My uncle Bob Wienand was killed in action on March 9, 1945, at the bridge at Remagen, Germany. He enlisted at age 17 on April 30, 1943 at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. He was survived by his parents (my grandparents), Henry "Heinie" Wienand and Rose (Stearns) Wienand, and his sister (my mother) Anna (Wienand) Bike. He was only 20 years old.

The Bridge at Remagen, Germany

The bridge at the village of Remagen, was known as the Ludendorff Bridge after Germany's WWI general. When the French occupied this section of Germany after WWI, they filled the demolition chambers underneath the bridge with cement, making it very difficult to destroy the bridge. It was originally designed as a railroad bridge, but was planked over to allow for vehicular traffic.

In 1945, the retreating Germans attempted to destroy the bridge to prevent allied troops from following them. There was a tremendous explosion. The bridge lifted up from its foundations and then settled back.

The allied troops captured the bridge, with 8,000 troops crossing the bridge in the first 24 hours.

Adolph Hitler was infuriated by the successful capture of the Ludendorff Bridge by the Americans. He was certain it had fallen because of German treason. He singled out five German officers for immediate execution. Four of the five were shot to death, and the fifth man escaped execution only because the Americans had captured him.

Engineer Battalions immediately began to build pontoon and treadway bridges on both sides of the weakened railroad bridge.

Hitler ordered an all-out attack on the Americans holding the bridge. He sent in jet planes for the first time in the war. The KG-76 flew its first mission against the Remagen Bridge on March 9, two days after the first Americans went across. The goal of KG-76 was to knock out both the pontoon bridge and the Ludendorf Bridge with glide-bombing attacks.

They tried to bomb the bridge. A group of underwater swimmers armed with explosives tried, but they were picked up by very powerful searchlights before they reached their objective.

Werner Von Braun, who at that time was working for the Nazis, had developed a very powerful guided missile called the V2. Eleven V-2s fired from Holland landed near the bridge, shaking it like an earthquake.

Thanks to the concentrated fire of the anti-aircraft groups, not a single German bomb or missile hit the bridge.

On March 17, 1945, the seriously damaged Ludendorff Bridge collapsed into the Rhine River, killing twenty-eight engineers who had been trying to strengthen it.

The capture of the Ludendorff Bridge saved thousands of lives by shortening the war. The Americans encircled and trapped 300,000 Germans east of the Rhine. The Germans surrendered on May 8, 1945.