79th Infantry Division Crosses Rhine River near Dinslaken, Germany; March 24, 1945

A brief anecdote from the Rhine Crossing Operation at "Baker Beach" (seen in the footage): "One highlight which is told by men of the 79th Division is a story which concerns Division G-2 following the lightning assault across the Rhine.

It seems that after the crossing was underway, the telephone rang at G-2 and the voice at the other end said: 'This is Baker Beach Traffic Control. We've got two Germans underfoot down here and we're not even in high gear yet. What'll we do with them?'

'Put them on the phone,' was the reply. And that's how two enemy PFCs, dazed and shaken by the then record-breaking artillery barrage that preceded the assault crossing, found themselves undergoing telephonic interrogation by the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Lt. Col. A. C. Dohrmann. Their ready answers to a dozen-odd questions concerning enemy numbers and dispositions in the 79th Division's assault area were collected on the spot and relayed immediately to the beach. A subsequent assault wave used the information to excellent advantage. Then the two PWs, first of more than 700 captured in the first day's fighting, were hustled off to the Division Prison Cage.

One of the prisoners asked an interrogator at the cage if questioning via telephone by high ranking German-speaking officers was SOP. He was assured that it was not. The older of the two, however, was less naïve and decidedly more philosophical. When Colonel Dohrmann asked him if he thought the 79th Division would be successful in its thrust across the Rhine, he replied moodily: 'Why not? You crossed the Atlantic, didn't you?'" From "The Cross of Lorraine: A Combat History of the 79th Infantry Division June 1942 - December 1945"

Film source: NARA, 111-ADC-3762
#crossoflorraine #79thinfantrydivision #operationvarsity
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