In May 1919 a pontoon school was established at Honningen, about
twenty-five kilometers down the Rhine from Engers, and Companies “D" and "F" were
sent there for instructions and training. After ten day's practice
with the German pontoon equipment they were to build the bridge
complete across the Rhine. Another Engineer Regiment had already
established a record of two hours and twenty-five minutes, and the
German soldiers, themselves, after two or three months practice
and training had a record of about one and a half hours. The Rhine
at this place is one thousand four hundred and forty feet wide and
flows seven miles per hour. Ninety-five boats, one thousand six hundred
and fifteen chess, six hundred and sixty-five balk, and one thousand
three hundred and thirty pieces of lashing were used in the completion
of the bridge. It took four hundred men to put the bridge across
-- two hundred had drilled ten days and two hundred, which had
come from the other Companies, had drilled only three days -- but
everything worked smoothly on the bright Sunday morning, May 25th,
1919, and the bridge was completed in fifty-eight and a half minutes,
which smashed all records. |
