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A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on March 7, 2008, March 7, 2010, and March 7, 2015. |
This assertion is only backed by a link to a subscription-only Polish language archive site. Other sources offer other theories. Can someone who reads Polish check it out?LeadSongDog (talk) 23:19, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The story was published in 1993 because on October 2 that year Sergeant Drabik, whose parents had emigrated from Poland to the US, died in a car crash, aged 82. He was the first man to cross the bridge at Remagen on that fateful March 7, 1945.--Ruggero1 (talk) 23:06, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The article of the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza which forms the basis of this (mis-)conception of why the bridge was not completely blown up is the only report of the two Poles having cut the fuses, and it was first published in 1993! There are no documents of the Wehrmacht showing that Silesian Poles ever belonged to a unit stationed around the bridge at Remagen! If you read the headline of the article in the Gazeta (Small state and a gerat victory) you realize what the aim of the article was. And have a look at the lemma of Gazeta Wyborcza as well, so you know what kind of paper it is - certainly not a respectable one! In addition to that have a look at this article: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19450313&id=QDwbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Ck0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2898,1475749 - so who is to be praised? :-)) Ruggero1 (talk) 11:21, June 8 2010 —Preceding undated comment added 09:24, 8 June 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Freisenhahn instead claims that he saw evidence that the pipe had been shattered by tank-fire during the bombardment of the bridge, but this would have had to occur in the 3 minutes between testing and detonation, which seems unlikely and can't be verified either. Hechler speculates that the Germans might prefer Freisenhahn's account because the idea of sabotage is distasteful. In any case nobody can know for sure. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.105.185.51 (talk) 09:02, 18 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
My understanding is a frogman attack was attempted by Germany also. Jokem (talk) 21:17, 5 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This seems to be the opinion of most citizens of Remagen. I have spoken to many of those citizens during that time and it seems to be some kind of common knowledge. But I heard nothing concerning the rumour that the V-2 could have started it. In Remagen another common knowledge has it, that every V-2 shot at the bridge missed it and thus cannot be made responsible for further damage or the collapse of the bridge. My own granmother was a eye-witness to the collapse. She said that there has been no special reason for it. For example: no explosion before the collapse. I tend to believe her, but I don't know how to wrap it up in a solid citation along wiki-rules. --84.175.94.27 (talk) 13:18, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I have a little problem with this paragraph:
It was a key element of a planned strategic railway that was to start in Neuss, cross the Rhine at Remagen and connect with the Ahr Valley railway that connected with the Eiffel railway that has lines into Luxembourg and France. The advantage of such a line was that troops and supplies could be transported to the Western Front from the Ruhr industrial area without having to go through the busy rail centres of Cologne or Düsseldorf. However, by the time World War I ended, the line between Neuss and Remagen had not been completed and never was. This is also the reason why the bridge at Remagen was not rebuilt after World War II.
Some things got mixed up here. The Ludendorff Bridge and the strategic railway starting in Neuss had nothing to do with each other (except for the reason they were both built - military transport), they were two seperate projects.
1. The Remagen bridge
Before the Remagen bridge was built, trains from the Ruhr area (or any other region of Germany for that matter) could only use the Left Rhine railway in order to reach the Ahr Valley railway. The Remagen bridge changed this situation by providing access to the Ahr Valley railway from the Right Rhine railway also, thus relieving pressure from the left side line and giving the German Army more options on how to organize their transport routes. It was solely built for military purposes. But as you can see by taking a look at a map, trains using the Right Rhine railway still had to pass through Cologne. They were now, however, no longer obligated to cross the Rhine there.
2. The strategic railway
This was an additional project. In order to prevent trains from passing through the busy Cologne rail centre (a problem which was not adressed by the construction of the Remagen bridge, nor was this ever its purpose), a strategic railway line was planned that would start at Neuss, bypass Cologne to the west and then run straight to the Ahr Valley railway. So far, the above paragraph is correct. This line however, had nothing to do with the Remagen bridge, as it never needed to cross the Rhine - both Neuss and the Ahr Valley are located on the left side of the river. The text is then correct again in so far as that this railway line was never completed (and never got a name, in Germany it is just known as the "Strategischer Bahndamm" - strategic railroad embankment). Parts of it were finished and even saw some passenger service until the 1950s, others were overbuilt with an Autobahn alignment and the tunnels that had to be constructed in order to reach the Ahr Valley were used as nuclear shelters for Germany's government during the Cold War.
The reason why the bridge at Remagen was never rebuilt had nothing to do with the unfinished strategic railway - there simply was no need for a reconstruction because it had only served military purposes and these were no longer existant after World War II.
