Robert Nichols Cresswell was born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania in April 1924. He grew up in Swissvale, Pennsylvania. Cresswell had a younger brother. He was attending high school when the war broke out [Annotator's Note: following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was working on a radio in the attic when the news was announced. He told his folks to turn on the radio after he learned the news. He knew little of the war up to that point. He did learn of Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and his youth groups. The young Germans were the same age as Cresswell at the time. Prior to being drafted in January 1943, Cresswell had previous military experience in the National Guard. He was trained on basic military requirements while in the Guard. He returned home by ship on Thanksgiving Day 1945. Cresswell’s mother passed away before he was drafted. Cresswell and his father did not discuss being drafted after he received the induction notice. Swissvale High School’s graduating class lost seven men in the war.

Robert Nichols Cresswell was an original member of the 291st [Annotator’s Note: 291st Engineer Combat Battalion] when it formed at Camp Swift, Texas outside of Austin [Annotator’s Note: Austin, Texas]. It started as the 82nd Engineers [Annotator’s Note: 82nd Engineer Combat Battalion] and then it became the 291st Combat Engineers. Basic training was at Camp Swift. The 291st participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers [Annotator’s Note: over the course of August and September in 1941]. His battalion was ordered overseas and shipped out in October 1943. They disembarked in Liverpool, England on such a dark night that it was hard to see the man in front of him. It was totally blacked out in England and hard to make out even a shadow or a building. He held on to the man in front of him and followed along. In England, he received equipment and continued training and built barracks and tents for troops arriving after the 291st. As the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] neared, more training was provided on building bridges, clearing mines, and combat training. After the invasion, the battalion was sent to France. It had been with First Army, but was detached to those units needing engineering help. The roads had to be kept open despite artillery and aerial bombardment damage. Many of the dirt roads were improved to black top or cement. As a truck driver, Cresswell often had to clean the back of the truck so troops could be transported. The 291st developed quarries as needed. Rock crushers would be provided by other outfits. A large battle had occurred near Mortain [Annotator’s Note: Mortain, France] where Cresswell was sent to reconnoiter a quarry site previously used by the Germans. The weather was stormy with poor visibility and rising water. Cresswell was glad to complete his mission and get back to his bivouac area afterward. When he checked the next morning, he saw his parked truck was inches away from hitting a tree [Annotator’s Note: he smiles and indicates a short distance between his hands]. When he returned to Mortain the next day, he observed dead Germans everywhere. He could not see them the night before. The battle had occurred earlier the previous day as the Americans pushed through the German lines without regard to cleaning up the dead. He did not let himself dwell on seeing dead bodies. As a young man, he was convinced that he would not be hurt despite seeing others being injured every day. After a few days, the 291st left the Mortain quarry site. Much of the road repair work was interrupted by being strafed and bombed and the engineers having to duck out of the way of danger. The Luftwaffe was active at the time. They bombed and strafed Allied tanks and artillery near the engineers. Some of the American anti-aircraft shrapnel came down on top of the engineers. A young lieutenant named Marshall [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling, no given name provided] was hit as friendly fire fell on him while he was sheltering in a foxhole. He was sent back to England with his wounds. Before the young officer left, Cresswell joked that he told him not to get in the foxholes. The war did not turn in favor of the Allies until the air war was won.

Robert Nichols Cresswell was a participant [Annotator’s Note: as a truck driver with the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion] in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium when the Germans broke through in December [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. It had been six months since D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. His company was running a sawmill at the time of the enemy breakthrough. Cresswell could see the Germans nearby. Until then, the Allies thought the war was nearing its end. The Germans did not agree as Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was leading the show rather than listening to his commanders. Several German officers said the offensive would not work. Officers like Otto Skorzeny [Annotator’s Note: SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny], Sepp Dietrich [Annotator’s Note: SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Sepp Dietrich] and Peiper [Annotator’s Note: SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper] said it would not work. Peiper shot the prisoners in Malmedy [Annotator’s Note: the massacre of American prisoners captured by Peiper’s men occurred during the Battle of the Bulge in Malmedy, Belgium]. The Americans were an observation outfit who had been told not to enter the area. The officer in charge nevertheless took his men into the area where five roads converged. The Germans captured them and shot the majority of them. Cresswell’s company had just passed through the location and heard the machine gun fire. The company returned and saw what had happened. Seven of the prisoners managed to escape the massacre and reach the 291st CP [Annotator’s Note: command post]. The CP notified command at Liege [Annotator’s Note: Liege, Belgium]. That ended taking German prisoners. It was not official policy, but troops in the field took it upon themselves to stop taking enemy prisoners.

