We built a Bailey bridge across the Rhine River before the battle … so Patton could get his tanks over there. On the day the Ludendorff bridge collapsed, ten days after its capture, the 148th Engineer Combat Battalion, with the assistance of a company of the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion, began building a floating Bailey bridge at Remagen, downstream from the Ludendorff. The 148th started the bridge at 0730 hours on the 18th and completed it in 48 hours. It was the first American Bailey bridge across the Rhine River. The 148th Engineer Combat Battalion was assigned to the 1110th Engineer Combat Group.