Fred Scherer is now 86 years old but - The Fighting 69th Infantry ...

Although the enclosed is about 9gers crossing the
Remagen Bridge first, I was also a 6ger, Company I,
272nd Infantry. Therefore, the claim may also be made
that a 6ger was the first American across the Remagen
Bridge. This article was not written to detract from the
glory or valor of the 9th Armored Division. They did an
A-one job. It was written, however, to set the record
straight as to who crossed the bridge first.
Looking forward to seeing you all at Houston this
summer. I remain as ever, a loyal 6ger.
Ninety-Niners
were First Across
the Remagen Bridge
Submitted by: Emanuel Rind
Company B, 394th Infantry Regiment
and Company I, 272nd Infantry, 69th Division
320 Central Parkway
Newport News, Virginia 23606-3726
Telephone: (757) 596-7934
At this time, most people consider it an established
fact that the 9th Armored Division was first across the
Remagen Bridge. It would be heresy to claim otherwise.
However, that is exactly what I'm going to do,
namely, claim that it was two dogfaces from the 99th
Infantry Division who were the first Americans to
cross that bridge. Until someone else comes forward to
supercede this claim, it shall have to stand. This is the
way it happened.
As I have written in previous articles, I came into
the 99th Division as a non-com replacement somewhere
about December 20th, 1944. On January 15th,
1944, we launched an attack against the Germans in
the Ardennes Forest, opposite the Elsenborn ridge. I
believe that most Americans involved in this attack
were from the 394th Infantry Regiment. I don't know
how many personnel were involved.
We left the point of departure at 1630 hours and, at
about 2000 hours, the battle was over. I was seriously
wounded by mortar shell fragments, while in the
German lines. I laid there till about 2030 hours when
the Germans came out to pick me up. They carried me
on a litter to their company aid station and then to a
building which had been used as a hunting lodge and
now served as a field hospital holding station. Finally,
I ended up in a hospital in the Cologne Plains. Since I
was unconscious most of that time, I don't know how I
got there.. Another American who was seriously
wounded and taken prisoner at the same time, S/Sgt.
Clifford E. McDaniels, claims that we were taken to a
hospital in Kloster Steinfeld. From conversations I
later ha d with the baroness, she informed me that she
and her husband, Baron Friedrich von Tilghman, had
turned over their home to the Third Reich for the
duration, for use as a military hospital and that's what
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we were in. The Germans wouldn't tell us where we
were; but a letter fell out from among the pages of a
book the baroness had lent me (she was acting librarian)
that was addressed to either Baron or Major
Friedrich von Tilghman, Koln Stolz. Since each room
or ward had a crucifix on the wall and the nursing was
done by nuns, Clifford McDaniels could be right.
Maybe we were in Kloster Steinfeld. On the other
hand, it could have been a baronial mansion belonging
to the baroness and her husband like she said and as
the letter seemed to confirm. To this day, Mac and I
have not resolved this problem. He says "Kloster
Steinfeld," and I say, "The baron's home."
At this time, let me clarify a point. Mac and I, as far
as we knew, were the only Americans in this hospital
and we were POWS. A couple of weeks later, they told
us that they also had an American fighter pilot as
prisoner. He had hid out in basements for three days
and since he was starving, he surrendered. We never
met him because the Germans said that he was an
officer and that they couldn't put him in with us as
we were non-corns. Let me also add, that the rest of
the patients in this hospital were wounded German
soldiers.
There were thirteen beds in the ward which, I later
learned from Mac, was the dying ward. Mac had been
brought into it about two or three days after I had
been in it. Thus, the ward had two Americans and
eleven wounded German soldiers. The rooms or wards
adjacent to ours had head wound cases in one and
belly wound cases in the other.
When we had been in this hospital about five weeks,
from the conversations going on in the ward among
the German G.I.s, we gathered that our troops had
approached to within 17 kilometers of the hospital.
The Germans started to try to evacuate the hospital
and move us farther inland. Due to strafing of
the roads and railroads by our air force, this wasn't
possible. When our troops had come within 2-1/2
kilometers of the hospital, the Germans moved us out
in ambulances at about 0400-0500 hours.
There were 13 patients in the ambulance. Nine
were litter cases and four were ambulatory. The litters
were stacked three across and three deep. The ambulatory
patients shifted for themselves in the space
near the doors. Ayoung SS man, about 17 years of age,
was in the litter next to mine. He had a plaster cast on
his right arm which he kept smacking me with every
time he turned. I was in a plaster cast from below my
ribs to my feet. I said, "Cut it out, that hurts." He
turned and hit me again. I said, "You son of a bitch, if
you do that again, you'll regret it." He did it again and
I gave him a sharp jab on his bad arm. He let out a
groan and turned to his other side and quit bothering
me.
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