from the bridge tower and he was ordered to take four men to investigate the tunnel. As DeLisio moved cautiously along the rail tracks the bend in the tunnel made it difficult to see what lay ahead. As their eyes became accustomed to the darkness the GIs saw shadowy figures in the distance. After firing a single shot, four of Friesenhahn’s engineers raised their hands and stepped forward. Once he had reached the bend in the tunnel Sergeant DeLisio could see that the rest of the tunnel was deserted. Although there were civilians in the cutting beyond the tunnel, they did not pose a threat to Company A’s position and DeLisio was able to return to report his findings.
As Brigadier Hoge watched Company A cross the bridge from the hill above Remagen, new orders came through from divisional headquarters. Major-General Leonard wanted CCB to push south in the hope of cutting off German troops retiring to the Rhine. The instructions presented Hoge with a dilemma. If he was to have a chance of maintaining a foothold he needed to keep pushing men across the river into the established bridgehead. Although Brigadier Hoge needed confirmation from Leonard as quickly as possible, he decided to keep on sending his men across the bridge. The message dictated by Hoge at 16:18 would soon be repeated all the way up to the top of the Allied chain of command:
We have a bridge intact across the river at Checkpoint 15 [Remagen]. Shall I continue to hold this bridgehead in view of the new mission south? We have one company across at 16:10.
In order to clarify the order, Hoge immediately set off back towards his command post in Birresdorf, leaving clear instructions with Engeman and Deevers:
Get demolitions off bridge and secure high ground, we will protect your rear and support you with additional troops. Dig in well on high ground and establish roadblocks well mined on east side of river.
27th Armoured Infantry Battalion’s toe hold on the east bank of the Rhine.
As Company A crossed the river and established themselves on the east bank, the German officers in charge of destroying the bridge had run through the rail tunnel. However, once on through the tunnel, Hauptmann Bratge and Hauptmann Friesenhahn tried their best to round up men to return to contend the crossing. On the otherhand Major Scheller headed off on a bicycle, with the declared intention of reporting the news of the American success to the nearest headquarters.
Historic message covering the crossing of the bridge.
27th Armored Infantry Battalion continue to cross
As Company A made their way onto the far bank of the Rhine, Company C, led by Lieutenant William E McMasters, started to cross. A Sherman, equipped with a dozer, began to fill in the crater on the approach ramp. As the tank began to level out the hole, a sniper opened fire from a partly submerged barge in the river, halting the work. The tank was unable to depress it’s gun far enough to hit the barge. However, men on the bridge from Company C noticed the threat down by the river bank:
They halted and turned their fire on the barge, where upon a sniper raised a white flag, but too late [for him].
Two 40mm flak guns on the far bank also tried to stop the engineers’ work. The rest of Captain Soumas’ tanks soon silenced them.
Troops shelter in the railway tunnel. National Archives 111-SC-201973-S
With work on the crater underway, Colonel Engeman wanted news on the state of the bridge and when Lieutenant Mott returned he was able to report that the wiring to the remaining charges had been cut. He now needed a supply of timber to repair the hole in the decking:
The bridge is OK for infantry now, and many of them are already over. We’ll have it ready for vehicles in two hours.
In the meantime, his men were looking for packets of explosives, and upon finding them throwing them into the river in case a stray piece of shrapnel caused an accidental explosion.
Once Company C had crossed the bridge they made their way through Erpel to establish a defensive perimeter around the village. As McMasters’ men took up positions along the railway cutting, they discovered a group of Germans hiding in the tunnel. While Timmermann’s men had been filing across the bridge, the two German officers, Bratge and Friesenhahn, had rounded up a few stragglers with the intention of reaching the remaining explosives on the bridge. However, by the time they returned Company A already had the tunnel covered. As they retraced their steps, the two officers found that their escape route had been cut off, leaving them no option but to surrender.
