OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Clemson vs The Orange Bowl
DATE: 30 December 2022
PLACE: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida
ATTENDANCE: 63912
FINAL SCORE: Tennessee 31 Clemson 14
a/n: There is only one way to end this little set of tributes to Dan. 38 years ago, he unknowingly foreshadowed the scene at Heritage Funeral Home in Columbia, TN, on 31 July 2022. He was always Gus to my Woodrow, riding off ahead, looking for trouble, finding trouble, or improving trouble already in progress. All the while I rode a calmer and more controlled trail, much to his amusement.
Dan was intensely proud of his family, he rated his children as his greatest accomplishments. In many ways he was an embodiment of Courage, Honor, Loyalty, and Decency.
Above all, though, he was a Vol. He was also intensely proud of his University. He often pointed out that, after spending our formative years and earning our degrees there we had a sense of ownership.
The true import of our “Gus” and “Woodrow” personas never hit home the way it did when I got that call from his Bride. One of the first things that popped into mind was that last scene of Woodrow Call walking across the little bridge in Lonesome Dove, alone and looking a little lost.
I god, Augustus, it's been quite a party ...
The game was, in many ways, a coming out party for the 2023 Vols and what a debut it was!
Joe Milton dropped dimes all over the field, finishing with 251 passing yards, three touchdowns and ZERO interceptions. The Vols running back-by-committee set wound up with 159 rushing yards. Squirrel White bid fair to be the go-to guy next season with 9 catches for 108 yards and a score. Linebacker Aaron Beasley spent more time in the Tiger backfield than their backs and racked up 12 tackles, 4 tackles for loss and two sacks.
Tennessee dominated the Tigers while being behind in every statistical category except penalty yards, interceptions, and, of course, the final score – the only one that really mattered.
Great day, nearly every Clemson drive wound up in Vol territory but with a combination of stiffening Vol defenses and Tiger missteps, they only came away with 14 points.
Tennessee took the opening kick and did squat. Clemson took their turn and drove to the UT 27 whereupon they choked on a 4th-and-4. It was a harbinger of things to come for the Purple Cats.
Big Joe then led the Vols down the field capping the drive with 16-yard laser to Bru McCoy for six.
Clemson muffed a 55-yard field goal attempt, then the Vols went three-and-out, another harbinger of the future.
End of 1st Quarter
Score: Tennessee 7 Clemson 0
Clemson's first two drives of the second quarter also ended in missed field goals.
Big Joe then led a 75-yard drive featuring a 50-yard strike to Squirrel White and capped by a 2-yard burst by Jabari Small.
Clemson answered by ending their field goal drought.
After exchanges of punts Clemson ended the half when quarterback Cade Klubnik inexplicably tried to run the ball on 3rd-and-10 from the Vol 13 as time expired.
End of 2nd Quarter
Score: Tennessee 14 Clemson 3
Clemson took their opening drive of the half down to the UT 23 where they stalled and settled for a 40-yard field goal.
After another exchange of punts, the Tigers failed on yet another 4th down attempt and UT was in business. Jalen Wright broke out with rushes for 9, 42, and 5 yards on consecutive plays. Big Joe then fired a 14-yard bullet to Squirrel in the end zone.
End of 3rd Quarter
Score: Tennessee 21 Clemson 6
Clemson finally found the end zone on their first possession of the 4th canto. A 2-point conversion cut the Vols' led to seven.
Tennessee ended the Tigers' hopes when Ramel Keaton got behind the entire Clemson defense and Big Joe hit him for a 46-yard TD.
Chase McGrath ended his UT career with a 32-yarder that settled Clemson's hash and joy abounded in the Land of the Big Arnj!
Final Score: Tennessee 31 Clemson 14
********
The Rhine River has long provided protection for various Germanic trouble makers living east of the great river.
In ancient times they would cross in boats to rape, pillage and steal from more settled tribes on the west side of the river. The interlopers would then cross back, secure in the knowledge that it would be tremendously difficult to follow them with a large force across the fast moving river which was over a mile wide in places.
