European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 6, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                At Remagen continued from Page 13 belonged to the 21 St army group under the same Bernard Montgomery he of the elaborate preparations the careful attention to detail the fail Safe approach to set piece Battle. The plan was to go in North of the vital Ruhr Valley. Then As River crossing specialists planned the Crossings and set about gathering copious Landing Craft and bridging equipment As Montgomery meticulously amassed 25 divisions of men and a Quarter of a million tons of supplies for his grand crossing and the fleeing germans exploded their Bridges a group of americans a numbering hardly a drop in Montgomery s bucket a suddenly attacked. Because there amazingly Down through the Haze beyond the Little River town of Remagen was the last Bridge. Still standing. Quot first army spans Rhine. Seizes firm Bridgehead Quot trumpeted the stars and stripes headline on March 9. Quot we got Lucky Quot exclaimed a jubilant commander. Such Luck seemed almost divinely inspired a especially at Remagen this crossing Point 12 Miles from Bonn. Quot the most objectionable crossing Sites of All Quot wrote Macdonald Quot were in the Vicinity of Remagen there the Westerwald Forest is at its most rugged and the Rhine flows through less a Valley than a  at that Point the River was nearly a half mile wide. Remagen on the West Bank sat across from tiny Erpel on the East with most of the ruggedness on the East Side. Rising above Erpel was a considerable natural fortress a sheer Rocky Hill hundreds of feet High. From there looking Down on the exposed Bridge Over the moving Brown River then across at the terrain immediately around Remagen which flattens out As wide open As a Kansas Cornfield it seemed possible for Well positioned defenders to keep anybody s army from crossing. How could they miss named after Erich Ludendorff chief of staff to Field marshal Paul von Hindenburg in world War i the Bridge had thick menacing medieval looking twin towers with firing ports through great weathered stones at both ends. The Ludendorff was a double track steel railway Bridge one of the finest in Europe recently planked Over to allow for movement of troops and vehicles with footpaths on either Side. It rested on four sturdy Stone piers and on the East Side disappeared into a Tunnel in the Hillside. Shortly after noon on March 7, an infantry company out of combat comb 9th army div 1st army emerged from some Hilly Woods behind Remagen looked toward the River and saw the 1,069-foot key to hitlers dark kingdom. No one expected it to be there. It was t part of anybody s plan. Why had t it been destroyed wondered the astonished delighted yanks the Fuhrer had indeed commanded that every Bridge across the Rhine be blown away not a single Span to be captured intact by the allies under penalty of death. This was easy enough to order far from the action. But his earlier Quot hold at All costs Quot orders had left Little time for orderly withdrawal or the preparing of Good defences behind the Rhine. Now Many of his troops were exhausted becoming a dispirited mob some even wandering around with their hands up gladly surrendering to advancing americans too Busy to guard them. With Allied troops approaching the Rhine Quot wrote Macdonald Quot the order and efficiency normally associated with things German had become submerged into a maelstrom of confused and contradictory a amps map command channels. Nowhere was this More apparent than the Bridge at  All along the River the pressure was terrific to blow up the Bridges sooner rather than later. The Bridge at Cologne had been blown up too quickly trapping retreating germans on the West Side. Others were. Destroyed nearly too late with troops desperately tunnelling across till the last moments. At Remagen clumps of disorganized germans were still muddling across the Bridge As Karl Heinz Timmermann a German born american lieutenant was sent Forward with his infantrymen to make some history. Take the Bridge lieutenant. Now. Soon Brig. Gen William Hoge commander of combat comb reached the scene and ordered a platoon of tanks to support the infantry. This was not history s greatest attacking Force just the right attack in the right place and the timing was exquisite. To blow the Bridge up or not to blow it up remained the question the question. For the German defenders quibbling and spinning their wheels Over proper command authority and Correct procedure. As the americans came on Quot both the order to prepare the explosives and the demolition order itself were to be issued in writing by the officer bearing tactical responsibility for the area Quot wrote Macdonald. This officer a capt. Bratge phoned his Headquarters and was blandly assured by the duty officer that Headquarters was not particularly worried about the situation at Remagen. If Headquarters want frightened German civilians wounded soldiers and ragtag militia huddled in the Tunnel certainly were and Bratge was hard pressed to Muster troops to defend the Bridge. Soon a maj. Scheller took command and the major Felt it less than honorable to blow anything up in the face of possible retreating germans. As the Little Force of americans neared the Bridge about 4 p.m., dodging occasional Small arms fire a German Engineer capt. Karl Friesenhahn took some initiative and exploded the charge designed to keep american tanks from reaching the Bridge. Still on the West Side the tanks fired burning