24th Armored Engineer Battalion troops bridging the Werra river attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft
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- čas přidán 10. 04. 2024
- Narrative: After crossing the Rhine at Oppenheim, Third Army’s spearheading XII Corps crossed the Main on battered bridges still standing between Aschaffenburg and Frankfurt am Main. Then the corps left the Rhine-Main plain and headed through rolling forested hills and open farmlands, using the Frankfurt-Dresden autobahn toward the corps’ next objective, Chemnitz, south of Leipzig and ten miles beyond the Mulde.
Leading the advance, Combat Command A of the 4th Armored Division struck its first obstacle on April 1st 1945 at the Werra River. Bridges were down, and next morning when the 24th Armored Engineer Battalion began to build tread-ways at two towns, German planes swooped low to attack, while direct fire came from the east bank. The armored infantry finally managed to cross despite small-arms fire; next day the tanks crossed the Werra and were again rolling east along the autobahn.
At Leina the tankers came to a blown overpass that forced them off the autobahn. In any case the 4th Armored Division received orders to backtrack, swing north, and assist in an attack on Gotha. After the town fell, the armor moved south to Ohrdruf, finding a small but gruesome concentration camp. There Combat Command A remained six days. Starting east on April 12th the 4th Armored Division tankers-having by then come under the command of XX Corps-found that demolitions made using the autobahn too dangerous and took to the fields on either side.
For infantry vehicles the Frankfurt-Dresden autobahn was literally the backbone of Third Army’s push east during the first half of April. Engineers found that their largest task was not spanning rivers but building bridges over or around the autobahn’s damaged overpasses and underpasses. At the rivers the enemy occasionally delayed construction, not only at the Werra but also at the Elster, where the bridge site was dominated for a time by a battery of 88-mm. guns. Yet the Fulda, Werra, Saale, and Elster Rivers presented few engineering problems because they were low, making nearly all fordable.
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Great shot of the M16 half track with the quad .50 mount, providing AA cover for the engineers. Wondering if the lead aircraft seen at 0:14 might not have been a US L-4 Grasshopper observation aircraft, from the way it dived out of the way of the attacking aircraft behind it? The wing profile seems to match, and doubt if the Germans would have sent a Fiesler Storch into battle. The attacker(s) seem to be Focke-Wulf Fw 190's from the blurry outline. Whatever they were, seems they didn't get away unscathed.
Well noted, it does seem like a fighter going for for an observation aircraft, there is a discernable difference in profile and relative speeds.
Quad Fifty, NICE!
I'm guessing around April 3/4?
April 2nd
50 cal short range too small germans were going from 20mm to 30mm late . war
In this case it appears to have been effective but it's true that the .50 cal was inferior to cannon at this point, and worth noting that along the M16 with quad machine guns, the M15 half-track armed with a 37mm cannon was also deployed by US forces in WWII.
You say that, but it looks like these planes were getting shot up pretty good by "small" .50 cals 🤣
In addition, .50 cals were not the only AA guns used by the US Army. 90mm, 120mm, 37mm, 40mm.
Lastly, the Western Allies will get the benefit of Proximity Fuses for the larger AA guns. I know the US Navy was keen to drop the 40mm Bofors and such late in the war. They intended to replace them with old 76mm guns on new mounts, fire controls, but getting Proximity Fuses. 76mm was the smallest shell size that they were able to cram Proximity Fuses into. Proximity Fuses got their first uses for air defense in the UK and out in the Pacific Theater where the US Navy really wanted them.
Not so much of an advantage here. The German pilots couldn't simply hover at standoff distance like an Apache. Whatever distance advantage they have, they'll zip through that zone in no time and be within the range of the .50s.
That was probably the organic light AA platoon. Divisions also had larger AA guns on towed mounts and self-propelled mounts.
Given the superiority of Allied Air Forces, self-propelled AA guns weren't a huge priority.
I'm sure it's safe to say that at this point, the Luftwaffe was a mere shell of itself bt this time.
Further to the description, the concentration camp at Ohrdruf was the first liberated by US forces and was visited by Eisenhower and Patton shortly after. The Wikipedia entry is a sobering read.