Coming forward two millenia and things really hadn't changed much. Secure behind the Rhine barrier the Germans were again causing trouble, first from 1914-1918 and then again from 1939 onward. By 1945, the Germans had been evicted from France and the armies of the western Allies were closing on the Rhine River intent on bringing the war to the German homeland. The demented German Fűhrer, Adolph Hilter, had issued contradictory orders. He ordered his commanders to demolish every bridge over the Rhine to keep them from falling to the on rushing Americans and British under pain of death. However, he also ordered them NOT to destroy those bridges until the last possible moment to allow as many Germans as possible and more importantly every German army formation to escape on those bridges. Time and again as the Allies approached a bridge it was blown up in their faces. The Germans were so thorough that Allied planners decided they would capture none of the bridges. Other means would have to be employed to cross the Rhine.
It was code-named Operation PLUNDER and scheduled for the night of 23 March 1945. It was to be the crowning achievement of British 21st Army Group and, more importantly, its commander, one Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery. “Monty” needed this to regain his luster as a military genius as his latest ploy, Operation MARKET-GARDEN, designed to seize a bridge over the Rhine River at Arnhem, Holland, had failed spectacularly. Now he deigned to cross the Rhine at Wesel.
For the Americans, PLUNDER was a prototypical and ponderous “Monty” operation. It was planned to the nth degree. Nothing left to chance. There would be a bombardment by RAF Bomber Command, close air support from RAF Fighter Command, a barrage by over 4,000 heavy guns, over 1.2 million ground troops including the American 9th Army and an airborne drop, Operation VARSITY, with two airborne divisions. 10-ton LCVP and 35-ton LCM landing craft along with some 600 Amtracs which for some reason the British called “Buffaloes” were laboriously trucked across Europe to carry Monty's troops across the river until pontoon bridges could be erected. American commanders chafed as precious supplies were diverted to Monty's “show.”
British staff officers at Ike's SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) were damn near insufferable. They were taking their cue from Field Marshal Alan Brooke (Chief of the Imperial General Staff) whose thinly veiled scorn for Americans in general and Ike in particular, were quite well known, if officially denied. They just knew that PLUNDER would be a huge boost to Monty and possibly force Churchill and the Combined Chiefs of Staff to name him overall ground commander, in their view the post he should have had all along.
The Americans on Ike's staff gently pointed out to him that if the current plan remained unchanged, two-thirds of his forces would essentially be out of a job. Also that Monty's single-push would be open to flanking attacks. Therefore the master plan was grudgingly altered to allow Bradley's two field armies, Hodge's 1st and Patton's 3rd, to cross the Rhine but only after Monty's show. Bradley took the bit in his teeth and told his two commanders that if they could get across to do so and to hell with the plan.
Early March found Gen. Courtney Hodge's divisions storming right up to the west bank of the river. Hodges asked that the American fighters and bombers stop attacking the Rhine bridges in the faint hope that one might be captured.
Evening of 7 March 1945, The Goldenrod Café, West Point, Nebraska
It was damned busy that night and owner Bill Schäfer was working like hell to keep up with orders when the phone rang which further ticked him off as he didn't need THAT distraction right now. It was a long-distance call for one of his waitresses, Mary Timmermann. Shäfer growled, “Timmie! Come get the phone!” Her heart leapt into her throat. This could be very bad news. Mary's four sons were in the US Army somewhere in Europe and her four brothers were in the Wehrmacht. Her greatest nightmare, other than one or more of her sons not returning, was that eventually her sons and her brothers would end up shooting at each other.
0820 7 March, Task Force Engeman, Combat Command B, 9th Armored Division, Stadt Meckenheim, Germany
Like the rest of the 1st Army, the 9th Armored Division was moving toward the west bank of the Rhine.
Brig. Gen. William Hoges's Combat Command B (CCB) had two missions this day. First was to secure a crossing over the Ahr River and second to move toward Remagen. Remagen was an unremarkable river town that featured a railroad bridge across the Rhine. Recon aircraft found the bridge still intact.
Nobody expected it to stay that way.
Built in 1916 and named for General Erich Ludendorff who was second-in-command of the German Army, the 3-arch steel railway bridge spanned 1,066 feet. A pair of imposing stone towers sat at each end and a pair of stone piers supported it in mid-river. At the eastern end of it a tunnel had been bored through the Erpeler Ley, a near-vertical hill with a road running along the base. The Germans also designed cavities in the piers for demolition charges. After the Armistice, French occupation troops found these and filled them with concrete.