Now that Major Deevers had secured the roads to the north and south of the bridge, his next concern was the heights dominating the crossing, Erpeler Ley. If the Germans occupied the crest they could fire down on the approach roads leading up to the bridge. B Company had brought up the rear of the 27th Armoured Infantry Battalion and after Lieutenant Jack H Liedike had assembled his men on the far bank, he was ordered to climb to the top of the cliff.
1st Platoon met up with a platoon of Company A on the outskirts of Erpel and as the two began to climb the northwest slopes of the hill, they came under heavy fire from 20mm flak guns situated on the northern edge of Erpel. The German crews had a perfect view of the hillside and as the GIs scrambled up the slopes, casualties began to mount. An entire squad of Company B was wiped out by automatic canon fire and Company A’s platoon lost twelve men. The survivors pushed on, eventually finding cover beyond the crest of what become known as ‘Flak Hill’.
Geman infantry, manning a MG 42, shoot it out with troops on the opposite bank. Note the soldier using a rifle with a sniper scope.
Prisoners file across the bridge into captivity. National Archives 111-SC-201874-S
They met the rest of Company B who had climbed the south east side of the cliff and although they had managed to remain unseen during their ascent, two men had fallen from the crag and been seriously injured. Several abandoned 20mm AA guns found at the top of the hill were destroyed and as Liedike’s men took stock of their position they could see German troops in the valley above Kasbach.
At 18:00 Colonel Engeman and Major Deevers were able to report that the bridgehead was still intact. Two hours had passed since Sergeant Drabik had stepped onto the east bank of the Rhine and so far the German response had been minimal;
Our troops holding high ground on east side of river. Their positions receiving heavy 20mm and mortar fire from the west bank of the river [Victoriasberg Heights] and 1,000 yards left of Remagen [Unkel].
German flak gun on the east bank of the Rhine were silenced by Captain Soumas’ tanks. J William Mustanich/Friedensmuseum
Sketch of the crossing made by Sergeant Eugene Dorland of the 9th Armored Engineer Battalion.
Looking over the bridge from Erpler Ley. Stang/Friedensmuseum
The Missing Artillery Regiment
As 27th Armored Infantry Battalion began to establish itself on the east bank, Colonel Engeman was informed that a regiment of artillery was hidden in the woods to the west of the Victoriasberg Heights. It was the missing regiment of the 277th VolksgrenadierDivision that Major Scheller had waited for earlier that morning. A prisoner of war believed that the two batteries had been forced to take cover to avoid being spotted by 9th Armored Division’s artillery reconnaissance planes. As the American CCB advanced, the guns had become cut off from Remagen. They had attempted to cut across country but the horse drawn carriages had bogged down. Engeman instructed Lieutenant Dmitri Paris, commander of his light tank company, to find the artillery regiment. His men eventually found twelve horse drawn guns in the woods south of Plattborn.
Message reporting that the bridgehead is holding.
News begins to spread
While 27th Armored Infantry Battalion began to dig in on the far bank of the Rhine, Brigadier Hoge was still seeking assurance that he should continue to send men across the river. Having heard nothing from divisional headquarters, he decided to return to his command post to try and make contact. However, a short time after he arrived at Birresdorf, Major-General Leonard arrived. General Leonard later recalled discussion:
Early in the afternoon I had been down with CCA in what appeared to be the main drive to the south towards the Ahr River. I came up to the CCB command post at Birresdorf and General Hoge was there, having just returned from looking at the bridge from the high ground overlooking Remagen. General Hoge said ‘Well we got the bridge’, I said, That’s a hell of a note. Now we got the bull by the tail, and caused a lot of trouble. But let’s push it and then put it up to corps.
Now he had the support of his superior officer, Brigadier Hoge was able to concentrate on sending all his troops across the river.
