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Today in American Military History -- 1945 First To Cross!!
The Battle of Remagen during the Allied invasion of Germany resulted in the unexpected capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine and shortened World War II in Europe. After capturing the Siegfried Line, the 9th Armored Division of the U.S. First Army had advanced unexpectedly quickly towards the Rhine. They were very surprised to see one of the last bridges across the Rhine still standing. The Germans had wired the bridge with about 2,800 kilograms (6,200 lb) of demolition charges. When they tried to blow it up, only a portion of the explosives detonated. U.S. forces captured the bridge and rapidly expanded their first bridgehead across the Rhine, two weeks before Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's meticulously planned Operation Plunder. The GIs' actions prevented the Germans from regrouping east of the Rhine and consolidating their positions.
The Battle of Remagen during the Allied invasion of Germany resulted in the unexpected capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine and shortened World War II in Europe. After capturing the Siegfried Line, the 9th Armored Division of the U.S. First Army had advanced unexpectedly quickly towards the Rhine. They were very surprised to see one of the last bridges across the Rhine still standing. The Germans had wired the bridge with about 2,800 kilograms (6,200 lb) of demolition charges. When they tried to blow it up, only a portion of the explosives detonated. U.S. forces captured the bridge and rapidly expanded their first bridgehead across the Rhine, two weeks before Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's meticulously planned Operation Plunder. The GIs' actions prevented the Germans from regrouping east of the Rhine and consolidating their positions.
Battle of Remagen - Wikipedia
Posted from en.wikipedia.org
Military History
American History
21B: Combat Engineer
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 4
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The importance of capturing that bridge still intact sure had a major effect of Military operational success after some earlier shortfalls. The steps taken to prevent the Germans from destroying the bridge anyway via aircraft strikes was also very interesting. Thanks for the posting of this information.
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Am I correctly assuming the German Mechanized force were out of fuel and the German army was conducting retrograde operations?
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COL John McClellan
I'm not sure about the German fuel situation immediately surrounding these events, but yes - they were retreating and fell back to the east of the Rhine and had rigged the Ludendorff bridge for demolition if/when necessary.
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MAJ Ken Landgren
COL John McClellan - Thank you for your reply. I am going to make a strong assumption that the fuel situation for the Germans was dire. The fuel problem made the German momentum slow down at the Battle of the Bulge. Thus they started retrograde operations and we went on the offense.
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