White phosphorous shells exploding among blinded screaming germans near the jammed Tunnel. Friesenhahn himself was briefly knocked senseless. Quot As capt. Bratge rushed outside to Survey the situation Quot recounted Macdonald Quot he came upon capt. Friesenhahn and yelled at him to get the order from maj. Scheller to blow the Bridge. When Scheller gave his approval Bratge then insisted on waiting while a a amps Dave Didio above the twin towers on the Rhine a West Side Are a a . Army signal corps photo shows the Bridge Shorti it remain today of the Remagen Bridge. Below after the 9th army div troops stormed across. File pm Ciao an anti aircraft Battery stands guard Over the Remagen Bridge in this 1945 . Information service photo. File photo lieutenant wrote Down the exact timing and wording of the order. Going outside again he shouted for Friesenhahn to blow the  but now it was Friesenhahn who Quot insisted. On having the order in  while All the proper paperwork was going on the americans were coming. Friesenhahn finally Quot turned the key designed to activate the electric current and activate the explosives. Nothing happened. He turned it again. Still nothing happened. He turned it a third time. Again no  then he called for a Volunteer to go out and ignite the primer Cord by hand. A sergeant stepped Forward then dashed through ripping fire onto the Bridge. After what seemed forever he came weaving Back. The germans waited. Nothing happened. Now Quot at last a sudden booming Roar. Timbers flew wildly into the air. The Bridge lifted As if to Rise from its  on the West Bank Timmermann had just ordered the men of company a to storm across the Bridge when the explosion came. They watched spellbound As the Bridge heaved and was lost in a swelling Black Cloud of smoke and dust. They All stared soldiers on both Banks through the Drifting smoke. Big holes were torn in the planking Over the tracks the River waved and sloshed with debris. But the Bridge still stood. Again Timmermann signalled his men to attack. They charged plunging and twisting taking cover behind one steel girder after another. Machine gun fire rattled from the Eastern towers banging and clanging into the girders. Rifle rounds popped up from germans in two barges in the River below. But yanks firing Shore batteries soon Sank one Barge and half submerged another and the germans waved White flags. On the Bridge the infantry kept going. Right behind them engineers came cutting every demolition wire they saw shooting apart heavy cables with their carbines. It took less than 15 minutes to Cross the terrible Rhine. Scheller meanwhile tried Over and Over by phone in the Tunnel to notify Headquarters that the Bridge was standing and the americans crossing it. Unable to get through he hopped on his bicycle and carried the bad news Back in person. Friesenhahn and Bratge decided to surrender. By late afternoon of the next Day some 8,000 men As Well As tank and artillery units had rolled across the Rhine. The German response was weak and late. As if in a replay of their reaction to the landings at Normandy nine months earlier they let the Bridgehead grow and grow during the Early vulnerable stage until it was unstoppable. Courtney Hodges the 1st army commander phoned Gen. Omar Bradley that the Bridge had been taken Quot hot dog. Quot exulted Bradley Quot this will bust him wide open. Are you getting your stuff across Quot Quot justas fast As we can push it Over Quot replied Hodges Quot Navy s moving in now with a ferry service and in a having the engineers throw a couple of spare Pontoon Bridges across to the Bridgehead. Unable to repel the americans the germans focused on taking out the Bridge firing artillery from Hills across the River sending up sprays of water 40 feet High. A giant howitzer firing 4,400-Pound shells dispatched a few shells before it broke Down itself. In their Only tactical use of the War 11 v-2 rockets hummed in from the Netherlands and missed their closest hit smearing a House 300 Yards from the Bridge. The once dreaded Luftwaffe came in Day after Day diving on the Bridge through a curtain of antiaircraft fire. Quot Luftwaffe pilots Are apparently operating under suicide orders to get the Bridge Quot wrote stars and stripes correspondent Andy Rooney. But if German pilots have a Pool for the first Man who kicks Over Ludendorff Bridge no one has won it yet. Within five seconds after a plane appears Quot the air Over the Bridge is filled with Neon crosses As thousands of tracers Light up the dirty weather. Occasionally a darting me-109 or fw-190 rips out of the Clouds and Mist and sweeping the length of the Bridge drops a stick of bombs. The fast planes come in Low Over the Hills and swoop Over the Bridge. As soon As they have dropped their bombs they usually dive again below the Hills on the far Side it did t matter what or How they did it the Bridge at Remagen still stood through it All and it seemed All the Fuhrer s machines and All the Fuhrer s men could t bring it Down. The Fohrer raged at his incompetent underlings. He fired Field marshal Gerd von Runstedt As commander in the West. He had four men shot. Ten Days after the first crossing of the Rhine after All the shocks and strains the battered Bridge began to creak and groan gave a last convulsive tremble and collapsed into the River Mission accomplished. Some called it the Quot Miracle of  less than two months later the War in Europe would be Over. Page 14 a a the stars and stripes tuesday Larch 6,1990 the stars and stripes a a Page 15