80th anniversary of the US Army's Rhine River Crossing

After the landing of the Allied troops on the coast of French Normandy on 6 June 1944 (D-Day), the 3rd US Army under the command of General George S. Patton reached the Rhine between Koblenz and Bingen on the left bank of the Rhine in mid-March 1945. The task for the US Army was now to prepare and execute river crossings in this militarily challenging terrain.

 

In addition to the topographically and traffic-wise favourable possibilities between Rhens and Oberlahnstein, St. Goar and St. Goarshausen, Oberwesel and Kaub, a bridge was also to be built between Boppard and the communities of Kamp-Bornhofen and Filsen on the right bank of the Rhine. The river was around 300 metres wide at these points and there were also road connections to the hinterland on the right bank of the Rhine (Taunus). According to reports from US Army divisional chronicles, after the area between Boppard and St. Goar had been secured by troops of the 76th US Infantry Division, it was the task of two battalions of the 87th US Infantry Division to prepare the Rhine crossing.

 

To this end, at around 3.30 pm on 24 March 1945, one of the first measures taken by the US Army was to use loudspeakers set up on the Boppard side to call on the population of Kamp-Bornhofen to demonstrate their peaceful attitude by raising white flags. Furthermore, a ‘mayor or something similar’ was to be sent immediately to Boppard as a contact person. Otherwise the village could no longer be spared from shelling. In order to prevent the latter, the priest Josef Knoth from Kamper spontaneously agreed to cross the Rhine to Boppard in a barge with three companions at the risk of his life, despite serious threats from the local German command and the SS.

 

There he was able to convince the military leadership of the peaceful attitude of the population, who had hoisted white flags despite the aforementioned threats, and save Kamp from further harm ‘at the last minute’. He returned to Kamp on 29 March 1945 and was received with great gratitude by the local population, after which, at midnight on 24/25 March, heavily armed US troops in US Navy assault boats (Land, Craft Vehicle, Personnel) crossed over to the right bank of the Rhine. Just one hour later, five companies of the 345th US Infantry Regiment (87th US Infantry Division) had crossed over to the right bank of the Rhine in artificial fog.

 

By the evening of 25 March, the ridge between Filsen and Kamp-Bornhofen as well as the communities of Osterspai, Filsen and Kamp-Bornhofen had been captured, and although numerous German defences of the Middle Rhine front with anti-aircraft guns and machine guns had been set up on the plateau of the large Rhine bend between Osterspai, Filsen and Kamp-Bornhofen, German resistance remained rather low. Due to the difficult military terrain on the right bank of the Rhine with its walls, no river crossing was expected at this point.

 

According to eyewitness reports from the citizens of Kamp, US soldiers began searching Kamp for German soldiers and SS from the early hours of 25 March, starting with the houses in the lower village. At dawn on 25 March, soldiers from the 312th US assault engineer battalion began to build a 1,044-foot-long (approx. 300 m) pontoon inflatable bridge (pneumatic ‘Treadway’ bridge).

 

The driveway in Boppard was located in the Gymnasialstraße area. There is a memorial stone there with an inscription commemorating this event. The text reads: ‘The 87th Division of the 3D Army, USA, crossed The Rhine at this Location the night of March 24,1945’. On the right bank of the Rhine, the bridge ended in the area of the ‘Kamper Gies’ (at the location of this display case).

 

After the bridge was completed on 26 March, at around 10.00 a.m., tanks from the 607th US tank destroyer battalion and other military vehicles were the first to cross. These were sent to Braubach, 12 kilometres away, to support the US troops there. By 28 March, US units from the 87th, 89th and 76th US Infantry Divisions had crossed the Rhine. These were followed by a never-ending convoy of armoured units, cannons, lorries, jeeps and various supply columns.

 

Within a few days, the US troops were able to form a secure bridgehead on the right bank of the Rhine between Oberlahnstein and St.Goarshausen, after further bridge crossings between Rhens and Oberlahnstein as well as St.Goar and St.Goarshausen, and then advance towards the Taunus.

 

After further Rhine crossings on the Middle Rhine, Lower Rhine and Upper Rhine by American, British, Canadian and French troops, the Allies had overcome the natural Rhine border wall and only a few weeks later, on 8 May 1945, the German Reich surrendered and the Second World War in Europe came to an end.