Bridging the Rhine

By 1st Lt. Richard A. Finke

In conjunction with a 280mm cannon crossing and field forces tests, three Class 60 floating bridges were constructed in 1954 across the Rhine River in the vicinity of Speyer, Germany, by the 1402d Engineer Battalion (Combat). The length of each bridge was approximately 780 feet.

Construction was from the west to the east bank. Assembly time was measured from the start of raft assembly to the passage of the first vehicle. The assembly times were, respectively: 6 hours and 50 minutes, 4 hours and 30 minutes, and 4 hours and 10 minutes. The time element was important because of the heavy commercial traffic on the Rhine River. Therefore, each bridge was assembled on a Sunday morning and taken out of the river that same afternoon. Approximately 600 men participated in each exercise. The battalion had other mission commitments at the time and had to recruit an additional 100 men from separate companies under the 555th Engineer Group (Combat) to supplement the building crews.

I was drafted into the Army on June 19, 1953 during the Korean conflict. Fortunately, the conflict ended before I got out of basic training (AAA at Ft. Bliss in El Paso, TX). Consequently, most of the guys in my unit went to various assignments in Europe. I went to Germany.

I was stationed in Karlsruhe, Germany, at Phillip’s Barracks from February 1954 to April 1955. I was in the 1402 Combat Engineer Battalion which was a part of the 555 (Triple Nickel) Engr Gp. On January 17, 1955 the 1402 colors were returned to California and the unit was replaced by the 499 Combat Engineer Battalion, which continued as a part of the 555 group.

Each Company in my Battalion (except headquarters company) had its own permanent floating Bailey bridge on the Rhine River, and each month, one platoon from each Company would go to their respective bridge to maintain it for a month. My company had the one at Brühl. On the first Sunday of most months, all of the traffic on the Rhine River was stopped so that we could practice “closing” and “opening” the permanent bridge, while at other times, we would practice building a rubber pontoon bridge across the Rhine. On one occasion, we beat the record for bridging the Rhine. It was slightly less than 5 hours, and was a 52 pontoon, 60 ton, class m-4.

On the occasion in which we broke the all time record, before we disassembled the bridge, our Group Commander had a helicopter land where we had assembled into a large circle. Over a p.a. system he announced “Men, I am pleased, but not satisfied”. We were back out there building it again on other occasions, but we were so disappointed and discouraged at his statement, that we never again even tried to beat our own record.

On one occasion we built the same type bridge but put twice as many rubber pontoons under it in order to see if it would support the 280mm atomic cannon. That was the first time that the 280 had crossed a floating bridge. The floats looked like they were about to submerge, and I’m sure the 280 drivers---two prime mover drivers, 1 pulling and 1 pushing--- didn’t feel too good about it either.

We also upgraded our Bailey “swinging bridge” at Bruehl to a “Double Bailey”, in order to accommodate the 280.

I drove a 2½-ton “deuce and a half” dump truck, and pulled a small trailer of explosives when we were on maneuvers. When we had an “alert”, several vehicles from our unit would go to the west side of the main highway bridge at Mannheim and wait along the banks until the alert was over. Our objective (if needed), was to blow out one section of the bridge. They always stressed the importance of not blowing up the abutments on either end because it would require so much work and time to replace them, as opposed to replacing/repairing one of the sections.

Each year, our Company would have a joint training exercise with the Air Force, and several C119 Flying Boxcars flying in formation would take our Company up for a training flight. I participated in the mission in 1954. I rotated back to the States in April 1955, and 4 months later, on August 11, 1955, after taking off from Echterdingen Field, about 20 miles west of Stuttgart, one of the C119s had engine problems, causing it to collide with another one and they both crashed in the Black Forest. There were 55 or 56 (depending on the source of information), in my company that were killed. All were from the 499 Battalion, 555 Group, and (10 or 11) were killed from the 10th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Wing at Rhein-Main Airbase. At that time, that was the fourth worst military air disaster in history. One soldier in my squad wrote and told me that the only reason he wasn’t on one of the planes was that he had been injured while practicing “high jumping”, in preparation for competition between Army units.

On several occasions I had tried to find information on the internet regarding my old units, but the information was somewhat skimpy. But this past Saturday I went to see the Saint Patrick’s Day parade on Greenville Ave. in Dallas. I like to get to parade staging-areas early to see the various floats and equipment and mainly to talk with the people who will be in the parade. One man owned a DUWK, painted in traditional O.D. color with Army insignias. We talked about it as we related our common interest in the vehicle. I told him that I had worked many hours on and around DUWKs while building and maintaining bridges on the Rhine River. Until I told him, he was unaware that they were also designed to carry a Jeep. When I got home I begin looking for them on the internet, and accidentally pulled up DUWKs being used by my old unit. What a pleasant surprise that was! Thank you for the time and effort you have spent creating this web page.