Tim's Tanks: Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen

Tuesday 13 August 2024

Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen - Part Three

Another business trip to Remagen presented me with an opportunity to take a further look into the battle for the bridge and finally getting to see the eastern bank across from Remagen itself.

Apollinaris Church

Following the Battle of the Bulge the US Army advanced westwards at pace. The remaining German divisions falling back towards the Rhine as they went.

The view from the Apollinaris Church. The Eastern bridge towers can be seen in the upper centre of the picture

German strategy was to form a defensive line behind the natural barrier of the river Rhine so as troops retreated across the remaining bridges they were demolished. In fact, at that time the US Airforce were trying to destroy the bridges as well, to trap the Germans on the Western side of the river.

The Apollinaris Church viewed looking back from the Eastern end of the bridge

US spotter planes saw the Ludendorff bridge at Remagen was still intact when Operation Lumberjack (III Corps advance on Remagen) began on 1^st March 1945, but there was little expectation it would still be standing when they got there.

The Eastern towers with battle damage to the stonework

Combat Command B of the 9^th Armoured Division were given the task of capturing Remagen. Task Force Engeman, part of CCB, 9^th Armoured Division, reached the heights overlooking Remagen on the 7^th March 1945 and from the Apollinaris Church could see the bridge was still standing.

The Eastern towers with the Erpeler Ley behind

The bridge was captured later that day by Company A of the 27^th Armoured Infantry Battalion lead by Lt. Karl Timmermann before a successful demolition could be carried out. Though the damage done in the explosion ultimately led to the bridge’s collapse ten days later.

Looking back across the river Rhine to the Western towers

Memorials on the Eastern bank

The tunnel through the Erpeler Ley that is immediately reached by the Ludendorff bridge on the eastern bank was used to shelter the troops defending the bridge as well as local civilians. Today it is blocked off with no public access. The twin towers on the eastern bank remain, with their battle damaged façade bearing witness to the battle for the bridge. They are currently closed off and abandoned unlike those on the Western side housing the museum.

The Erpeler Ley tunnel entrance as it is today

A piece of the original bridge

After the battle, Hitler was unsurprisingly incensed that the bridge had been captured more or less intact. He directed one of his most faithful fanatical Nazis to court martial and execute those found to be responsible for failing to demolish the bridge. Four officers were made scapegoats (3 for failing to demolish the bridge, one for allowing an experimental Henschel Hs 297 anti-aircraft rocket system to fall into allied hands) and executed by a shot to the back of the head. They were buried where they fell but three of the four were reburied in the cemetery at Birnbach which contains a plot with 52 German war graves from the Second World War.