I hope I could clear the situation up a little bit. 188.103.142.154 (talk) 05:38, 31 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"The collapse was not caused by a direct hit from a V-2, as the nearest 'strike' was 270 metres (300 yd) away. However, the bridge had been weakened by the earlier bombing attacks. Some[who?] speculate that the wear and tear of weeks of bombardment, combined with the vibrations produced when a V-2 slammed into the earth at 4,800 kilometres per hour (3,000 mph), was enough to cause the collapse of the bridge.[citation needed]"
I can't confirm the specific impact of the V-2, however the general outline can be corroborated:
"... it is a fact that eleven rounds of this extremely powerful explosive fell in the Remagen area, the last on the morning of March 17, several hours before the bridge collapsed. These heavy blasts undoubtedly contributed to the downfall of the bridge, although they were by no means the primary cause." - The Bridge at Remagen, The Death of the Bridge (Chapter XIX, page 189), in regards to V-2 Rockets.
"... It is my opinion as an engineer the collapse occurred as a result of vibrations caused by numerous possible sources, i.e., air compressors, one crane, a few trucks, several electric arc welders, hammering, and finally, but important, the not insignificant concussion of heavy artillery recently emplaced in the town of Remagen." - Lieutenant Colonel Clayton A. Rust, Commander of the 276th Engineer Combat Battalion, The Bridge at Remagen, The Death of the Bridge (Chapter XIX, page 189-190), in regards to vibrations.
This chapter gives a more thorough account of the strain the bridge was under than simply these two reasons, including:
"The next day, Hitler sent a congratulatory telegram to the officer in charge of the V-2 rocket launching team at Hellendoorn. It is unknown whether Hitler was aware that there had not been a direct hit by a V-2 rocket, but the fact that the bridge collapsed on the same day as the attack, was probably enough for Hitler to associate the collapse directly with the V-2 bombardment.[citation needed]"
Not sure which claim the citation is for. 'The Bridge at Remagen' claims that the last V-2 fired was only hours before of the collapse. However, the above paragraph suggests there was only one bombardment while the book indicates that the V-2 bombings happened over the course of at least 5 days. I have no information on Hitler's response.
"General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the bridge "worth its weight in gold"[citation needed]"
"Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, termed the Remagen Bridge 'worth its weight in gold.'" - The Bridge at Remagen, The Significance of Remagen Bridge (Chapter XXII, page 222) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.105.185.51 (talk) 07:25, 18 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I looked at Remagen on Bing Maps and saw that there is no bridge today anywhere near Remagen. How do people get from one side of the Rhine to the other? Ferries? Dietrich Doofuß — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.245.114.202 (talk) 03:30, 12 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Removed reference to British Rhein crossing later in March 1945, as it has no bearing on the page. There is a separate page discussing operation plunder.Jacob805 07:04, 21 September 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jacob805 (talk • contribs)
"The remains of the Ludendorff Bridge" in 1950, etc., must be stated to emphasize that this bridge was never rebuilt. People do get confused at the slightest excuse.
In fact, if they can be confused, they will be confused. Stating "the remains of" helps to wall off that possible confusion.
In comparison, a picture of "The bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem, Holland", really is right because that is the very same bridge that was fought over during Operation Market Garden. The big bridge at Nijmegen is the same one now as during World War II, also. There are hundreds of other bridges that have been demolished and replaced, however. Some people just do not know this.
98.67.175.254 (talk) 07:18, 7 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
There's no mention of the fact that the best-known raids flown by the Arado 234 B Blitz bomber were 10 days worth of bombing missions against the Ludendorff Bridge, sometimes escorted by Me-262 jets. This is somewhat meaningful since the 234 was the first (and, for WWII, the only) jet bomber in the world. And Arado plus Me-262 raids, when they were flown, would have been the world's first jet bomber plus jet escort missions ever flown. There's plenty of published material on this, so I'll let somebody else do the grunt work if they wish, but it does seem a conspicuous omission from this account.173.62.11.59 (talk) 20:54, 15 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
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This article states "28 U.S. Army Engineers" killed in the collapse, with no reference provided. Conversely, the Wikipedia article on Remagen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remagen) ("Capture of the bridge") indicates 18 Army Engineers killed, and provides the following reference:
MacDonald, Charles B., "Chapter XIV The Rhine Crossings in the North" , The Last Offensive, US Army in World War II: European Theater of Operations, p. 294 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.77.130.161 (talk) 16:58, 26 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Ken Hechler, The Bridge at Remagen, Ballantine Books, New York, NY, 1957, Page 192 "The engineers of the 2765h Engineer Combat Battalion and the 1058th Bridge Construction and Repair Group lost 7 killed, 18 missing whose bodies were never recovered and 3 who subsequently died of wounds -- a total of 28 who gave up their lives; 63 others working on the bridge were injured when thrown into the icy waters of the Rhine by the sudden collapse." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.233.70.223 (talk) 18:12, 7 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]
FYI. I made the following request for help from the many editors who have recently worked on the Battle of Remagen article: Talk:Battle_of_Remagen#Ludendorff_Bridge--needs_work!. --David Tornheim (talk) 23:40, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]