Remagen

Ludendorff RR Bridge Spanning the Rhine River, Remagen to Erpel under construction circa: 1918 Kilroy was here !

        "The bridge fell at 1510 hr. 17 March 1945. There was no warning noise, such as popping of rivets, and no apparent cause for its falling at that particular time. No enemy action had been recorded in the preceding two hours, although German as well as our own shelling had been severe for 24 hr. prior to that. No work was taking place that would influence the structure toward failure. In falling, the main span suddenly rotated upstream, then crashed vertically. The approach spans were lifted and dropped onto the dry flood plain, resting in an upright position. In conclusion the bridge was standing with a very small margin of safety and it appears that the vibration of our artillery coupled with that of the enemy's artillery caused the final failure."   These words are from the report of Capt. James B. Cooke, structural expert in the Office of the Chief Engineer, E.T.O. and concluded a ten day phase of Engineering drama.

        As we know this all started at 1630 on March 7, 1945 when Brig. Gen. William M. Hoge, who as an Engineer officer turned Armored Force General, as commander of Combat Command B of the Ninth Armored Division issued a now famous order "Block the demolition's, cross the bridge and capture it for our use." He thus initiated what became known as the Remagen Bridgehead.
           Historians have well documented what occurred in these ten days but some portions are worth retelling to point out the magnitude of this operation. After the initial crossing the next job was to establish supplemental crossing facilities.    This task was given to Col. F. R. Lyons, Engineer of III Corps. Fortuitously Col Lyons was familiar with the area as in 1918 he had been the local commander of the Army of Occupation and was present at the dedication of the newly constructed Remagen Bridge.
            Ferry No. 1 was operational by daylight on March 8, followed by other ferries and amphibious Ducks. These were constructed and operated by the 299th Combat, the Sixth Heavy Ponton and the 276th Combat Engineer Battalions.

The 1,050 ft. treadway-ponton bridge was begun at 12:30 pm on March 9. It was built by the 988th & 998th Treadway Bridge Companies and the 291st Combat Battalion all under the supervision of 1111 Engineer Combat Group.

Simultaneously a 985 ft. heavy ponton bridge was built by the 51st Combat Battalion, the 18th & 52nd Heavy Ponton Battalions under the supervision of the 1159th Engineer Combat Group. These bridges were open to traffic after 80 hours of continuous construction, which is pretty remarkable when you consider this was done under enemy fire with many casualties and much damage sustained.

