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March 1945 First Crossings of the Rhine |
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Although by early March the Allies had succeeded in
driving the Germans back across the Rhine, they had no way of crossing the river, as the retreating
enemy had managed to destroy nearly all the bridges. However, on March 7 the Americans found a
bridge that the Germans had missed—at the town of Remagen—and U.S. forces immediately began crossing.
Over the next several days the Germans tried again and again to destroy the bridge, using aerial
bombardment, rockets, and even scuba divers, but only managed to weaken its structure. Finally,
on March 17 the bridge collapsed, but by this time American troops had succeeded in building two
more bridges upriver, so that troops and supplies would continue to cross the river. Meanwhile,
farther north the British built several bridges of their own around the town of Wesel, thus opening
up the Ruhr Valley to invasion from north and south.
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