G. Miskovsky wrote:Joakim,
...One of the reasons that Patton picked the site, is it is reported Julius Caesar in his book The Gallic Wars, crossed at the same place.
I see you were on the opposite bank as the museum, that is the rail tunnel side. Nice museum but one section was dedicated to the POW camp that was located in Remagen. It claimed that thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers were systematically starved and left to the elements. When we coordinated with the city and museum leadership they required us to visit that portion on the museum...a little strange as none of us had ever (even us history majors) had ever read anything about the "American death camps" .
I may be over at some time in the coming months, as I have 4 detachments in Germany under my command.
Hi Gus,
the thing with Julius Caesar sounds like a real "Patton classic".
In fact there was a Roman bridge at Mainz and the archaeologists found parts of it under water.
I guess you have been at Mainz in the Museum with the Roman military river patrol boats?
If not: it's a "must" to see it. They have the original wreck's and an exact replica. Very impressive.
The thing with the so called "Hungerlager" at the river banks is - sad to say so - true: there have been several (about 19) along the river Rhine. Some under American, some under French command as far as I remember.
Historians are still today discussing if the lack of supply for the POW was because of real logistic problems or - to put it negative - because of sheer ignorance. But I don't have the facts to decide about that.
But I can say this: many POW have been killed at the "Rheinwiesen" Camps because they had no shelter at all and have been kept in prison on open fields without anything at all. So the poor guy's started to dig foxholes or small tunnels to get some shelter and many of those foxholes collapsed when heavy rain started - killing the POW in them. That's what my former priest told me once, because he ended up in one of those camps.
My communities old protestant Priest has been pressed to service in a Flak battery with all others from his class at the Kaiser-Friedrich-Gymnasium in 1944. The heavy battery was located at Eschersheim, in the North of Frankfurt on an open field and the 8.8 cm AA gun next to his one got a direct hit of a bomb during an air raid, killing the whole gun crew, about 8 or 9 kids overall. All of them teenagers, at about 16-17 years of age.
In the end of March 1945 Frankfurt was liberated by US troops and he was sent to one of those Rheinwiesen Camps nearby Bad Kreuznach. He told us kids about all that during a summer camp of the church when I was about 14 years old. He told us that there was a hedge on one side of the POW camp - and that there was not a single leaf left on it after some days because of the lack of food supply.
- After the war and his return from that nightmare he became a priest. I would say because of the impact of what he had seen...
He was for more than 48 years a close friend of my parents and, sad to say so, passed away this May after a long sickness.
Details on those camps at wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinwiesenlager
But coming back to more positive thing's:
if you return to Germany you have to say hello for a beer or two at our Garage!
Incl. a tour in my Dodge!
Keep 'em Rolling,
Joakim
