REMAGEN BRIDGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25798, 20 March 1945, Page 5

REMAGEN BRIDGE

DRAMATIC COLLAPSE NO DANGER TO EAST BANK FORCES LONDON, Mar. 18. Remagen railway bridge, which permitted the first crossings of the Rhine, collapsed yesterday after it had been weakened by German shelling and bombing. A staff officer at Twelfth Army Group headquarters stated that the loss of the bridge would not threaten the Allies’ ability to hold the bridgehead on the east bank of the Rhine.

The First Army had already established another bridge over the river in the Remagen sector, capable of carrying light vehicles. Remagen bridge had been used. only for foot traffic for some time.

It is conceded that the collapse of the bridge, of which the main span, 152 ft long, has fallen into the water, is a distinct loss, but there is full confidence that the bridgehead will be fully maintained and continually expanded without it. American engineers have been trying for days to counter the cumulative effects of the stresses to which the bridge has been subjected. The collapse of the Ludendorff bridge was as sensational as its capture, says the Daily Express’s correspondent with the American First Army. It was not destroyed by a shell or a bomb. It just crumbled quietly into the river. About 200 engineers were working on the bridge when the whole steel framework subsided, leaving three stone piers- intact. Some Americans were killed and others were drowned. The bodies of at least 15 soldiers have been pulled out of the mass of twisted steel. An engineer officer stated that the constant strain of moving materials and heavy vehicles proved too much for the bridge. “It was just tired.” Men standing close to the bridge were amazed to note how silently it slipped down into the water, says the Associated Press correspondent. There was a noise like a saw going through wood—then the bridge almost vanished under the swiftly-flowing river. The Rhine was instantly filled with masses of debris, and soldiers could be seen clinging desperately to nieces of the wreckage. Many injured men locked their arms around bits of floating debris and drifted to the pontoon bridge. Officers and men all along the banks of the river dashed from buildings or jumped from passing vehicles to grab ropes and rails which they threw to the drifting soldiers. Others sh"d thenuniforms and dived in and dragged the injured to safe'v. Fiver craft raced up and down nulling *he in Hired oifi and trying to control the avalanche ot debris. Some of these craft themselves capsized. and the men in them were thrown into the river. The floating wreckage at one stage threatened the pontoon bridge. Scores of soldiers rushed on to the pontoon, balanced themselves precariously in the shallow boats, and prodded off the wreckage. A crane was set up to nsn out the larger pieces of wreckage One reason for the collapse of the bridge, which had lasted 11 days and made war history, was that its eastern end was damaged to such an extent by German attempts to blow it up before it was captured that the centre span was left unsupported. The jarring of enemy shelling and bombing, and Allied artillery fire gradually strained the girders until they finally snapped. The loss of the bridge does not imperil the bridgehead, but it limits the supply to General Hodge’s troops, because the pontoons are a prey to floods, which are frequent after the spring rains and the American-held territory east of. the river is rugged and ill-suited for landing fields.