Americans find intact bridge over Rhine

7th March 1945

In a major coup for the Allied war effort, U.S. Army forces reach the Rhine River at the small German town of Remagen, and find the Ludendorff Bridge still standing. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler planned on using the Rhine as a formidable natural obstacle against the advancing Allied troops, and ordered all bridges across the river destroyed. German troops were preparing to blow up the Ludendorff Bridge when American forces captured it on March 7 under heavy fire.