- Contributed by听
- stoke_on_trentlibs
- People in story:听
- Guardsman R Carter 5th Battalion Coldstream Guards
- Location of story:听
- Wesel,Germany
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A3743075
- Contributed on:听
- 04 March 2005
Guardsman R Carter No 2666459
This story has been submitted on behalf of the author who understands the rules and regulations of the Peoples War website.
On 9th March 1945,I was one of some 100 men who were sent to try and make safe the way for tanks to secure the crossing of the Rhine beside the village of Wesel. An 18ft high railway embankment was between the tanks and the crossing.We had to climb up this and cross four railway lines and get to the road which was also on a high embankment. We had made it to the third rail line when the Germans started firing on us.Many men never made it to the other side of the embankment,but I was one of about 30 who did.Once over ,the the tanks could bomb thier way through it. There was only one officer left and when he gave the order to move we followed him. There was street fighting in the village but we never saw any civilians as they were in the cellars.
When we got to the road the tanks could then support the men on the ground. The German division that we had been fighting was the 7th para division and I saw one soldier who had been injured leaning against the wall at the end of a street in the village,I wonder what happened to him after the war.
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