Battle of Remagen

CROSS THE RHINE WITH DRY FEET COURTESY OF 9TH ARM'D DIV-LUDENDORFF BRIDGE POSTED SIGN

Sign erected by the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion declaring their bridge the first over the Rhine at Remagen

WW2-USACE-291stECB-remagen-treadway-bridge

Troops of the 47th Infantry Regiment, attached to the 9th Infantry Division, march through Remagen to cross the Ludendorff Bridge on March 9, 1945. They were assigned to a task force of Combat Command B of the 9th Armored Division, consisting in part of the 47th Infantry Regiment, 27th Armored Infantry Battalion and the 14th Armored Battalion.

Pfc. Richard Schrame, with his quad-.50 caliber weapon, scans the skies for enemy aircraft near the Remagen bridge.

For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Remagen, beschädigte Brücke Brücke von Remagen, zwischen 8.3. und 10.3.1945

Photographer not credited. Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive.

M-2 steel treadway bridge spanning the 1032 ft breadth of the Rhine was built in 32 hours under heavy enemy fire by the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion supported by the 988 and 998 Treadway Bridge Companies.

German bombs fall near the Ludendorff Bridge after it was captured by the U.S. Army

Gravestone of 4 officers who refused to blast the Ludendorff-Bridge in Remagen. They were executed by German military court in March 1945.

U.S. troops crossing the Rhine near Nierstein on 23 March 1945 in a LCVP.

An M26 Pershing fires at German positions across the Rhine on March 7, 1945.

An M26 Pershing T26E3 of A Company, 14th Tank Battalion, is transported aboard a pontoon ferry across the Rhine on March 12, 1945 built by the First Engineer Heavy Pontoon Battalion.

Ludendorff Bridge and Erpeler Ley tunnel at Erpel (eastern side of the Rhine) – First U.S. Army men and equipment pour across the Remagen Bridge; two knocked out jeeps in foreground. Germany, 11 March 1945.

American GIs pass trucks destroyed by German artillery on March 11, 1945 near Remagen, Germany.

The Rozich Blackburn Tompkins Bridge, a pontoon bridge built by the 51st Combat Engineers across the Rhine, upstream from the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, between Kripp and Linz.

Poster printed by the US Army commemorating the capturing of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. The official description is: "The Remagen Bridgehead - 7 March 1945" Department of the Army Poster 21-32 Here, on the Ludendorf Bridge crossing the Rhine at Remagen, Combat Command B, 9th Armored Division -- headed by the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion -- with "superb skill, daring and esprit de corps" successfully effected the first bridgehead across Germany's formidable river barrier and so contributed decisively to the defeat of the enemy. The 27th Battalion reached Remagen, found the bridge intact but mined for demolition. Although its destruction was imminent, without hesitation and in face of heavy fire the infantrymen rushed across the structure, and with energy and skill seized the surrounding high ground. The entire episode illustrates that high degree of initiative, leadership and gallantry toward which all armies strive but too rarely attain, and won for the Combat Command the Distinguished Unit Citation.

"The Remagen Bridgehead 7-24 March 1945" by H.C. Brewer Jr., from MacDonald, Charles B. (1973). US Army in WW II: The Last Offensive (CMH Pub 7-9-1). Washington D.C.: Center for Military History, Government Printing Office.

A welder from the 1058th Bridge Construction and Repair Group repairs the Ludendorff Bridge after it was captured on 7 March 1945.