BRIDGE AT REMAGEN (Ludendorff) restored COLOR FOOTAGE by George Stevens 1945
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Episode 237
The Battle of Remagen was an 18-day battle during the Allied invasion of Germany in World War II. It lasted from 7 to 25 March 1945 when American forces unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine intact. They were able to hold it against German opposition and build additional temporary crossings. The presence of a bridgehead across the Rhine advanced by three weeks the Western Allies' planned crossing of the Rhine into the German interior.
After capturing the Siegfried Line, the 9th Armored Division of the U.S. First Army had advanced unexpectedly quickly towards the Rhine. They were very surprised to see one of the last bridges across the Rhine still standing : 263-264 The Germans had wired the bridge with about 2,800 kilograms (6,200 lb) of demolition charges. When they tried to blow it up, only a portion of the explosives detonated. U.S. forces captured the bridge and rapidly expanded their first bridgehead across the Rhine, two weeks before Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's meticulously planned Operation Plunder. The U.S. Army's actions prevented the Germans from regrouping east of the Rhine and consolidating their positions.
The battle for control of the Ludendorff Bridge saw both the American and German forces employ new weapons and tactics in combat for the first time. Over the next 10 days, after the bridge's capture on 7 March 1945 and until its failure on 17 March, the Germans used virtually every weapon at their disposal to try to destroy it. This included infantry and armor, howitzers, mortars, floating mines, mined boats, a railroad gun, and the 600 mm Karl-Gerät super-heavy mortar. They also attacked the bridge using the newly developed Arado Ar 234B-2 turbojet bombers. To protect the bridge against aircraft, the Americans positioned the largest concentration of anti-aircraft weapons during World War II[6]: 189 leading to "the greatest antiaircraft artillery battles in American history". The Americans counted 367 different German Luftwaffe aircraft attacking the bridge over the next 10 days. The Americans claimed to have shot down nearly 30 percent of the aircraft dispatched against them. The German air offensive failed.[7][8]
On 14 March, German Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler ordered Schutzstaffel (SS) General Hans Kammler to fire V2 rockets to destroy the bridge. This marked the first time the missiles had been used against a tactical objective and the only time they were fired on a German target. The 11 missiles launched killed six Americans and a number of German citizens in nearby towns, but none landed closer than some 500 metres (1⁄4 mi) from the bridge.[2] When the Germans sent a squad of seven navy demolition swimmers wearing Italian underwater-breathing apparatus, the Americans were ready. For the first time in combat, they had deployed the top-secret Canal Defence Lights]: 410 which successfully detected the frogmen in the dark, who were all killed or captured.
The sudden capture of a bridge across the Rhine was front-page news in American newspapers. The unexpected availability of a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Rhine more than two weeks in advance of Operation Plunder allowed Allied high commander Dwight Eisenhower to alter his plans to end the war. The Allies were able to rapidly transport five divisions across the Rhine into the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland. The bridge had endured months of aircraft bombing, direct artillery hits, near misses, and deliberate demolition attempts. It finally collapsed at 3:00 pm on 17 March, killing 33 American engineers and wounding 63. But by then U.S. Army combat engineers had finished building a M1940 aluminum-alloy treadway bridge and a M1938 pontoon bridge followed by a Bailey bridge across the Rhine. Over 125,000 troops established a bridgehead of six divisions, with accompanying tanks, artillery pieces, and trucks, across the Rhine.[12] The Americans broke out of the bridgehead on 25 March 1945, 18 days after the bridge was captured. Some German and American military authorities agreed that capturing the bridge shortened the war, although one German general disputed this.
The Ludendorff Bridge was not rebuilt following World War II. In 2020, plans were initiated to build a replacement suspension bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. There is no other river crossing for 44 km (27 mi) and few ferries. Local communities indicated an interest to help fund the project and an engineer was commissioned to draw up plans.
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I will never forget the stories about the WW2 from my family members and the phrase , I remember that you could drink the water backing then.
"It's worth it, I promise." Truer words were never spoken, this series of films is truly remarkable!
Music to my ears
The aircraft footage was not taken near Remagen bridge, Germany, but at Fritzlar - airfield in 1945, showing German night-fighters. I definitely know that, because I was born there in 1959an went to school at the town medieval town of Fritzlar. The airfield is still in use by the german airforce for attack-helicopters, type " Tiger ".