Although 27th Armored Infantry Battalion had managed to form roadblocks either side of the bridge and secured the high ground overlooking the crossing, the toehold could easily be driven into the river by a strong counterattack. Some were concerned the Germans might still have the means to blow up the bridge isolating Major Deevers’ men on the far bank. Major-General Leonard outlined his own personal fears later; he wondered ‘... whether the sons of b-----s had put some delayed time-bombs on the bridge.’ Even so he cancelled the order to push south to the River Ahr and encouraged Brigadier Hoge to support the crossing with all the available men and vehicles in the area. He considered that it was better to push men across and fight on although he ‘...still figured that it might be an enemy trap, but he concluded that it would be better to risk the sacrifice of having the force cut off by a blown bridge’.
The driver of a halftrack keeps watch for enemy aircraft from the streets of Remagen. National Archives 111-SC-202241
After consultation with Brigadier-General Hoge the two agreed to probe the German defences at the first opportunity,
We did some scratching of our heads at first, but General Hoge and I agreed that we couldn’t even think of coming back once we had pushed across. The only thing to do was to exploit the bridgehead.
Even if the bridge collapsed landing craft and DUKW’s could ferry supplies across the river while engineers built temporary crossings.
While the two studied the problems caused by the unexpected crossing, Captain Robert W Alexander, Leonard’s Aide, drove back to divisional headquarters in Stadt Meckenheim to report the news. Although he managed to contact III Corps, General Millikin was away at 78th Infantry Division’s headquarters and Alexander asked for advice what to do about the unexpected turn in events. Colonel Harry Johnson, Millikin’s Chief of Staff, was in no doubt what his commanding officer would want; cancel the offensive operation south of the Ahr River and exploit the Remagen bridgehead with every available man.
The first night
As darkness fell Major-General Leonard took steps to send troops to Remagen. 9th Armored Division’s original plan to drive south across the Ahr River, meant that the bulk of the infantry was several hours away. Trucks were sent to Bad Godesberg to collect the 1/310th Infantry Regiment and transport the men to the bridge, while the 47th Infantry Regiment, the 52nd and the 60th Armored Infantry Battalions were also directed to move to Remagen at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime Brigadier Hoge planned how to reinforce his men on the far bank. He was relieved to hear that the 52nd Armored Infantry Battalion had cleared the village of Kripp before nightfall, eliminating the chance of a German counterattack on the west bank. It was one less thing to worry about.
Meanwhile, the situation at the bridge was still causing him concerns, the infantry on the far bank desperately needed armoured support. Although Company A of the 14th Tank Battalion was waiting impatiently to cross, the engineers were still trying to make the bridge safe for vehicles. The damage caused by the explosion on the north pier had ripped out a large part of the timber decking. A brief survey had shown that the main structure had survived the blast more or less intact nevertheless, real damage to the girders was still a matter of some concern. The engineers still needed their supply of stout timber to effect repairs. As the hours passed, search parties failed to turn up anything useful and eventually Brigadier Hoge gave permission to remove timber from local properties.
As Major Deevers men waited anxiously for reinforcements, news that troops had managed to establish a crossing over the Rhine was beginning to spread. As early as 19:30 the staff at the 52nd Armoured Infantry Battalion knew that they were soon to be on the move when a liaison officer arrived with news that all previous orders had been cancelled and Lieutenant-Colonel Price had been summoned to CCB Headquarters. Forty minutes later he returned and called a meeting with his company commanders to brief them on their new orders. In the meantime, drivers were ordered to warm up the vehicles and the men had to be ready to move out immediately.
The damaged decking reduced traffic across the bridge to single file. National Archives 111-SC-202370-S
Armoured troops make their way towards Remagen. National Archives 111-SC-421363
An advance party set off at 20:30 to contact CCB Headquarters and make the necessary arrangements prior to the main force moving out an hour later. Little did the GIs know that they would spend most of the night on the road, snarled up in a huge traffic jam as vehicles carrying men and equipment tried to make their way into Remagen. It would take six hours to travel little over six miles; the 52nd Armored Infantry Battalion’s experiences were typical on the roads leading to Remagen that night.
