A year later, as the Second World War was nearing its end, the 9th Armored Division of the United States Army managed to reach Ludendorff Bridge and found it, to their surprise, undamaged and fully functioning.
39.) I didn’t stop because I knew that if I kept moving they couldn’t hit me. American anti-aircraft units claimed 109 German aircraft shot down. John said to my dad: “what am i going to do”. They knew however that a major barrier awaited them. Veteran Paul Schumacher at Remagen Anniversary Ceremony, March 8, 2010, Remagen Bridgehead Battlefield Tours Having survived the Battle of the Bulge and the Remagan crossing, he was killed in a car accident only 6 months after coming home from WWII. After the U.S. forces were closed up along the west bank of the river, they would secure the right flank of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s 21st Army Group during Operation Plunder, the Allies’ main Rhine crossing in force scheduled for later that month near Wesel, 90 miles to the north.
Had the Germans discovered the reason that John was staying with us the Germans would have shot my Dad, Mother, 2 brothers and a sister right on the spot. His books include “On the German Art of War: Truppenführung – German Army Manual for Unit Command in World War II” with co-editor Bruce Condell (Stackpole, 2008), and the two-volume “Chief of Staff: The Principal Officers Behind History’s Great Commanders” (Naval Institute Press, 2008).
put up saying cross the Rhine with dry feet courtesy of the 9th Armored Division. When the charges finally blew, the bridge shuddered and seemed to lift into the air slightly, but then it settled back down onto its foundations. The Ludendorff bridge stood 48 feet above the river, and its double railroad tracks were designed to be easily covered with wooden planks, allowing conventional vehicles to pass over it. In a typical rage of fury, Hitler fired (for the last time) Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt as commander of German Army Western Front forces (OB-West) on March 10 and replaced him with Field Marshal Albert Kesselring. could not drive there. Dr. Denison with U.S. In German forests, dark and still, bomb craters, foxholes, and trenchlines remind one of the battle that once raged. Upstream, the engineers also put in protective booms and a wire mesh net to protect the bridge and prevent German combat swimmers from reaching the pilings. The road to Berlin laid open. See the bridge tower ruins where once the gigantic Ludendorf Bridge spanned the Rhine River.
When the commander of CCB, Brigadier General William M. Hoge, learned the bridge was still intact, he had a decision to make. Turbulent times have resulted in the town being brought to the ground and rebuilt many times over the years.
But what if his troops could take the bridge and hold it? Soon the bridge was swarming with Americans, while Mitchell, joined now by other engineers, cut and jerked out wires leading to dynamite charges. PA. Eight GIs received the Distinguished Service Cross for their roles in forcing the Rhine: Lieutenant Timmermann and Sergeants Drabik and Petrencsik from 27th Armored Infantry Battalion; Lieutenant Mott and Sergeants Dorland and Reynolds of 9th Armored Engineer Battalion; and Lieutenants Grimball and Miller from 14th Tank Battalion. They raced on. Later, from prisoners, the Americans learned that the Germans planned to blow up the span at precisely four o’clock. Just as they stepped on the span, an explosion occurred three-quarters of the way down the bridge. But something He rarely & then talked little about. Dine in the medieval walled town of Blankenberg.
Then the Yanks, crouching low against machine gun fire coming from the bridge towers, ran out onto the bridge. Construction began in 1916, two years after the start of World War I, using prisoners-of-war as the workforce. Then the bridge deck began to vibrate and sway. The Ludendorff Bridge was the last standing on the Rhine, Un mitrailleur de calibre.50 maintient un BAR très pratique à Remagen sur 9 mars 1945 A .50-caliber machine gunner keeps a BAR handy at Remagen on March 9, 1945. My son-in-law, who is in the army (Special Forces) says that it’s a Bronze star and I know the stripes for the bronze star look like the star that he has, as opposed to the stripes on a Silver star.
High bluffs on both banks of the river made the approaches very difficult, and the poor road network on both sides guaranteed slowmoving traffic and bottlenecks. The precise cause of the collapse was never determined,but most likely it was a consequence of the punishment the bridge had taken over the 10 days since its capture. Everett Holles, an NBC Radio war correspondent spoke to those who made the attack: On beyond the four towers of the Apollinariskirche that glistened in a light drizzle of rain they saw Remagen’s 400-yard-long, three-span bridge across the Rhine. Costs for its construction surpassed 2 million marks. renowned foreign affairs commentator and director As I said we lived near the Wadden Sea and for some silly reason the Germans thought that the Allied forces could come across the dike where we lived. The town of Remagen has a rich history that spans over two millennia and includes many bloody wars. Once across the river, Montgomery’s forces would exploit the favorable terrain of the north German plain to advance to the Ruhr, Germany’s main coal and industrial region. I hope you enjoyed my history lesson.
To think of those guys running through machine gun fire across a 250 yard long bridge, cutting wires and all the time knowing that the whole bridge could blow up at any second… Incredible! Sorry, there are no tours or activities available to book online for the date(s) you selected. Hauptmann Wilhelm Bratge, the commandant at Remagen, had only 36 soldiers under his direct command at the bridge, and he had no authority over most of the Volkstrum troops in the area or over the anti-aircraft flak battery on top of the Erpeler Ley. Visit if something of WWII historic interest remains. With each general looking at his map as they talked by telephone, Millikin said to Leonard: “Do you see that little black strip of bridge at Remagen?
Moss Hart, American playwright who, with George S. Kaufman, wrote plays such as You Can't Take it with You and The Man who came to Dinner. ‘While we were running across the bridge – and, man, it may have been only 250 yards but it seemed like 250 miles to us – I spotted this lieutenant, standing out there completely exposed to the machine gun fire that was pretty heavy by this time.’, ‘He was cutting wires and kicking the German demolition charges off the bridge with his feet! An aerial view of the Ludendorff Bridge after it collapsed on 17 March 1945. I’m thinking 47th Inf. At 12 midnight 12 German soldiers were going to come to our place and sleep there.
Restaurants near Peace Museum - Bridge at Remagen: Things to do near Peace Museum - Bridge at Remagen. But as the Allies secured the crossing site with 25 barrage balloons and some 700 anti-aircraft guns, the air attacks became suicidal.