31505 - page 4 of 6

Through the Eiffel, the 90th smashed on to reach, on the 5th the Kyll River over which all

bridges had been destroyed. Company A, under fire from a not too secure bridgehead, constructed a

floating support bridge at Birresborn then built a plank road across the flood plain on the far shore. On

the night of 6-7 March, Company B constructed a bailey across the Kyll at Lissingen.

While in the Brandschied – Habscheid – Winterspelt area experiments had been conducted in the

production of artificial moonlight with anti-aircraft searchlights. Here on the Kyll the experiment paid

off. Three of the giant arc lights placed several miles away were trained on the low hanging clouds then

adjusted by radio and telephone so that the optimum amount of light was reflected from the clouds over

the bridge site.

The laden bridge trucks were difficult to move through the mud and heavy traffic and it was

almost midnight before they arrived. Company B was already in Lissingen and the men had hit their

"sacks". But as soon as the first load of panels arrived the company was up and on the job. The artificial

moonlight gave just enough illumination to make work with the bridge parts possible yet not enough to

permit observation by the enemy who was only a few hundred yards away. At first work was slow then

as the "moonlight" was better adjusted and the men became accustomed to the semidarkness the bridge

rapidly took shape. It was finished by dawn – well before the deadline for an armored division to pass

through. The last real defense line west of the Rhine was broken.

The 90th was rolling again as it had across Northern France. On the 9th the 315th cleared

abandoned vehicles and equipment from 40 miles of roadway as the 90th roared into Mayen astride the

principal route to Koblenz on the Rhine. On to the Rhine was the watchword, but the famed 90th, the

masters of river crossings, were diverted to the southeast to again assault the Moselle.

After three days of reconnaissance and planning the boat crossing was made at 0230 on 14

March 1945 in the vicinity of Hatzenport, Brodenback and Burgen. Supporting corps engineers were to

do the major bridging and ferrying on the site of the civilian ferry at Hatzenport. Initially the resistance

was light but as the troops scaled the almost vertical vineyard-covered valley wall the enemy stiffened.

After daybreak, as the infantry pushed out on to the plateau, the resistance became fanatical and the

krauts threw in everything in a final effort to save the forces west of the Rhine.

Support rafts were operated to carry over light tactical vehicles and later a heavy ferry took

armor across to support the hard pressed infantry. That evening a treadway bridge was completed by the

150th engineers and on the next day the 4th Armored Division roared across to spearhead the push to the

Rhine at Boppard. When compared with the November crossing at Cattenom this second assault of the

Moselle had been a cinch.

A large portion of the 315th was bivouacked in Hatzenport for three days during the bridging

operations. Hatzenport was a beautiful little town nestled at the brink of the Moselle between the steep

sides of the valley. These sharply terraced slopes were literally solid masses of vineyards. The entire

population of Hatzenport was engaged in the wine industry. There were huge underground warehouses

filled with thousands of bottles of the finest vintages of Moselle wines and champagnes. Naturally there

was much sampling and comparing of these products and when the battalion loaded up on the 16th to

move to Mermuth at least one platoon commander found that it was necessary to dump some of the

samples in Order to get his ammunition and tools aboard.