Saturday, March 17, 1945
The heavily damaged "Ludendorff Bridge" over the Rhine at Remagen...
...collapses today due to the constant overload and into the river!
The Americans no longer need it - they have long since built a makeshift ponton bridge near Erpel a little further down the river ...:
Since the collapse of the bridge, which killed 32 American pioneers, is the most important event of the war today, we remain for a while at the "Ludendorff Bridge" ...
It was named after the German General Erich Ludendorff...
... who, together with Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg, formed during World War I the so-called "Oberste Heeresleitung" (OHL) ("Supreme Army Command") between 1916 and 1918...
...which established a de facto dictatorship over Germany, in which the parliament and the emperor no longer played an essential role!
After the war Ludendorff was one of the leaders of ultra-nationalist anti-republic circles and worked closely with a still largely unknown failed postcard painter named Adolf Hitler...:
Hitler vowed Ludendorff "loyal following".
When Hitler tried in vain in 1923 to overthrow the republic through a coup in Munich, Ludendorff was there too!
It was only through this attempted coup that Hitler became known and his inexorable rise began.
The reactionary general died in Munich in 1937...:
The Nazis then named the bridge at Remagen after him.
But back to the bridge:
It was ten days before it's collapse by a surprising handshake by a small vanguard of the 9th US Armored Division led by the 22-year-old Second Lieutenant Karl H. Timmermann ...
... been taken ...:
The Allied Commander in Chief General Dwight Eisenhower immediately recognized the value of the bridge and exclaimed: "It is worth its weight in gold!"
The 12th U.S. Army under General Omar Bradley (on the left)...
...immediately received orders to quickly bring everything that was possible on the bridge over the Rhine and to form a bridgehead on the other bank.
The picture shows Eisenhower with General George Patton at the bridge to get an idea of himself ...:
In the ten days until the collapse, the US Army was able to bring 17th fully moraded regiments with tanks and artillery over the bridge ...:
**continued next post**