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by Michael E. Bigelow, INSCOM Command Historian
On March 7, 1945, soldiers from Lt. Col. Leonard E. Engeman’s task force captured the intact Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen. Just before the seizure, 1st Lt. Max D. McLaughlin, Engeman’s S-2, provided timely information that bolstered the need to seize the bridge quickly.
Colonel Engeman’s task force had started the day in Stadt Meckenheim, about eleven miles east of the Rhine River. Built around his own 14th Tank Battalion, Engeman commanded two tank companies, three armored infantry companies, and an engineer platoon. His mission was to seize the towns of Remagen and Kripp along the Rhine River as the rest of the 9th Armored Division moved southeast to secure crossing sites over the Ahr River. He had no specific orders to seize a bridge over the Rhine. In fact, most of the divisional leadership assumed the Germans would destroy any bridges before the Americans came close to the river.
When Engeman reached a bluff overlooking the Rhine a little before 1300, however, he was surprised to find the five-hundred-yard Ludendorff Bridge still standing. Quickly, he sent a combined infantry-tank team, under 1st Lt. Karl Timmermann, toward the bridge. After about two hours, the team had pressed through the town and approached the bridge from the southwest. If he pushed the infantry over the bridge, Engeman feared the enemy would destroy it, leaving his men isolated.
Until his commander sighted the bridge intact, Lieutenant McLaughlin’s job had been relatively easy because German resistance along the route from Stadt Meckenheim to Remagen was weak. They had been more concerned with withdrawing than fighting, and the American column swiftly overcame any obstacles. When Engeman pushed troops through Remagen and toward the bridge, however, McLaughlin’s pri
Lieutenant McLaughlin had been with the 14th Tank Battalion since its formation in October 1943. As the battalion S-1, he helped ready and deploy the battalion to Europe in mid-July 1944. Shortly afterwards, Colonel Engeman took command of the battalion, and the two would serve together for the remainder of the war. In late January 1945, McLaughlin assumed the S-2 duties when Capt. Aubrey Hurt was evacuated.
Once Lieutenant Timmermann’s team advanced, McLaughlin shifted his focus from enemy disposition to the bridge itself: When would the Germans blow it up? He followed the advancing troops as they pressed through Remagen. Quizzing the prisoners taken from the town’s outskirts, McLaughlin discovered the Germans had scheduled to destroy the bridge at 1600. Russian-speaking Sgt. Michael Chinchar, one of Timmermann’s platoon sergeants, spoke to several Russian laborers who corroborated the schedule.
As McLaughlin learned of the German timetable, American tanks covered the bridge with fire and the task force’s assault guns began firing the smoke screen. Shortly after 1500, the Germans set off some charges, apparently to delay the American tanks. About the same time, the S-2 sent a message over the command radio net, “This is the S-2. A German PW reported the bridge is to be blown at 1600 hours.”
While McLaughlin made prompt dissemination of his combat information, both Engeman and Timmermann already recognized the necessity for haste in crossing the bridge. Still, the information gave them a margin of time, albeit slim, to get to the other side. When it was all over, the Americans had secured the still standing bridge with ten minutes to spare.
| Date Taken: | 03.07.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.07.2022 10:30 |
| Story ID: | 415920 |
| Location: | FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 265 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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