Maintenance at The Bridge at Remagen +64
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:22 pm
Sometimes we get a glimpse of what it was like for the maintenance GIs in WW2.
Today, ~64 years after the capture of the Bridge at Remagen I got a "taste of maintenance in the "spring". In another posting, I mentioned that I broke an axle in the 1942 Chev army plow truck. When I pulled the rear cover off, the ring gear was a mess so I decided to replace the whole carrier assy.
Today I was finally able to get Annie the crane out of the snow so that I could get the backhoe in in front of her to make a road farther in so that she could pickup a chevy front axles assy covered up under the snow. Where I had plowed to, Annie could just reach the front end and she picked her right up. I swung the boom back to straight ahead and backed the truck portion back down this plowed road I had made. Once I got back into the cleared/plowed area, I was ankle deep into mud. I dared not back onto the driveway and attempt to turn Annie. The tandems would have made a mess out of son-in-laws driveway to his house, so I settled for stopping just short of the driveway. I swung Annie still holding the front end all the way to the side and lowered the boom. The front axle was now on the ground in the mud!. After removing the carrier bolts, I reattached the crane chain to the U-joint flange and slogged back through the mud to the crane to lift it out. (the axles had already been removed). Out it popped. I slogged back through the mug to get the hand truck. I got the hand truck and slogged back through the mud to Annie so that I could lower the gear carrier onto it. Then I slogged through the mud again and disconnected the crane chain.
It was about 20 ft to the entrance of the POD (Pembroke Ordnance Depot) and it took about five minutes of pulling, cussing, and straining to the the hand truck up to the barn entrance and in. The wheels were more or less useless in the mud.
This is what it must have been like 44-45 years ago this spring!
Today, ~64 years after the capture of the Bridge at Remagen I got a "taste of maintenance in the "spring". In another posting, I mentioned that I broke an axle in the 1942 Chev army plow truck. When I pulled the rear cover off, the ring gear was a mess so I decided to replace the whole carrier assy.
Today I was finally able to get Annie the crane out of the snow so that I could get the backhoe in in front of her to make a road farther in so that she could pickup a chevy front axles assy covered up under the snow. Where I had plowed to, Annie could just reach the front end and she picked her right up. I swung the boom back to straight ahead and backed the truck portion back down this plowed road I had made. Once I got back into the cleared/plowed area, I was ankle deep into mud. I dared not back onto the driveway and attempt to turn Annie. The tandems would have made a mess out of son-in-laws driveway to his house, so I settled for stopping just short of the driveway. I swung Annie still holding the front end all the way to the side and lowered the boom. The front axle was now on the ground in the mud!. After removing the carrier bolts, I reattached the crane chain to the U-joint flange and slogged back through the mud to the crane to lift it out. (the axles had already been removed). Out it popped. I slogged back through the mug to get the hand truck. I got the hand truck and slogged back through the mud to Annie so that I could lower the gear carrier onto it. Then I slogged through the mud again and disconnected the crane chain.
It was about 20 ft to the entrance of the POD (Pembroke Ordnance Depot) and it took about five minutes of pulling, cussing, and straining to the the hand truck up to the barn entrance and in. The wheels were more or less useless in the mud.
This is what it must have been like 44-45 years ago this spring!
