Q ..
Well, there was great concern that it would happen in the midst of the crossing
operations that would either strand forces on the east bank or else seriously disrupt
the crossing.
A ..
There was some concern, I think more concern might have been with some of the
bigger reservoirs on some of the tributaries because these dams on the Swiss and
German border were mostly power and navigation dams and they didn't have too
much storage in them, whereas some of these tributary reservoirs were fairly large.
You know there was a big story about the British blowing up one.
Q ..
Well, yes, there were the two big reservoirs on the west side of the Rhine there, the
Urft and Schwamrnenauel. They did blow the outlet valves during the Roer River
crossing in early February. It caused a lot of trouble until they emptied completely
out.
A ..
It seems to me there was one on the French side that failed, too. I'm not sure about
that. I don't remember what that was. Seems to me one of the American armies
had some flooding problems.
Q ..
It was the First Army.
A ..
Beg pardon?
Q ..
The First Army's the Roer River offensive in February of `45, the Germans did
indeed blow some of the dams, the outlet valves, blew them open and it caused a lot
of flooding. But it wasn't as disastrous as. . .
A ..
It wasn't like the whole dam going out, yes.
Q ..
No .
A ..
I guess maybe that's what I was thinking of rather than the French.
Q ..
Two of them had it. It was up on the, up toward Holland, east of Holland, in that
Rhineland area, to the west of the river, west of Cologne. We had problems up
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