Christmas presents come in all shapes and sizes, and this sure held true for me too yesterday when I received this email from Rod O'Barr:
Marion,
Don't know if you've seen this on my website or not, but these are photos of the second Rhine River bridge built by our fathers units. The sign clearly states that the 85th and the 540th were the units involved in constructing this bridge over the Rhine at Mannheim, Germany. The photos came from the French Ministry of Defense.
Hope you have a great Christmas.
Best Regards,
Rod O'Barr
These are great photos that show the one of the bridges that our dad's units worked on together. Aren't these sharp?
I then got this email from Harold Whiting this morning. The subject of his email was SMALL WORLD. Indeed! Here is Harold's email:
Good morning:
Last night while looking over O'Barrs pictures I found some info. Not only did I come home through camp roosevelt but they came through Camp San Francisco. This camp was in the same area as camp roosevelt he mentions going to sassion france on pass.
Also you and I wondered how close the 540-th --36th -10th 85th. Guess what the 163rd part of the 1109th group. They helped to build the bridge across the Rhine 163rd AND 157th made up the 1109 group.
Picture 30 of O'Barrs tells of the 163rd c eng working together with these other engineer bn. I think it was Gantry diary that speaks of camp San Francisco. The 157 ©eng bn maintained that bridge at Worms after they left. This info is in the Major Davis part of my story The 157th also worked on the Danube with the O'Barrs.
Small World
HWhiting
Oh, Rod's site can be found here. There are hundreds of great photos. Rod was one of my earliest web contacts, and we have been sharing info for about two years. http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dl...oupid=89066&ck=
I also added several pages from Rod's site to my 540th Photo Page.
http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/photos540th.htm
Before I revamped my site, I used to have a slide show that included Rod's photos. It was one of those things that got overlooked when I created the new pages.
Marion: Yes, I recall the work of the 540th C.E.'s (who were attached to our 3td Inf Div)
at this time for the Rhine River crossing.. The Engineers brought up the aluminum boats
and paddles we used for our initial crossing and were repairing a bridge for getting the
tanks and T.D.'s across the Rhine while under heavy fire. Seems like the Anphibious Shermans did not fare well in their crossing and we sure needed some tank support after the crossing. Their quick work gave us tank support shortly. Each of the small
boats held a squad and were left at the bank where we crossed over.
Marion: Yes, I recall the work of the 540th C.E.'s (who were attached to our 3td Inf Div)
at this time for the Rhine River crossing.. The Engineers brought up the aluminum boats
and paddles we used for our initial crossing and were repairing a bridge for getting the
tanks and T.D.'s across the Rhine while under heavy fire. Seems like the Anphibious Shermans did not fare well in their crossing and we sure needed some tank support after the crossing. Their quick work gave us tank support shortly. Each of the small
boats held a squad and were left at the bank where we crossed over.
Joe I have wondered how the C.E. anchored those pontoons. I remenber going across one, I think it was the Arno River, it was in the PO Valley. All I can say is I stand and SALUTE THE COMBAT ENGINEERS. !!!! Roque
Roque: No idea as how they were anchored. We just plain left the small boats and paddles on the far shore. Not our job to return them. Where we crossed was about
300 yds of Rhine River with quite a current. Seemed like 3 miles wide not the 300 yds
it was. Some boats did not make it over.
Marion: Yes I checked it out and quite true and pertinent.
