Carroll H. Dunn
By the way, I have some very excellent pictures of this Roer River crossing. Iactually
used this crossing as an example of a tactical river crossing in teaching at the Engineer
School back in 1947. Somewhere in the Engineer School is a lesson plan with all of
this, including; the pictures. I also have copies of the pictures. This action is pretty well
documented.
The Rhine Crossing, 1945
Q ..
.
Did you have a chance to practice on another river?
A ..
Not here. We did later on the Rhine River in quite great detail.
Q ..
What was the reason here?
A ..
In the first place, there wasn't time. In the second place, there really wasn't any way
that we could duplicate a small stream in flood.
Q ..
In the journal, prior to the crossing, you describe this as the most impossible spot in
Germany.
A ..
Probably an overstatement, but certainly it wasn't an easy one. Fortunately, it was so
bad that the Germans didn't expect us there and, except for the artillery fire, the
resistance was not great once we got across to the other side. Had they been defending
it seriously with troops, it would have been an extremely costly operation for us.
Q ..
But a necessary part.
A ..
No, it was a tactical surprise, going where they didn't anticipate it
Q ..
And again you had the time.
A ..
We had known about this, and we had about ten days after we returned from the Battle
of the
to finalize our plans. We constantly reconnoitered and kept very close
track of the rise and fall of the water so that we were able to predict the water levels,
and we had some idea of the current. We made current measurements. During the
crossing, we also set up some fairly heavy smoke with smoke generators on the friendly
side and smoke shells from 4.2 mortars on the enemy side to block observation of the
attack, which was started under cover of darkness.
Q ..
Were there problems getting the right engineer equipment at this point?
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