Robert Nichols Cresswell [Annotator’s Note: a truck driver with the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion] did not trade in his tools for a rifle [Annotator's Note: after the Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] because his battalion had to work on the bridge at Remagen [Annotator’s Note: the pontoon bridge built downriver of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, Germany] after the 9th Armored Division captured it. It was February [Annotator’s Note: February 1945]. Another bridge had to be built across the Rhine [Annotator’s Note: the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen was captured essentially intact, but a second bridge to span the Rhine River was deemed necessary]. While at a bathhouse in Spa [Annotator’s Note: Spa, Belgium], Cresswell encountered an individual from his hometown. Cresswell had already participated in building bridges across the Rohr [Annotator’s Note: Rohr River] and was pleased to hear the individual say he was training to build a bridge across the Rhine. Although he assured his friends back in his company not to worry about the Rhine, Cresswell ended up working on the construction of that river crossing [Annotator’s Note: he laughs]. The bridge would span the 1,032 foot river. The Ludendorff Bridge was upstream and was a railroad bridge. Wired for destruction, the explosion merely raised it after which it settled back down in a weakened state. Engineers went to work to reinforce it, but traffic was mainly infantry at first. Tanks could not cross. During this time, the Germans were on Flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery] Hill across the river shelling the bridge. The Luftwaffe attacked the bridge. That was the first time Cresswell saw a German jet zoom through the valley. He thought it was a rocket, but it was an airplane. The Ludendorff Bridge collapsed in March [Annotator’s Note: March 1945] from too much weight on it plus damage it had suffered. Many of the men on it were killed. By then, the pontoon bridge built by the 291st was complete. The pontoons were preassembled downriver and brought to the assembly site to join the span being built across the Rhine. After three days, tanks and infantry were able to cross. Those troops eliminated the threat of shelling by the Germans. Cresswell has a souvenir piece of concrete from the destroyed bridge. The Navy helped save the pontoon bridge during the collapse of the Ludendorff Bridge. Some of the survivors from the collapse were saved by Cresswell and some of his fellow pontoon bridge builders. The Ludendorff Bridge had a sign signifying personnel were crossing the first span into Germany. The surface of the pontoon bridge had treads about 18 inches wide fastened to the pontoons. It was designed for tanks and other vehicles, as well as infantry to crossover. Usually, vehicles and infantry crossed separately, but sometimes troops held onto the tanks as they crossed. Two or three other bridges were built downriver. The river current was not fast, but a cable across the river was anchored to the bottom of the river. The pontoons were secured to the cable to prevent swaying. When the Ludendorff fell, the troops on the pontoon bridge thought they should evacuate their bridge. The Navy helped secure the situation. There were no fatalities on the pontoon bridge. Most bridge builders were sent to the Ludendorff after its capture to stabilize it. The 291st was tasked with building the pontoon bridge. After maintaining it for seven days, orders came for the battalion to move on. Reaching the top of Flak Hill, they observed a Big Bertha artillery piece [Annotator’s Note: 42 cm M-Gerät "Big Bertha" siege howitzer]. The large mortar lobbed shells at the Americans. One shell would have destroyed the bridge. The troops bypassed it and left it in place. While the bridge was being built, a colonel was issuing orders to the builders while the planes were strafing them. The officer, it was discovered later, was deaf. He knew his trade well despite his hearing loss. The men felt he was not so brave after learning of his disability. He had started the 291st back in Texas [Annotator’s Note: the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion was formed at Camp Swift outside of Austin, Texas]. Hayes [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling, no given name was provided] was the officer’s name. He told his trainees after arriving at Camp Swift that they would be expedited through training for deployment overseas. He was regular Army and was not a draftee. He probably served in the First World War [Annotator’s Note: Cresswell chuckles].

