Some of the most ferocious battles of World War II were battles to take over bridges. Bridges were very important because they allowed armies to easily drive their tanks and heavy equipment to their next battle and they were especially important to the allies in their drive to Germany. While the allies tried to keep bridges open, the axis forces tried to blow them up. This is what was happening when Germany and her allies were losing, but the opposite was true when Germany was invading.

One of the most famous bridges to be involved in battles between the allies in the Germans was the Ludendorff Bridge. Movies were made about it, but you probably don’t recognize this name, because the movies were titled where the bridge was located not by the name of the bridge. The bridge was located in Remagen, Germany. The allies never thought they would be able to capture this bridge, because it was of such strategic importance and was located over the Rhine River in Germany. When they got to the bridge they couldn’t believe it was still standing. The Germans had wired the bridge with explosives, but when they blew the bridge only a small portion of the explosives went off. The United States Army captured the bridge before they could try again. When the bridge was captured it prevented the Germans from regrouping. The battle for the bridge raged on for ten days. Ironically the Germans threw everything they had at the bridge and considering what these weapons were, it was a miracle the bridge didn’t come down. They used their new jet bombers, a railgun (huge cannon mounted on a train), a huge 540mm mortar and all sorts of mines, boats, troops, armor and anything else they had in their inventory. The Americans were having none of this and they placed the largest concentration of antiaircraft guns used in the war around the bridge. When the battle was over the Americans claimed they shot down 30% of all aircraft sent against the bridge. Finally Hitler ordered rockets to be fired at the bridge and eleven of them were shot at it. The only thing this accomplished was killing six Americans and many German civilians in the town. German frogmen was sent against the bridge but the Americans broke out their top secret canal defense lights which detected them and they were all captured. This banged and batted bridge managed to stand until the Americans got five divisions across it and then it finally collapsed, but its job was done, because the Americans had finished building a Bailey Bridges across the Rhine.

The German Army had made a decision and it was to leave Rome without causing any destruction. The war was going bad for them by this time. When they left Rome one of the places they went into was Florence. This presented a problem for the allies, because they didn’t want to destroy such a historic city. They debated what they should do and they came to the conclusion if they destroyed the railroad depot, which was a lot newer than everything else in the city, they could stop the German Army from getting supplies. They bombed the depot and amazingly for that time were able to take it out. The Nazis with no way to receive critical supplies decided to leave the city of Florence, but before they did they had made a decision to destroy the bridges behind them. Some of these bridges were very historic and one of them was a tri-arched bridge built by Michelangelo. Most of the bridges were over the Arno River and the only one to survive  was the tri-arched bridge. It is said the bridge was so beautiful the Germans couldn’t bring themselves to destroy it. The bridge is known as the Ponte Vecchio was lined with shops on both sides and was a medieval bridge. The Germans destroyed the shops and covered the bridge with their rubble instead of blowing the bridge up. The rubble was meant to block the bridge.

The Moltke Bridge was built in 1891. It is positioned over the Spree River in Berlin. It was the site of heavy fighting in World War II. The bridge was involved in the battle for Berlin which took place in April, 1945. It was near the end of the war and about five thousand members of the SS and Volkssturm had barricaded the bridge at both ends and wired it with explosives. On April 28, 1945 the Soviet 3rd Army fought their way towards the bridge. The bridge was a tempting target, because the Reichstag was only a few hundred meters from the other side and the Russians dearly wanted to capture it. The Russians waited till dusk and then assaulted the bridge, but the Germans set off demolition charges, but they only caused damage and the bridge was still standing. The bridge was still in good enough shape to allow vehicles to cross it along with men. The bridge was secured by midnight of that day. The Russians rushed across the bridge and captured the Reichstag on May 1st, 1945.

In 1944 British troops were air-dropped near the Arnhem Bridge. A movie was made about this battle and the title of it was “A Bridge Too Far”. The idea was to liberate a large part of Holland and to get a bridgehead into the industrial heartland of the Ruhr. The attack on the bridge resulted in an incredible 16,000 casualties. When the attack failed the Nazi’s starved 22,000 Dutch civilians to death. Many of the soldiers who were still alive wondered why they were not able to secure this bridge and asked the question was it a lack of materiel, incompetence or were they betrayed?

Although London was never taken over by Germans during World War II, ironically in 2017 the Waterloo and West Minister bridges were shut down because a German bomb from World War II was found near the bridges in the River Thames. There have been many stories about World War II bombs being found in England over the years and it stands to reason since they were the object of intense bombing by the Germans. One has to admit is it is ironic there were two bridges being shut down 72 years after the war ended, because of the war.

Bridges will always be important and during wartime they get even more important. There will probably always be one side trying to blow them up and another side trying to cross them.