REMAGEN GATEWAY TO THE REICH

On 7 March 1945 the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen was still standing - capturing it intact was vital to the Allied advance into Nazi Germany

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Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Dwight D Eisenhower had made his decision: the crossing of the River Rhine into the heart of Nazi Germany would be led by Britain's Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and his 21st Army Group in the north. General Omar Bradley’s 12th Army Group would advance to the river and support him. But striking forward, the American 83rd Infantry Division almost ruined the plan when it reached Oberkassel on the Rhine on 2 March 1945 and found the bridge there intact - only for it to be blown up right in front of them. Two days later the same near miss happened with the Adolf Hitler bridge at Krefeld.

Further south, the 13 divisions of General Courtney Hodges’ US First Army swept east as German resistance crumbled. At the ancient town of Remagen, some 15 miles (24km) from Bonn, a confused mass of bedraggled soldiers and civilians were tramping over the huge 1,000ft-long (326m) Ludendorff Bridge and away from the advancing American forces. A teenage German flak gunner described the streets as being jammed "with cannons being pulled by horses, by motor vehicles, and yes, even by soldiers".