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Remagen Bridge convoy


Rick W

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nothing to do with the convoy, but can remember passing Remagan in a military train heading south to take part in an exercise. I could see the bases of the original bridge supports that were still visible above the level of the water.

 

Baz.

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nothing to do with the convoy, but can remember passing Remagan in a military train heading south to take part in an exercise. I could see the bases of the original bridge supports that were still visible above the level of the water.

 

Baz.

 

 

Baz,

 

Did you not do Vogelsang in March 1982? (I remember it fondly: my firstborn was conceived about the time I was "away at Vogelsang" - it's a long story.)

 

15/19H were detailed to spend two weeks at the infamous Vogelsang training area high in the Eiffel Mountains not a million miles from Remagen. We were to be administration regiment, running the ranges, providing radio cover, etc while other units trained (hard). There was plenty of slack as it didn't take a regiment to run the place, so we had one duty squadron each day, leaving the others to go out and make use of the facilites.

 

There was a range where we could crawl under barbed wire while a line of GPMGs fired over our heads.

 

There was an infantry battle run which was a cross between a rifle range and an assault course where they could use attack using live rounds and through cover. On that day I was on duty and I spent the day at the side of our former RSM (Big Lou) whom I had driven when he was RSM. I was up and down the range with a UK/PRC351 on my back all day long. Give him his due. When a member of the squadron asked Lou how come I had a cushy job while they were getting beasted, he didn't me to explain how many times I had run up and down the range that day.

 

There was an anti-tank range. There was an RAOC unit on that range one day while I was duty operator. They were firing M72 66m one-shot anti-tank rockets. One guy managed to fore his without having properly locked his weapon open. Seconds after he blew his arm off, we were getting a NoDuff message demanding Starlight (Medic) assistance.

 

One day our squadron was rounded up into four tonners and we journeyed across to the bluff overlooking the bridge at Remagen where a US recce unit had stumbled upon the intact bridge and initiated a quick divisional attack to capture it in a masterpiece of the art of recce. The then current RSM (JC) took great delight in lecturing us in the right way to reconnoitre.

 

Then we were transported down to the remnants of the bridge itself and lectured in how the demolition commander ordered the bridge blown but, despite rising 6" in the air, settled back on its foundations. He was shot. The whole army passed over the bridge and later, with the bridgehead secured, the damaged bridge collapsed.

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Sure did Vogelssang, the overhead weapons were in fact .30 brownings and not GPMG's as I spent most of my time trying to keep them going.

 

Baz.

 

 

I guess I have just gone along with what I have read elsewhere by people who went there. While we were still using 60-year-old Brownings, the rest of the army were using GPMGs.

 

I bow to your superior knowledge.

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