Photos of the Allies’ First Toehold in Nazi Germany

By Christopher Woody,Business Insider

Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of the old Roman town of Remagen, about halfway between Dusseldorf and Frankfurt on the Rhine River, at the end of World War II was the 1,000-foot, double-track Ludendorff railroad bridge.

Despite the bridge’s presence, Remagen didn’t really factor into Allied plans as they stormed across France and Belgium in late 1944. The geography of the town, with narrow roads and imposing cliffs, made it unsuitable for a military crossing.

But the swift Allied advance toward Germany was blunted in autumn 1944 by supply problems and renewed resistance by German forces, themselves invigorated by the prospect of defending of their homeland.

After Allied forces halted and flattened the bulge created by a massive and ferocious German offensive in winter 1944, attention turned to how to cross the Siegfried line at Germany’s western border and the Rhine River beyond it.

Plans were drawn up to thrust into the German heartland north and south of Remagen. The US 9th Armored Division — nicknamed the “Phantom” division because of repeated German reports that it had been destroyed — was left in a backup role.

But fate, and a few thousand pounds of faulty explosives, soon made the 9th Division the first military force cross the Rhine since Napoleon.

As US troops approached the Rhine River in February and March 1945, the prospects of finding one of the 40 bridges across the river intact seemed dim — until Lt. Karl Timmermann and the men of his company came across the bridge at Remagen.