Tanks begin to cross the bridge
As reinforcements began to head towards Remagen, Brigadier Hoge was relieved to hear that the bridge was finally ready to accept vehicles. A queue of vehicles, including 27th Armored Infantry Battalion’s abandoned halftracks were blocking many of the roads through the town and in an attempt to relieve the congestion. Hoge had ordered spare vehicles to park on the side roads, leaving Koblenzstrasse free for traffic heading for the bridge.
Hoge wanted his towed anti-tank guns to cross first but an unexpected delay meant that Captain Soumas’ company of tanks went first. The dozer tank that had stood guard on the approach ramp was ordered to move out of the way and at 00:15 on 8 March the first Sherman tank edged its way tentatively onto the bridge. As the driver followed the white tape strung out to guide them forward, the rest of the crew watched anxiously. Captain Soumas later recalled how,
They made the trip without incident, except that their passage over the planking was accompanied by an ominous and nerve-wracking creaking.
Over the next thirty minutes Engeman’s nine Shermans crossed over the bridge and made their way down onto the river road. Following advice from the engineers Colonel Engeman decided to leave his four Pershing tanks on the Remagen side of the river. Although they were sorely needed on the east bank of the river, no one could be sure that the temporary repair would be able to support them.
Infantry and tanks make their way onto the east bank of the Rhine. National Archives 111-SC-202358
Five tanks turned west heading down the Erpel road in search of Company A. However, before they established contact with the infantry, German engineers launched a counterattack in the hope of reaching the bridge with explosives. The tank crews fired blindly into the darkness with their 0.5 calibre machine guns as the Germans closed in and at one point, crew members had to throw grenades from the turret hatch to drive them off. Captain Soumas recalls how close the Germans came to reaching the bridge,
Only a few minutes after the northern roadblock had been established, the enemy staged an infantry counterattack in its vicinity. It was too dark to tell from which direction the attack came; the roadblock was descended upon by swarms of Germans and a great deal of shooting resulted. The counterattack was beaten off, but no prisoners were taken because of the darkness. The next morning ten Germans came out of holes in the vicinity and surrendered.
The surviving German engineers withdrew to report to Major Bödicker that the road was strongly held. Little did they know how close they had come to achieving their objective.
The disappearance of the infantry puzzled many for some time, however, an interview with Major Russell, 27th Armored Infantry Battalion’s Intelligence Officer, some weeks later may provide the answer. During the course of the night the men on the far bank were naturally on edge. Although the upper echelons were delighted to have established a foothold on the east bank of the Rhine, the GIs in the front line were concerned by the lack of armour and halftracks. Everyone realised that the Germans would counterattack at the first opportunity and noises heard in the distance soon started rumours amongst the men that tanks were on their way to attack them. As the night wore on men started to drift back towards the bridge and some began crossing the river.
... someone started a rumour that the troops on the east side were to withdraw. Major Russell states that unfortunately this rumour was started by an officer, which gave it a ring of truth. There was no excuse for the rumour having started and the only apparent reason for it was a desire of this officer to get back where it was safe.
As a consequence, during the early hours of the 8th, about a third of 27th Armored Infantry Battalion returned to the Remagen side of the river, leaving the bridgehead extremely exposed. Fortunately, officers on the west bank soon detected the unauthorised withdrawal and within the hour the men had returned across the river.
While his men battled for survival on the Erpel road, Captain Soumas led his remaining tanks towards the town of Kasbach, joining Company C’s roadblock 800 metres east of the bridge. Before long his crews faced a second attack by German engineers trying to reach the bridge. Under cover of darkness Major Strobel had assembled sixty men in Hönnigen. The plan was to carry explosives along the riverbank and slip past the roadblock undetected. A counterattack against the town of Orsberg was arranged to start at the same time in the hope of creating a diversion.
