Engineer Memoirs
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by the flooding caused by the Germans' release of water from upstream
dams.
The plan for our Air Force to blow a major dam had been made with the idea that the
water would be gone by the time we got ready to make the attack.
Q ..
What do you think about that decision?
A ..
I think the decision was fine. The only problem was they weren't able to accomplish it.
.
Q.
So, you think the water would have been gone-
A ..
Yes. It took ten days to drain. Actually, the Germans in a way helped because, by their
releasing the water, we were able to find a means to deal with it. If we had started to
cross and then there had been the sudden release of water, there would have been no
way to prevent a cutoff of those units that were already across the stream. This way,
we waited until the major flood crest had passed. Then we made the crossing in a
receding stream and probably achieved tactical surprise because I think we attacked
several days earlier than the Germans believed we would under the circumstances.
Q ..
There was heavy artillery fire?
A
Quite heavy artillery fire, and some heavy casualties. We made extensive
reconnaissances throughout the planning time period, including getting people across
to the German side. We had a fairly good idea of the location of obstacles, including
the width and depth of the two drainage ditches on each side of the river. We were
aware of them from intelligence documents. But, by using reconnaissance patrols, we
were able to actually find and measure the location for crossing and then develop a
means of crossing on prefabricated walkways. These we made in sections and
assembled at the sites to allow the foot troops to move across.
We also strung a cable ahead of time between two large trees over the main section of
the river. `When it c a m e time for the crossing, we were able to use this cable as
anchorage for the foot bridge to allow the infantry to cross the main stream. Later,
there were fairly heavy casualties at the fixed bridge locations since these were known
and the Germans had a chance to register in on them early. These were at breaks in
causeways carrying the original roads, and no other places were available that could be
Germans where we were working, and we did suffer fairly heavy artillery fire until it
could be knocked out by air and by our own artillery.
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