“The response to the capture of the bridge throughout the whole First Army was astounding.”

John Philip Manger

John Phillip Manger, Bruhl, Germany, May 1945 War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Unit: 164th Engineer Battalion Service Location: Fort Logan, Colorado; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Camp Howze, Texas; Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi; Camp Shanks, New York; England; Normandy, France; Belgium; Germany; Ardennes; Rhineland; Central Europe Rank: Captain Place of Birth: Laurium, MI

John Manger put his college engineering degree to good work as a member of the 164th Engineer Battalion in the European Theater of World War II. Captain Manger and his men were responsible for building, fortifying, and protecting bridges that would speed the Allies’ push to victory in the wake of the Normandy Invasion. Their key job was at Remagen, an important railroad bridge across the Rhine River. The Germans were determined to destroy the bridge, even employing swimmers to attach explosives to its base. Manger’s collection includes several documents which contain invaluable details about this story.