Leutnant Auch almost succeeded in getting his men past the tank roadblock, but they were detected as they closed in on the bridge. Fifteen were rounded up and taken prisoner in the
Looking over Erpel towards the Ludendorff Bridge. National Archives 111-SC-202634
retreat that followed. A second attempt made a few hours later also ended in failure, resulting in another twenty-two of Strobel’s men being captured.
Major Herbert Strobel gathered sixty men and organised a counter attack. Friedensmuseum
The attack on Orsberg was also doomed to failure. A mixed group of German infantry and engineers made their way down the Bruchhausen road, not knowing what to expect. There had been no time to reconnoitre the American positions and as they stumbled on Company A’s line of foxholes, the Germans came under heavy fire. In the confusion that followed, panic set in and the Germans withdrew towards Bruchhausen, thinking that Orsberg was strongly held.
As the Germans probed 27th Armored Infantry Battalion’s perimeter, Company B on top of Erpeler Ley spent an uncomfortable night. It was reported:
At 01:00 an enemy artillery barrage of 23 rounds fell; all but three, however, were duds. Protection against artillery was meagre. The men could not dig foxholes in the stone. We just had to lie there and sweat it out.
Adolf Hitler Strasse in Remagen was renamed Yankstrasse. National Archives 111-SC-201957-S
Fortunately, the Germans decided against attacking the hill and Leutnant Liedike’s men only encountered one German, an artillery observer, attempting to return to his post. As Major Deevers’ infantry and the handful of tanks fought off attacks against the bridgehead, many of them were beginning to wonder where the promised reinforcements were.
The 52nd Armored Infantry Battalion had finally reached Remagen, having spent the past few hours stuck in traffic. The plan was to send the infantry across on foot along with the halftracks towing their anti-tank guns. At 02:00 Lieutenant-Colonel Prince’s men left their halftracks and within the hour Company C began to file along the pedestrian walkway at the same time that a tank destroyer, the first of its type to cross the bridge, edged its way onto the decking.
Company C of the 656th Tank Destroyer Battalion had begun to arrive in Remagen shortly after midnight and as they lined up ready to cross, sporadic artillery fire targeted the town while German snipers trapped on the west bank fired into the darkness. At 03:00 Captain Tuggle, the Company CO, was finally given orders to cross and the column of tank destroyers moved up the approach ramp led by Sergeant Miller’s jeep. Guides waved the column onto the bridge, making sure that they followed the white line painted on the decking. At first all went well but as Sergeant Jaroscak’s tank destroyer crawled forward, disaster struck. Upon passing the second pier, the temporary timbers over the damaged decking slipped, sending the vehicle lurching forward. It finally came to rest on the bridge girders and despite Sergeant Jaroscak’s attempts to free his tank destroyer, one track was unable to maintain a grip. The vehicle was stuck and nothing could pass.
For the next three hours the engineers and tank crews struggled to free the stricken tank, using crowbars and towropes to try and pull it back onto the decking. Meanwhile, Captain Soumas waited anxiously on the far bank to greet the tank destroyers and as the hours passed he sent numerous requests for news as to where they were. Finally, at 06:00 he discovered what the hold up was:
TD is stuck on bridge, trying to pull from this side, stand by in case needed, if traffic starts flowing, not needed.
A military policeman studies the sign proudly erected by the 9th Armored Division. National Archives 111-SC-202242
Although no vehicles could cross, the 52nd Armored Infantry Battalion continued to file past the bottleneck on foot and by 04:00 all three companies were on the far bank. Lieutenant-Colonel Prince was ordered to take over the west side of the bridgehead, covering Erpel and part of 27th Armored Infantry Battalion’s perimeter around Orsberg and by first light the battalion was in place, ready to face any counterattacks from the direction of Unkel or Bruchhausen.