The Remagen task force was made up of the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion and the 14th Tank Battalion (minus one company). The task force would be under the command of the 14th Tanks' CO, Lt. Col. Leonard Engeman. Engeman designated Able Company of the 27th to lead the column with a platoon from the 14th providing support. That platoon, under 1st Lt. John Grimball, was one of two in the 9th Armored Div. equipped with the new T-26 “Pershing” tank with thick armor and a 90mm gun.
After waiting on bulldozers to clear the roads out of Stadt Meckenheim, the column finally got under way. The Germans offered virtually no resistance beyond some scattered small arms fire and a few rounds of artillery. Most of the Germans they did encounter were unarmed and headed west, looking for American troops with enough time to take them prisoner. They certainly did not want to tangle with a powerful tank/infantry team. After about seven miles, the point platoon under 2nd Lt. Emmet Burrows came out of a patch of woods atop a bluff overlooking Remagen at around noon. Burrows quickly called Able Company's CO and reported that the bridge was still standing.
The Germans west of the river were in complete disarray. The defenses of Remagen itself consisted of a 36-man detachment under a Capt. Bratge. The destruction of the bridge fell to Capt. Karl Friesenhahn and a handful of engineers hurriedly filling some sixty boxes each holding about 8 lbs of TNT attached to critical support points along the bridge. There were also some anti-aircraft guns and their crews atop the Erpeler Ley. All of these units reported to different headquarters. A Major Scheller from LXVII Corps headquarters arrived mid-morning and assumed overall command.
Upon receiving the report from Lt. Burrows, Able Co. CO, Lt. Karl Timmermann, called Col Engemen to request instructions. BG Hoge was with the other column but rushed cross country and soon arrived at the scene. Hoge ordered Engeman, “I want you to get to that bridge as soon as possible!”
By 1600, Timmermann's company and the supporting tanks had cleared the town and were nearing the bridge under machine gun fire from the towers. A huge explosion blew a 30-foot hole in the tracks going to the bridge and Timmermann could see Germans at the far end scurrying about. They were certainly trying to set off the main charges under the bridge.
Timmermann was just issuing his attack orders for crossing the bridge when another huge explosion rocked the bridge. Capt. Friesenhahn, knowing the fate of those who acted without proper orders in Hitler's army, demanded written orders to blow the the bridge. From a makeshift command post inside the tunnel he and Captain Bratge awaited developments. They couldn't miss American infantry moving under support from tanks moving past the crater and closer to the structure. Orders or not, the time had come. Friesenhahn keyed the electrical detonator once, twice and three times with no result. Finally he sent a sergeant out to light the backup manual fuse. A slight delay ended when the charges went off and the entire bridge seemed to lift on a cloud of smoke and debris. Friesenhahn waited for it to then collapse into the river and was making plans to hie off to the east as soon as possible.
Then the dust cloud cleared. To everyone's amazement on both sides of the Rhine, the bridge at Remagen still stood!
Timmermann reacted quickly and got his men moving. They were accompanied by a detachment of engineers. Timmermann told them to cut everything that looked like a wire they came across. Grimball's Pershings put down accurate fire knocking out machine guns in the towers and then blasting a semi-submerged barge near the east bank which from which other Germans were shooting at Timmermann's men. They also shot white phosphorous shells to lay a smoke screen for the infantry.
Sgt. Alex Drabik, an assistant squad leader, became the first American to cross the Rhine. He was followed a few moments later by Timmermann, who became the first officer to set foot on the east bank.
Timmermann sent a platoon up the Erpeler Ley and others on the road around the hill. Major Scheller took off on a bicycle to warn headquarters and just beat the Americans closing on the far end of the tunnel. Bratge and Friesenhahn surrendered along with everyone else in the tunnel,
News of the crossing rocketed up the chain of command.
Gen. Hodges at First Army HQ ordered bridging material and boats to Remagen even before he called up Gen. Bradley.
“Brad! Brad! We've gotten a bridge!” Hodges gleefully told his boss. Bradley couldn't believe his ears, “A bridge? You mean you've got one intact over the Rhine?” Hodges confirmed his report.