            At the same time and for the next ten days of rehabilitation work, an attempt to save the badly damaged Ludendorff R.R. bridge was carried out by the 164th & 278th Engineer Combat Battalions and the 1058th Port Const. and Repair Group. For nine days the repair work was pushed with all speed, injuries and lives paying for what progress was made.   Under the circumstances, one could pray for a successful conclusion to the third chapter of this story of the Remagen bridgehead: and many no doubt did pray.   But it was not to be and on March 17, ten days almost to the hour from the time the first American set foot on it, the Remagen Bridge crashed into the Rhine.   Many of the men who had so courageously stuck by the repair work went down with the structure, 28 being lost and many more suffering injuries.
While this big operation was being carried out down at Remagen my little unit the 488th Engineer Light Ponton Company under the command of Capt. Gordon E. Stubbings consisting of 208 men all told, attached to the 6th Corps. of the Seventh Army and working with elements of the 36th Texas, 42nd Rainbow, 103rd Cactus, and 44th.Infantry Divisions and units of the 2826, 2827 and 2828 Combat Engineer Battalions of the 36th. Sea horse Engineers Regiment.   In a 10 day period following March 15, had a hand in constructing 16 Bailey bridges during the 7th Army's push through the Alsace, crossing the Siegfried line near Wissembourg and eventually the Rhine river at Ludwigshaven-Mannheim on March 31, via a floating Treadway bridge. (It was here that Jeep driver Bill Baggett told me he drove downhill all the way across the Rhine as he was following immediately behind a heavy Tank.)
            After crossing the Rhine the 488th traveled generally south east to Heidelberg up the Neckar river with a pretty good sized battle at Heilbronn.   The Seventh Army then advanced more southerly and we passed Stuttgart and crossed the Danube river near Ulm and thence into the Bavarian Alps. When the war in Europe ended on May 8, the Bailey train I was with was south of Innsbruck. We were then pulled back to our Company Hq and stationed at Ober Ammergau where we were forced to spend a portion of the summer in the beautiful Alps near the resort area of Garmish-Partenkirchen.    While still at Ober Ammergau we did construct a few more timber bridges in the area, one of which, over the Ammer river was dedicated as the Richard P. Roundy Memorial Bridge.   Dick nearly made it as he was killed on May 5, in his 20th year.
        The 488th moved back to camp Lucky Strike, France in July and thence to Camp Twenty Grand located at Duclair, France. (Can you imagine in the 90's the U. S. Government, naming Army installations for brands of cigarettes, in addition to issuing free butts to the troops with their rations. We have come a long way , I guess??)    Scuttlebutt, later confirmed, had it that our next move was to be to Marseilles and shipping out through the Suez to Burma and staging for the anticipated invasion of Japan.    Therefore I have never taken umbrage with President Harry Truman's decision to drop the big one on Hiroshima in late August effectively ending major combat in WW II.
            Once more on the move in September the 488th was on the road to Roermond, Holland. Our assignment there was to pick up the fuel and oil pipe lines which had been laid, complete with pumping stations, on the ground across Belgium and Holland by the Army to transport fuel to the front during hostilities. This had become a hindrance to the local farmers and others, so it was necessary to retrieve it for salvage and removal to the shipping docks in Antwerp.   It was during this period that the ranks began to thin out as high point men were being sent home for discharge.
            For my part I and about 15 other low pointers falling for the threat of an assured year in the Army of Occupation, and succumbing to the blandishment's of a furlough in the States had re-enlisted for one year plus the furlough time. Thus after a 3 month furlough I spent the year of 1946 assigned to the 346 Engineer G. S. Regt. stationed at the Vahiegen Kaserne on the outskirts of Stuttgart. Visiting in 1987 I learned that this Kaserne had become the present day Patch Barracks, which I believe was the Command center for the whole area. I never regretted this year as I became a Regimental Courier with quite a lot of leeway and it was an interesting time to be in Europe. ( One bit of trivia here, my wife Mary always said I was a little slow in some departments and this was driven home forcibly a couple of years ago while musing in the shower one morning, it suddenly dawned on me that back in 1943 at 17,   I had enlisted in the Army, the length of that enlistment being for the duration of the war plus six months.   When that light bulb finally lit I realized that with WW II ending in Aug. 1945, I would have been eligible for discharge in April 1946, the same time I arrived back in Europe. Oh well you can't win them all, I didn't inform Mary of this 50 year lapse as it would only prove her point.)
            After leaving the service I attended forestry school using the GI Bill and worked for the old NY State Conservation Dept. for 5 years.   I wasn't going any place very fast, so as that great American wordsmith Yoggi Berra is wont to say I came to a fork in the road and took it. Gravitating into construction, I worked on dam and pipeline jobs as well as the Interstate highway system to name a few. Later I came full circle retiring as a construction supervisor with our county highway department in charge of the construction and maintenance of the counties bridges.

Retirement gave me time to pursue my family root's and doing so on a beautiful fall day a few years back found myself in Old St. James Cemetery in the northern New York village of Carthage. I had just located my great grandfathers brother, one Cranson Gates and as was my habit, to save wear and tear on the old legs, was scanning headstones with binoculars. Doing a quick double take when I spotted a monument with an engineer castle on it I wasted no time getting over there and reading the following inscription.

Captain Arthur Francis Gullo 1058th Engineers, 1911 - 1945, KILLED ON THE LUDENDORFF BRIDGE, REMAGEN GERMANY MARCH 17, 1945, HIS OUTFIT THE 1058TH ENGINEERS NAMED A LARGE BRIDGE THEY CONSTRUCTED ACROSS THE RHINE, THE CAPT. ARTHUR F. GULLO BRIDGE IN HIS HONOR. From what I have learned I don't believe Capt. Gullo was recovered and this monument was placed on his family plot by members of his unit.
Capt. Gullo graduated from Carthage's Augustinian Academy in 1930 and attended Clarkson College of Technology, Potsdam, NY. He enlisted in the U. S. Army April 2, 1942 and was called to active duty July 6 of that year. He was sent to England in February 1944, assigned to a port construction and repair group, the 1058th Engineer Batallion. He served in France, Luxembourg and Belgium, where he was in the Battle of the Bulge, in which he was wounded. He was reported missing in action in the Watertown Daily Times on April 4, and later as having been killed in action on March 17,1945.

