Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

298 Pacifica Military History
When I arrived to survey progress, the bridge was creeping out slowly
above the river despite some very inaccurate shelling. After the troops
added each new ten-foot section, the entire structure was angled slightly
on the baseplate rollers, the only solution available for building a fortyton
assault bridge at such a tough location. The work was not only
strenuous, it was hazardous. Perfect timing was required to prevent the
entire structure from tumbling forty feet into the river.
The commander of the 78th Division’s 303rd Engineer Combat
Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel John Cosner, arrived shortly after me. He
had just come from having his first look at the Blens bridge, and he was
effusive in his praise. After Cosner had had a good look at what Company
A was doing there, at Heimbach, he described feelings of awe. As we
continued to watch, the 310th Infantry Regiment, which was screening
the bridge site, sent back about fifty German prisoners—a real tonic for
the engineers, whose backs were breaking from the grueling effort. They
got the job done by 0900 hours, March 3—in eighteen and a half hours.
*
As soon as I returned to Rotgen on the morning of March 3 to check in
at the battalion CP, I was given a message that Colonel Anderson wanted
me to return his call. I dutifully complied, but the colonel was not in.
Major Webb, the 1111th Group operations officer, told me that the colonel
wanted to know how the bridge-building was shaping up. I told him that
the Blens bridge was in and the Heimbach bridge had been completed
an hour earlier. Next up was the Schwammenauel Dam bridge, which
Captain Warren Rombaugh’s Company C was slated to begin in a matter
of hours. I told Webb that we had heard through 78th Division sources
that the infantry had advanced far beyond the dam bridgehead and that
they did not expect much artillery fire to be directed against Company
C. Before ringing off, Webb told me that the colonel wanted to meet
with me at the site of the dam bridge within the hour.
I immediately left the battalion CP and drove over to pick up
Lieutenant Colonel Cosner at the 303rd Engineer Combat Battalion CP.
We had agreed earlier to visit all three bridge sites and to discuss plans
for supporting the 78th Division’s drive across the Cologne plain. Cosner
had information that all of the 78th Divi-sion’s three infantry regiments