Having crossed the bridge, troops make their way down to the river road. National Archives 111-SC-202357
1/310th Infantry Regiment had begun to arrive at midnight and as the GIs assembled in the centre of the town they were confronted by a mass of lorries and halftracks. Military police herded the battalion through the packed streets down to the bridge and at 04:00 the first men of the battalion stepped on the east side of the Rhine. Having secured the western half of the bridgehead, Brigadier Hoge now wanted to expand the eastern side towards Kasbach. In the meantime 2nd Platoon scaled Eperler Ley to head across country towards the village, the rest of the company made their way along he river road. They had only marched 150 metres when the head of the column stumbled on a German patrol that had managed to slip past the roadblock. Seven men were taken prisoner and a quick search showed that they were carrying explosives obviously intended for the bridge. After sending the prisoners to the rear, Company B moved into Kasbach, finding the small cluster of houses and factory deserted and by first light the 1/310th Infantry Regiment was holding a perimeter on the high ground around Ockenfels.
Although Brigadier Hoge’s plan to deny the Germans of the high ground around the bridge was beginning to take shape, the lack of armour and anti-tank guns was extremely worrying.
The American engineers finally freed the trapped tank destroyer at 06:00, after three hours of backbreaking work and once more the column of vehicles began to move. They were just in time. With dawn approaching Brigadier Hoge was concerned that his men would soon be facing more counterattacks. His infantry would stand little chance of survival if the Germans had managed to bring tanks into the area during the night. At first light Hoge ordered all his subordinate commanders to cross over to the east bank and set up their command posts close to their units. There was still a chance that a lucky artillery shell could bring the bridge down and if it did, he intended to fight on in the hope that ferries and amphibious vehicles could keep him supplied until engineers could build temporary bridges.
Work starts on temporary crossings across the Rhine
As troops began to pour into Remagen, General Millikin’s main concern was how to increase the flow of traffic across the river. The Ludendorff Bridge was reduced to one-way only and no one expected it to be able to supply more than a few hundred men. As columns of trucks and halftracks made their way to the bridge through the dark night, filling roads for miles around Remagen, plans were being made to provide alternative crossings. Colonel F R Lyons, III Corps’ chief engineer was familiar with the Remagen area, having served with the Army of Occupation as the local commander in 1918.
It would take several days to install pontoon bridges across the Rhine and in the meantime Lyons planned to establish a series of ferries north and south of the bridge. Naval Unit No 1, equipped with twenty-four LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel), was ordered to start a ferry service within hours of the initial crossing. Each LCVP was capable of carrying either twenty-four men, four tons of supplies or a vehicle up to three quarters of a ton in weight. They could be put into operation almost immediately, operating a shuttle service across the river.
However, III Corps also needed to send tanks, anti-tank guns and heavy equipment across the Rhine and General Millikin had directed 86th Engineer Heavy Pontoon Battalion to the Remagen area with orders to start building rafts capable of carrying tanks. Millikin wanted three ferries, one adjacent to the bridge, the second to the north and the third to the south, to relieve the traffic situation around Remagen. It also meant that each part of the bridgehead could operate independently if the Germans managed to break through to the riverbank at any point.
Infantry climb aboard an LCVP to make the crossing. National Archives 111-SC-203132
Tanks were floated across the river on makeshift pontoons. National Archives 111-SC-222569
Landing craft ferried troops and equipment across the Rhine until temporary bridges were built. National Archives 111-SC-335580
A DUKW ferries troops across the Rhine to Erpel. National Archives 111-SC-203131.
The American engineers managed to reach their respective crossing points on 8 March and began to build their temporary rafts. Pontoons were floated into the river and strapped together before covering the assembly with timber decking; a twenty-two horsepower outboard motor would power the ferry across the Rhine.
Throughout the day landing craft and pontoons ferried troops and equipment across the river and although they managed to supplement the traffic crossing the bridge, new crossings would have to be built to sustain the bridgehead on the far bank.