FIRST ACROSS THE RHINE: The 291st Engineer Combat Battalion in France, Belgium, and Germany

by David E. with Eric Hammel Pergrin ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1989

A dryly detailed WW II memoir, coauthored by prolific Hammel (Munda Trail, p. 29; etc.). Col. Pergrin's engineers arrived in France only days after the invasion of Normandy (having previously gathered in southern England as part of the Operation Bolero ruse that tried to throw Hitler off the mark of the Operation Overlord plans in northern France), and soon earned a reputation as the Army's finest. Besides its major function of erecting tactical assault bridges (""an engineering marvel. . .built by hoisting various. . .five-by-ten vertical panels, each weighing five hundred pounds, into position. . .and then installing a tank-bearing roadway""), the unit also had the dangerous mission of clearing mine fields and underwater obstacles, often while under enemy fire. Through it all (including heavy duty during the Malmedy massacre, duty in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge, and creating the bridges at Remagen that allowed the Allies to finally cross the Rhine), Pergrin--a devout Christian--maintained a sense of justness of the cause against Fascism, and a sense of humor (evinced here, for example, by his description of being given a joy ride in a captured German panzer tank, only to become entrenched in a crater when the tank's gun-butt dug itself into the earth). Passable fare for die-hard WW II buffs, but most others will find the passionless recitation of detail monotonous.

Pub Date: June 1, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1989

Categories: NONFICTION