The Mosel and Nahe River Crossings

In the 602nd TD Bn. Journal, one can see an entry for 26 March. 1945, which reads, "Division crossings were successful but no bridge was put in. Both task forces went up through the 87th Infantry Division areas and crossed the Rhine at Boppard, They then cut south in rear of the 89th Division bridgehead and eased the pressure sufficiently that a bridge could be started. Task Force Johnson then headed east and went approximately 10 kilometers to Struth. Task Force Ingell ran into some opposition and rugged terrain and remained in the vicinity of Kaub." From the Company A March 26 Journal, one can read, "The Platoons began to move out about 2 a.m. and took up positions near Oberwesel overlooking the Rhine. The 89th began to cross at 2 a.m. and during the morning some Ducks and auxiliary Navy boats were sunk by German artillery fire. Our heavy artillery failed to stop this fire with their salvos, which was either coming from or directed from an old castle so Menard's destroyers threw in about 25 rounds of AP and a few HE. No further annoyance from this source. Bert moved his CP to Oberwesel about 9 a.m. Some shelling on this town and Young and Portnowitz have a souvenir of shrapnel to show for a close one. Headquarters moved to Perscheid about 1100. A combat team of our T.D.s and an 89th Recon. Unit was made up and had to travel north to a bridge in order to get across; consequently, the entire unit assembled except for the 2nd Platoon and crept northward to Boppard where we crossed on a pontoon bridge at 8 p.m. in the dark. No difficulty whatsoever; we proceeded southward and bivouacked on the river road. A little excitement occurred when a few Krauts tried to float by: about 4 were killed and 15 captured.

The Company A Journal entry for 27 March reads, "About 9 a.m. we started southward again and stopped at Kaub. The Recon Unit captured 14 or more Krauts that came in with a white flag. The terrain is rugged with steep vineyard covered hills and peaks topped by ancient castles. The 2nd platoon crossed the river today by boats at Oberwesel and is supporting the Infantry at Weisel. The combat team pulled out in the afternoon and split up to reach Lorch by two parallel roads. Still opposition was met from flak guns, and the advance halted. Pulled back to Kemel late that night, but not before James Scott knocked out a 20mm gun with 4 rounds and killed 4 Krauts."

On 27 March, thee Battalion Journal indicated that Task Force John had moved to Kemel against only scattered resistance. Captain W. D. Hart was wounded and evacuated, and Lt. Barthold took over command of Company B.

On the 28th it is recorded that, "McCarthy's destroyer was stopped on the road due to some defect. Just at dawn a small boat with about 14 Krauts was seen trying to cross the Rhine from the west bank. At midstream, Mac cut loose with his 50-caliber machine gun and that was that. Levi Peck meanwhile heated his carbine with 50 rounds to get one man. In the afternoon, our 1st and 3rd platoons moved out again in the direction of Pres berg with the 1st in the lead of the infantry. On this march, some opposition was put up by 20mm guns and the action resulted in 3 knocked out flak guns by Otto Henschen and his crew, 2 killed and 14 captured Krauts plus several neutralized buildings from which had been firing small arms, Julius Orsak spotted a 75mm gun and with his 30 cal. machine gun chased the Krauts and disabled the gun. Took Presberg and moved on to Authausen for the night. Anderson took a bead on a Kraut Captain who rode into the town on a bike with a can of gas on his shoulder. Wounded, the very much-surprised officer threw himself at Anderson's mercy.