Portions of the preceding article were written and published in the Carthage Tribune on March 26, 1997 it generated some remembrance letters, a couple of which are reproduced below.

Dear Editor;

Additional comments on the Luendorff Bridge in Germany named after one of our Carthage finest, Capt. Arthur F. Gullo. I knew him as a friend and classmate at Augustinian Academy. Also at that time he had two sisters, Helen and Clara, who also attended the school.

Art and I had paper routes and picked up our papers at Erv Bence’s novelty store next to the old Sugar Bowl owned by Charles Stanford and operated by the Higman sisters. Many of our hard-earned bucks were spent here. The Gullo family ran a store, which would be about across the street from Michael Astafan’s real estate office. Art visited our family on several occasions when we lived on Elm Street, and also at our farm on the West Street Road.

I remember very vividly a hard and fast rule about snowballing at the Academy due to broken windows, signed and posted by Sister Gabriel, the principal. On this occasion during our lunch hour a snow ball was thrown and the fight was on during which someone noticed Sister Herman Joseph writing down names while standing in her classroom windows. Sure enough, at 1 p. m. six people were to report to the pastor at the rectory. Of the six, I can remember only three Gullo, Dalton and Rubar. The pastor at that time was the Rev. George Dermady. During a question and answer period, Rubar lost his voice and all that came out was a squeak, which appeared quite funny to Art and myself, but failed to have the same effect on the pastor. Four of the six were released while Art and I were granted an extended visit. The pastor at that time would pass out the report cards and two days later when he gave me my report card and he did a double take at the results, I noticed his eyebrows raise a little and I had to wonder if it was because of my low marks or was he thinking of our once and only previous meeting.

Bill Dalton Dear Editor

    Bridge near Remagen, Germany, in March 1945.
     My outfit, the 611 Base Armament Maintenance Bn., was in convoy enroute to Aachen, Germany, when the bridge was taken. Like any other unit on the roads at that time and in the area of the bridge, was put off the road if it was not directly involved in repairing the bridge or putting pontoon bridges across the Rhine River or was support of these units.     My unit was sent to a little village near Brussels, Belgium. About ten days later we were moved to Aachen, Germany, and later on to Bonn.
     After Setting up shop near Bonn, we were able to take some tours in the Rhine Valley. One Sunday when we had three truckloads of GI tourists, we went up the Rhine 10 or 12 miles, crossed over one of the pontoon bridges and went down the river to “The Bridge at Remagen.” Many of us took pictures of the facilities left standing on the East End of the bridge. On the east tower was a large wooden sign erected by the 1058th engineers. The names of the men lost, when the bridge finally crashed into the river, were listed and Capt. Arthur Gullo was listed first.
     Among the pictures I took was one of that memorial sign. I sent the developed pictures home to my mother. She used a magnifying glass to read all the names. When she saw Capt. Gullo’s name, she took the pictures down to the Woolworth’s store and showed them to Dora Gullo Muglia. She was the captain’s sister. I think she was store manager at that time.
      My mother wrote to me about the picture and said the family at that time did not know all the details of the incident and were pleased to learn a little more about what had happened.
                                                                                                                  Alan B. Murray

