Tempests over Remagen: fact or 'alternative fact'?

[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

There's a lot and that makes it a brilliant book to read. It also gives a convincing (to me) picture of how it felt to be flying at that time. It's not so much use as an accurate account of historical events though.

Just like many other memories. Clostermann is no exception in this regard.

I agree that events get confused but all the business about huge formations of Ar 234s with Me 262 escorts attacking at low level don't match the extensive records in German daily reports and in ULTRA.

I cannot say if there were any other bridges attacked so intensely. Otherwise, I can imagine someone taking a liberty and violating the rules to have a closer look. Though of course, it is quite likely the bit has been added to bring some drama.

There are many German records of combats with American fighters during the Remagen bridge campaign. These usually took place away from the bridge, I guess because the Germans were intercepted early and possibly because the USAAF had the good sense to keep away from the powerful 'friendly' anti-aircraft defences round the bridgehead.

Still, there were numerous cases of confusion in the air with the effect of wrong aircraft being bounced. For some reason records were sanitised of such cases, perhaps to avoid embarassement.