Robert Nichols Cresswell left Remagen [Annotator’s Note: as a truck driver in the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion, he helped build the pontoon bridge that spanned the Rhine River downriver of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, Germany] and crossed the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s] and entered the Rohr Valley where there was a dam that was going to be destroyed. It would have wiped out the whole valley. The area known as the Rohr Pocket was where Germany did all of its manufacturing. The chemical and munitions plants were targeted by the Americans. Bridges had to be built in the region by the 291st. The battalion built 44 Bailey bridges [Annotator’s Note: a type of portable, pre-fabricated bridge] and 23 timber bridges with 11 of them constructed under fire. Six bridges were blown up by the 291st. The battalion was attached to the 99th Infantry Division in the Rohr Pocket. Additionally, the 291st was attached to the 101st Airborne Division, the 9th Armored Division, and the 30th Infantry Division. A Bailey bridge could be erected in three hours if the abutments were in good shape. Training enabled that efficiency. The battalion built 14 Bailey bridges on Hitler’s [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] autobahn [Annotator's Note: German highway system] in 36 hours as the Germans were retreating. They blew up bridges as they retreated. The 291st had to replace the destroyed bridges with Bailey bridges. Germany is a lot like Pennsylvania. Cresswell wondered how the Germans lived through the war. Some of them did not know the Americans had landed on the continent. Some of the troops who were multi-lingual had to communicate the news to them. They were happy to see the Americans when they learned who they were. Hitler’s Nazi regime was in the big cities where the Army was. Most were Army officers who did not talk to the farmers or workers. The destruction at Munich [Annotator’s Note: Munich, Germany] surprised Cresswell. The Ninth Air Force bombers even dropped ordnance on the 291st several times near Munich. The battalion used 10,000 prisoners to help open up Munich’s roads and clean up the city. The prisoners did the work while US troops watched them, but Cresswell and the other truck drivers had to haul all the crap [Annotator’s Note: he chuckles]. He worked full time. The prisoners were removed from compounds in the morning to do the work. MPs [Annotator’s Note: military police] watched over them, but they were not going anywhere. They were being fed so they did not leave. German mechanics even serviced the American trucks and were happy to do so. The prisoners were mainly kids and not like the SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] or Gestapo [Annotator's Note: German Geheime Staatspolizei or Secret State Police; abbreviated Gestapo]. The 291st met up with the SS on the Danube River. They were on the opposite bank. The bridge could not be built there because the SS would not give up. It was 332 feet across the Danube so another site was found downriver for a Bailey bridge. After completion, the rain started and was continuous. The fields turned to mud so lumber planks had to be brought in to stabilize the ground and make roads. The tank treads chewed the ground up. Cresswell had to use his truck winch to pull the tanks to the point that they could get traction and get to the road. The tanks were not the answer to everything. They could get bogged down.

Robert Nichols Cresswell [Annotator’s Note: a truck driver in the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion] was bivouacked with the battalion just outside of Munich, Germany where they were working. They were anxious to go home. They rode on 40-and-eights [Annotator’s Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accommodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses] to Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France]. They were going to ship out on an all-steel Kaiser ship. The generator blew out so everyone sat on the dock all night waiting for the generator to be repaired. The day after boarding the ship, a map was placed on a wall to indicate the progress of the ship and the weather conditions. Instead of avoiding a storm, Cresswell’s ship went straight through it. The captain’s wife in Boston [Annotator’s Note: Boston, Massachusetts] was having a baby so he was anxious to get home. The storms were even worse during the trip over to Europe. Some ships listed 45 degrees. The ship ran out of fresh water on the voyage back to the States. Cresswell saw the Statue of Liberty [Annotator’s Note: the Statue of Liberty is in the harbor of New York City, New York] when he returned home. A band was playing a welcome for them on their arrival. They received a steak dinner. He went to Camp Myles Standish in Massachusetts on the way home and returned to Indiantown Gap [Annotator’s Note: Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania]. Cresswell went for weeks without a bath while deployed. There were traveling outfits that provided baths. After removing clothing, the men would take a shower and be given clean clothes afterward. There were times when he could not even wash his hands. He usually looked for a sink or toilet when he entered a town. At Malmedy [Annotator’s Note: Malmedy, Belgium], he had running water in a sink and a toilet. Eventually, the place was bombed when the breakthrough started [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945 was in the area of Malmedy]. Cresswell has medals that he could collect in France but opts not to go back.