Ernie Pyle, was the GI's journalist who lived, traveled and shared their daily experiences with the servicemen and service women in World War II. Ernie wrote in his book "Here Is Your War" "This is our war and we will carry it with us as we go on from one battleground to another until it is all over, leaving some of us behind on every beach, in every field.... I don't know whether it was their good fortune or their misfortune to get out of it so early in the game.   I guess it doesn't make any difference, once a man has gone. Medals and speeches and victories are nothing to them any more. They died and others lived, nobody knows why it is so. They died and thereby the rest of us can go on and on." On Ie Shima Of The Ryukyus Island Group Ernie Pyle Link
Epilogue:
One day in 1997 I received an electronic mail from my daughter Kathy who is a teacher in the Springfield, Illinois school system. She informed me that she had recently been on a tour with a group of children from her church.   One stop on that trip had been at the State Capitol of West Virginia in Charleston where they visited the state capitol buildings.    They were lead through the capitol by no less of a personage than the Secretary of State of West Virginia whom my daughter described as an elderly gentleman by the name of Ken Hechler, who was very entertaining and gracious to their group.   In their conversations he mentioned in passing the Remagen Bridge, my daughter knowing of my interest, inquired further and learned that Mr. Hechler had authored The Bridge At Remagen which later was made into a movie by David Wolper. Starring in it was George Segal, Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara, Bradford Dillman and E.G. Marshall.
    Based on this information I was presumptuous enough to send a copy of my Remagen article to Mr. Hechler to which he replied at a later date. Kathy also found a paperback of Ken's book in a Springfield book store, this had been first printed in 1957, after getting this from her I learned more of Mr. Hechler and the story of Remagen.
On the day that the Remagen Bridge was captured, Ken Hechler was commanding a four man team of combat historians near the town, and was on the bridge talking with the first men to cross within a short time.
    Born in Roslyn, NY in 1914, Ken Hechler graduated from Swarthmore in 1935, got his M.A. from Columbia in 1936 and received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 1940.........   During World War II, he enlisted in the U.S.Army in 1942, received his commission as Second Lt. in the Armored Force in 1943. He was then assigned to the ETO as a Combat Historian and promoted to Major, 1944-45, he was awarded the Bronze Star and five battle stars, Normandy to the Elbe.
    Since W.W.II     Ken Hechler has had a distinguished career and is now serving as West Virginia's 26th Secretary of State and is now in his fourth four-year term having been first elected to that office in 1984.
    Ken Hechler also served for eighteen years as a Congressman from the fourth congressional district, 1959-77.

        The caption, which I apply to this U.S. Army photo taken from atop Erpeler Ley, is borrowed from Bill Mauldin's cartoon of Willie and Joe as they, some 5 months later and 18 Km distant, look back at the Anzio Beachead.

The Bridge At Remagen by Ken Hechler can best be summed up by repeating portions of its Preface as written by the author.
    "March 07, 1945, was a gray and drizzly afternoon. I was at the headquarters of III Corps, some twenty miles west of the Rhine River. One of the corps objectives that day was a town called Remagen. I'll never forget the scene as a little sergeant in the Corps G-3 section threw down the telephone and yelled: "Hot damn! We got a bridge over the Rhine and we're crossing over!!".........
    On the day Remagen Bridge was captured, I was lucky enough to be commanding a four man team of combat historians charged with recording the on-the-spot story of the war inEurope...............Not long after receiving the electrifying news, I went down to Remagen and talked personally with some thirty officers and men directly involved in the crossing. Again and again I was told: "Be sure to see Lt. Karl Timmermann; he led the first men across and he was the first officer over the Rhine." I found this tall Nebraska youngster shaving in a bombed-out house east of the Rhine. His first reaction was to wonder what all the excitement was about. But he filled me in with careful details on what he had experienced, and his men and the tankers and engineers helped put the complex jig-saw puzzle together while the events were still fresh......
    Lots of things ran through my mind as I looked at that shaky bridge, already wounded mortally by the German attempts to destroy it with dynamite, artillery, bombs and other means. I kept thinking that it must have taken a lot of strange coincidences to make it possible for the Americans to cross. There is a framed inscription on the wall of a house in Remagen which reads: "If God is with us, then who can be against us?"   Curiously, this inscription was also on the wall of the house where five German officers were sentenced to death by a Hitler court martial for failing to blow the Remagen Bridge.   In Remagen I pondered the tremendous significance of that first word "If". God was surely smiling on Karl Timmermann and his men that day............."
Today Oct. 17, 1999 I saw Ken Heckler on the evening news, just before 60 minutes and guess what? At age 86 he is once more running for the U.S Congress from the State of West Virginia.   He looked pretty good too. Brother what a man!!

