![]() In war, death can overtake you in many different ways. He was a very recent replacement in Company B of our Battalion. A Navy Duck, operating on the river, sideswiped and swamped a ferry,drowning one of our combat engineer soldiers. Goar, on the east side of the Rhine and return within our wounded and German prisoners, but not on the same trip.ĭuring the day our B Company had two of its jeeps knocked out with resulting casualties. The motor powered ferries would carry troops and supplies to St. With the infantry clearing the far side, the construction of ferries began. Goar was strongly resisted, with lighter resistance at Wellmich and Oberwessel. The assalt boats were manned by combat engineers of the 168th Battalion. The initial wave of boats were paddled and succeeding waves were powered. The assault boats entered the river for the crossing to Wellmich, St. The artillery opened fire on the far side of the river and the mission was underway. Orders for the crossing were received and at 2AM on Sunday the 26th. Goar and Oberwessel for suitable landing sites had been made by Staff Officers and all was in readiness. After a final preparation with the motors, we were ready for the Rhine River crossing. When we arrived at a wooded area near Braunshorn we started to prepare for the crossing. So we are off again, this time in the direction from which we had just come. Overnight the crossing was cancelled in this section and we were reassigned to the 1107th Group. The German civilians were ordered to vacate their homes and when the Battalion arrived they were able to move in. Enroute our orders were changed and we stopped at Oberthal. With the receipt of orders the Battalion was off for Kaiserlauten, where we were to join the XX Corps. All of our bridge building, road repair and mine removal work had been completed in this area and we awaited our orders for the Rhine River crossing which was awaiting our Battalion. Selected platoons in our Battalion received additional training in the operation and use of motor boats. We moved steadily east where our next big mission would be crossing the Rhine River. Did you ever hear the pitiful mooing of a cow that needed to be milked? We did none of these things, but we did milk their cows and savored the fruits of our labors. Some of the German civilians told us they had been told by their government officials that we would rob, rape and murder them. With the approach of the American Army from the west and the Russian army from the east there was soon no place to go. The abandonment of these towns and villages continued for a short time and then stopped. The civilian population had abandoned their home farms and livestock and moved farther into Germany at the approach of the American army. Bridges were built and roads were repaired and land mines and anti personnel were removed or destroyed as we continued our move through German cities, towns and villages. We turned east and moved through the Seigfried Line into Germany. Maintenance is constant and never ending. A corduroy road will provide the necessary traction for the vehicles so necessary in a war zone. A corduroy road is a poor substitute for a paved surface but we did not have that option. A corduroy road is constructed of sections of tree trunks covered by the rubble of destroyed buildings and homes. We constructed many sections of corduroy roadway, as the sub-coarses of the road had disappeared. We worked day and night restoring them to a condition where they could be used again. ![]() Most of the roads were nothing but a sea of mud, water and ruts. No highway system could withstand the conditions that the present roads were called on to withstand the beating they were subjected to. The road system was never constructed to handle the pounding of tracked vehicles and heavy highway trucks. Engineer Combat Battalion along with other combat engineer battalions were held in the Bastogne-Houfalize Area to restore the highway system to a serviceable condition. Then the armored units turned east to pursue the retreating enemy. Increased pressure on all sides of the Bulge caused the German Army to surrender or retreat back towards Germany. CCR of the 4th Armored Division pierced the Bulge at Bastogne on the 26th of December.
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