Thank you for the correction. I had nothing more to go off of than the film title
My father crossed the bridge - actually three times 6:45 , driving a jeep - with the 99th Inf. Division. He said no one saw the collapse coming.
very interesting
I've been a WWII historian since 1975, in grammar school. I'm still seeing things I have not seen before. Thank you.
Guess what brother. Ask kids now and they have no idea there was ever a war. They know nothing about WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War....nothing. All they know is how to masturbate watching Tic Toc.
Stukas in living color! It doesn't get any better than that!
Yeah, I agree
Very sad for the old Germany. My mother's first husband, a Lieutenant in the Wehrmacht, died in a British Prisoner of War camp in December of 1945 from pneumonia.
It depends what you mean by the "old Germany." The one that was destroyed in 1945 and was the reason your mothers first husband became a victim of WW2 due to the whims of a madman?
@@Roller_GhosterConcordo!
@@Roller_Ghoster millions of indians swarming your borders
German surrended prisoners were better treated by british army than others, in hands of french and american army, many were death by starvation, various diseases like cholera, disentheriae and simply cold...
Incredibly detailed footage of this piece of history........
Love and Respect, the War never ended.....we are still on wartime(day light savings)
Thanks Frederick.
Thanks Larry
I wish the Americans would have saved some of those German aircraft and restored them to flying status, so we could see them fly today.
They did
@@bertsin3437 No enough of them is what I should have said.
A Lot of them were destroyed by americans only by personal satisfaction.... Like japanese aircrafts, too...
@@johnjuarez8005 I agree
Very interesting war story.This battle was truly epic and game changer.Thanks for this fine video.As always, you've done an excellent job.
Thank you
Amazing footage.
Yes, very good
Thanks for sharing this with us all.
Glad you enjoyed it
As always, outstanding, thank you
Thanks again!
The bridge collapsed due to the excessive load from the heavy military vehicles. The bridge was also damaged by the failed demolition. The German demolition team had received the wrong explosives. Presumably nothing else was available at the end of the war.
Amazing footage, especially of those Me110G and Ju88 night fighters. This war was a terrible loss of European lives, those POWs unfortunately were to experience systematic starvation once in those internment camps.
Nice effort to generate sympathy for the servants of a truly vile regime and ideology. Is the reference to 'European' lives an effort to sideline the 'Untermensch' who died in the then USSR, China, North Africa, the Pacific and the rest of Asia? The systemic starvation to which you refer hardly equates to the systemic slave labour, the summary executions, the Commissar order, that little thing to do with Jews and so on does it?
Thanks it was great
Getting to see all of the George Stevens film has been amazing! Thank you so much for putting this together!
My pleasure Ian. I've got more stuff coming
Frankenberg (min.15:34) is a town 20km away from my hometown. Near Edersee (Dambuster Raid).
A family member of mine was a woman auxiliary in the RAF. She knew Guy Gibson, the leader on the Dambuster raid. May Britain and Germany never again war with each other.
and? what does this information help us in any way? we dont even know you.
@@granstruggler2491 Und, wen interessiert das? Mich jedenfalls nicht.
It must have not been worth bombing.
@@dieterrahm4044 eben. das ist es doch. eben eben eben.
GREAT STUFF! I recently visited Remargen and I was fascinated to compare the town then with now. At least the twin towers at the bridge end are still there and the topography can still be recognised. The US Sappers seem to have done a good job in replacing the collapsed bridge with the temporary replacement. These reports do an excellent job in transporting one back into those critical days gone by!
Very interesting. Thanks for posting.
Glad you enjoyed it
@@M1945 I always do!
One of my professors and professional mentors was a reconnaissance officer in the 9th Armored Engineers. His jeep was the first hit by a shell crossing the Bridge. His sergeant/driver was killed and he was wounded. He was a brilliant man, and he suffered from PTSD until he passed away in 2000.
Just think how many smart men were killed because of that nut Hitler
Interesting film of a variety of behind the lines activities and people. Quite a few shots of Stevens and the film crew who were responsible for the product. I wonder if his Hollywood connections are why he was able to obtain color film when most other film crews had only black and white?
EXCELLENT. THE BEST.
Amazing.
Amazing footage!….subscribed!!
Thanks for the sub!
Would love for there to be some narration about the men pictured, and additional historical information about what we are watching.