Epilogue Two

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lady Willow" <ladywillow@earthlink.net>
To: <popgator@aldus.northnet.org>
Cc: <ladywillow@earthlink.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 28, 2002 3:18 AM
Subject: I have additional Bridge @ Remagen info....

.... My brother was the pilot responsible for the sighting and
notification of the still intact bridge on the morning of March 7th,
1945, and he received the Bronze Star for this action.
Would you like more info?
Please contact me at the above email address.
Lynn J

At 8:40 PM -0300 7/28/02, Francis Gates wrote: Lynn I sure would like to learn, more, perhaps I could add some of it to my
488th Web site, it is continually growing as I hear from veterans and their
relatives. I assume he was flying one of the Army's special spotter planes.
They could almost hover in the air in a head wind. The helicopter replaced
them in later wars.
That makes me think of an event I witnessed somewhere near the Siegfried
line a group of four P-47's flew over an one of them was smoking and the
pilot tipped it on it's back and bailed out. He was apparently coming down
in German territory, as the other three circled him and were firing at the
ground. Then this Piper Cub type plane took off low from behind us and you
could see the pilot was alone and 10 min or so later he flew back and there
were two aboard.
I thought that was pretty neat.

From: Lady Willow
To: Francis Gates
Cc: Lady Willow
Sent: Monday, July 29, 2002 1:12 AM
Subject: 488th Engineers: Bridge @ Remagen info....

Hello Francis :
You're absolutely right, it was a Piper Cub.
    I think it would be wonderful to have my brothers info added to your site. I'm willing to share what I have and if you can help me find out more I would appreciate it. I'm a beginner at this and there certainly seems to be an unending sea of info to swim through.
    I feel it's up to us to preserve the memories of our vets and their courageous deeds for the generations to come, and sites like yours are a great resource. Thanks for all the work you've done.
    I found another reference to his action on the site below:
http://www2.gasou.edu/facstaff/etmcmull/REMAGEN.htm
    This is the info copied from "GEORGE ROGERS and the BRIDGE at REMAGEN" the 3rd section, 2nd paragraph:
....."It was a cold cloudy day and Lt. Harold Larson's Piper Cub had to fly low as he looked for targets of opportunity for 9th Division artillery. As he neared Remagen, he was surprised to see the Ludendorff Bridge looming up out of the fog. He radioed back to General Hoge who immediately sent orders for the units nearest Remagen to take the town. He formed these units, the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion and the 14th Tank Battalion into a task force under Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard Engeman. This task force reached the outskirts of Remagen about noon."...
    His last name is spelled wrong, it should be Larsen. I also have additional details in a letter from another brother I can send you and could come up with a photo of him as well.
    I had three brothers in the war, Harold in Germany, Art in India and Larry at sea. We were lucky, they all came home.
Thanks for replying
Sincerely
LynnJ Larsen

I became aware of Harold's involvement at Remagen because my brother Art petitioned the VFW Adjutant General to honor him in the Commemorations of the 50th anniversary of World War II. He didn't get positive results.

In that letter he also mentioned Harold was shot down at the Battle of the Bulge by an ME 109. He hide in a basement while the troops ran by on the street above and escaped in a German Trainer he "liberated" at a near by air-field. He was awarded both a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart with Cluster for his actions.

From: "Francis Gates"<popgator@northnet.org>
To:       "Lynn J. Larsen" <Ladywillow@earthlink.net>
    Lynn, since retiring I have done the Maps and data bases for seven or eight Cemeteries in the area and when you mentioned the 9th Armored and the Div. Artillery it brought Murphy to mind. I am sending along a photo which I took today, of his stone in our local Fairview Cemetery. The Bridge fell on March 17th and you can see from the dates on the stone he probably crossed over the Rhine at Remagen on that Bridge or one of the Floating Engineer bridges before being killed on April 13. Ironically this was only a month before the May 8th surrender and at this time the war in Europe was obviously nearly over and no one wanted to be the last man killed.

Kilroy was here Too!! Home Page