Bradley didn't hesitate, “Hot dog, Courtney! This will bust him wide open! Are you getting stuff across?”
“Just as fast as we can push it over!”
Maj. Gen. Harold “Pink” Bull, the senior British officer on Ike's staff, was visiting Bradley's headquarters at precisely that moment. Bull spoke for the entire British side of the command structure, “You're not going anywhere down there at Remagen. It just doesn't fit into The Plan.”
Bradley snorted, “Plan - hell! A bridge is a bridge and mighty damned good anywhere across the Rhine!”
Bull kept oinking about The Plan and how this just upset everything and so on.
Bradley finally had enough. He exploded, “What in hell do you want us to do? Pull back and blow it up?” Bull had the good sense to shut up.
Ike was ecstatic and overruled his staffers, “Hold on to it, Brad! Get across with whatever you need – but make certain you hold that bridgehead.”
Worried that this would upstage Monty, (it did) Alan Brooke leaned on Churchill who leaned on Ike to restrict the exploitation of the bridgehead. Ike waffled for ten days before giving Bradley the green light. By then Hodges divisions had reached the autobahn about eight miles to the east and could roar down Hitler's highways into the German heartland.
On the morning of 23 March Bradley's phone rang. It was Georgie Patton. “Brad, don't tell anyone but I'm across!” “Well, I'll be damned – you mean across the Rhine?” “Sure am, I sneaked a division across last night.”
That evening, Patton called again, “Brad, for God's sake tell the world we're across. I want the world to know Third Army made it across before Monty starts across.”
Monty's “Big Show” was now a side show.
Back at the Goldenrod Cafe' Mary Timmermann was having difficulty understanding just what the reporter from Omaha on the other end was saying. She only spoke broken English as she was a war bride from the last one. Bill Schäfer tried to help translate, but she was so relieved her Karl was OK that she couldn't really give the man much useful information.
Sgt. Drabik and Lt. Timmermann both received Distinguished Service Crosses for their gallantry in taking the bridge,
Karl Timmermann survived the war but couldn't settle into civilian life and went to rejoin the Army. There were no officer slots available so he accepted enlistment as an NCO. In 1948 as tensions with the Soviets escalated, he was given back his commission. He stayed in the Army and took part in the Inchon landings during the Korean War. Shortly thereafter, he reported to the hospital with a nagging pain. It was diagnosed as a tumor. He was transferred to Fitzsimmoins Hospital in Denver for treatment. Unfortunately, it unsuccessful and 1st Lt. Karl Timmermann passed away on 21 October 1951. He is buried in the cemetery at Fort Logan, CO.
*******
So, how did the Vols do against the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
The Big Purple was victimized all evening. From the THREE missed field goals by their other wise automatic kicker Barrett Carter to repeated failed efforts on 4th down to interceptions and other boneheaded plays they had to have felt snake bit. Not that the Vols were flawless but …
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!
The Vols scored after each of Clemson's failed 4th down tries. The Gen'rul smiled.
3. If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don't let up … PUT ON MORE STEAM!
The Vols shrugged off any number of problems and hit enough big plays to come home with the hardware.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
The Vols took the lead in the 1st quarter and they never relinquished it.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Like Vandy, Clemson sold out to stop the Vols run game. Big Joe made them pay. On defense, this Maxim has the names Aaron Beasley and Solon Page next to it.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
Tennessee won the kicking game – hands down. The Ge'rul and Coach Cafego high-fived.
7. Carry the fight to Clemson and keep it there for sixty minutes,
McGrath hit his field goal with three minutes left on the clock.
To quote HeadVol Josh Heupel, “The best is yet to come!”
IT'S GREAT TO BE A TENNESSEE VOL-UN-TEER! I SAY IT'S GREAT TO BE …
Suggested Reading:
Gen. Omar Bradley, A Soldier's Story (Bradley quotes)
Ken Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen (Mary Timmermann story)
Charles B. MacDonald, The Last Offensive: The U. S, Army in World War II
Alex Meyer, “Karl Timmermann: From Pebble Creek to the Rhine” Nebraska History – Summer/Fall 1995
American tanks and infantry cross the Remagen bridge 7 March 1945 (US Army)
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I hope 2023 is good to you and look forward to your storytelling again real soon. You sir, are a treasure. 