Always interesting to see the Nazi apologists and their fellows crawl out of the woodwork in response to these videos. Thanks for posting this, even if it does flush out some nasties.
You might be surprised by some of the nasty comments I get from all sides. Confrontational history doesn't interest me
I can't believe how intact the town is.
Great pictures, very interesting. The Luftwaffe Airfield footage and the footage of the little town and the POWs was shot at Fritzlar Airfield, Bad Wildungen and Frankenau/Frankenberg in northern Hesse though. Roughly 250km away from Remagen.
The Me110 and Ju88 are from 3.Nachtjagdgeschwader 1.
www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Kasernen/Wehrkreis09/KasernenFritzlar-R.htm
I spoted a BF110 nightfighter with its nose antenna and what seams to be a JU88 night fighter too and a good old stuka with some Fiesler Storch's. Any modern air museum curator would kill for such a collection of warbirds nowadays, but back then it was just good to scrap for metal and spare parts ... I wonder what these machines became .
It's interesting to see the German service men walking around in uniform. Was this footage filmed before the surrender or after?
I Quote General George S.Patton; We Fought The Wrong Enemy 😢; Thank You My Favorite Site So 🆒👍. Lenny G. LBC.🌊🧜♀️🐬💐🌅🌃
Town shown from 11:18 on is Bad Wildungen .
Actually this footage was taken by Hollywood director George Stevens.
Yes it was. Have you seen m1945s other George Stevens uploads?
@@M1945 If you mean more footage from Mr. Stevens that I have never seen before, the answer would be no. I wish there was more though. Thank you so much for posting this very historical footage. Also Mr. Stevens used to live in Toluca Lake which is a neighborhood of Los Angeles. Was and still is a place where wealthy people live. Very nice area of L.A. You can see George's Jeep with Toluca written on it.
How many wish we could have kept those style of helmets?
Just save me the Storch and I'll be happy, boys!
No videos about the Pacific War⁉️🇯🇵💥🇺🇸
You'd like one? Ok
Armes Deutschland 😢
What is that extra-intake on the Stuka side at 0:43?
Looks like an exhaust shroud to hide the flames at night. There were some night operation Stukas at that time.
1 allemand avait de la chance il a gardé son cheval, le cheval aussi a eu de la chance l’ont pas bouffé
Isn't this the film posted by Chronos media several years ago?
It would be much more interesting with a commentary. Even for me as a German.
Was this initially filmed in color back in 45 or has it been restored and colorized ?
It was originally filmed in color
@@M1945 thks . I build plane models and its always great to be able to check camo tones in their réal, original juice (I've noted many color distortions with computer colorized ww2 docs on the web )
I read somewhere that only US mitary reporters like Franck Capra had 16mm kodak color films back in 45
Got anything with Patton . ?
Patton appeared in the Bastogne video from before, go take a look
@@M1945 AH Yes ! Thank You . M 45 . !
Could do with a voice over to tell us what we’re watching.
Y a 1 film sur la prise du pont
The people shown at 21:39 and the following takes are most probably forced laborers ("Fremdarbeiter Ost") from German-occupied countries in Eastern Europe. The flags of Poland and Yugoslavia appear in later scenes. They are obviously enjoying their first spell of freedom after years of exploitation and humiliation at the hands of their captors. Following repatriation, many of these poor sould found that they had no home to return to.
Awesome footage. A time machine back to before the greatest generation gave birth to the boomers who ruined everything for everyone.
Stukas over remagen out of storage desperation V2s aimed at remagen desperate but defending your homeland europe doesnt do so today.
Yes, we lost that war in 1945 and today we have lost another war with dramatic consequences for the future.
In a few years we Germans will be a minority in our own homeland.
Amazing the Lutwaffe was still in existence. Israel destroyed the Lebanese Palestinians, and Yemenite Air Force I. One day, October 8, 2023, once Osrael declared war on her neighbors.
Brave German soldiers!
fucking US Propaganda Video….my grandfather told me how scary the GIs been about the brave fighting German soldiers
and how bad the Americans treated the POWs
Maybe word had been passed around the American soldiers over what they had found on discovering the concentration camps and this may have in turn influenced their behaviour? Anyway, the Allies didn’t start the damn war. The Germans did.
Nope….just a historical record of what happened. The Germans lost and paid a terrible price for starting a war that didn’t need to happen and trying to enslave and exterminate most of Europe. If you can’t pay the fine….don’t do the crime.