Anniversaries: A Bridge to the Past

It was March 7, 1945. The retreating German army planned to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge across the Rhine with 650 lbs. of explosives strapped to the girders in 60 separate charges. But the Germans were too late: U.S. 9th Armored Division tanks and infantrymen, swarming down the steep bluffs overlooking the town of Remagen, reached the bridge just as the charges were tripped. Only a few detonated, though witnesses from both armies insisted that the span lifted off its stone foundations, then settled back down. Before the Germans could set more explosives, the Americans had taken the bridge and crossed the river, the last natural barrier between them and the German heartland.

Last week about 350 American and German veterans and former Belgian resistance fighters gathered at the site to mark the 40th anniversary of an action that may have shortened the war by disrupting Hitler's defenses. Said retired Lieut. Colonel Leonard Engeman, 78, who led the U.S. forces that captured the bridge: "We have not come back to gloat, but to commemorate a moment that was rather special, and to make clear that never again must we ever go to war against one another."