In the summer of 1968 I was an mech infantry company commander with the US 8th Infantry Division stationed at Baumholder. I had just read the book about the capture of the bridge as had another officer in the battalion. Together we decided to drive up to Remagen following the route taken by the 9th Armored Division. When we reached the towers on the West side of the Rhine I was amazed by the width of the river and the thought of making an infantry assault across the bridge was chilling. I think Lt Timerman received the DSC for his effective leadership crossing the bridge. There were many that thought he should have received the MoH. We tried to get in but the doors on both of the towers were locked. We then drove up the river and crossed at the first bridge that we encountered and drove back down the east side of the river to Remagen. We wanted to see the bridge from the defender's perspective. We found one of the towers unlocked and made our way up to the firing ports. The field of fire was clear to the high ground/rail embankment leading to the western approach to the bridge. Any vehicle approaching the bridge on the rail embankment would be in clear sight of the machine gunners in the eastern towers. Before we left I scraped around in the debris on the floor and found a couple of German shell casings. The tunnel was sealed up and had a locked walk door that we were told led to a mushroom garden inside. It was easy to see how a fortification built in the mouth of the tunnel would have a clear field of fire right down the center of the bridge. Fortunately for the attacking Americans, tanks had positioned themselves on the rail embankment and maintained a continuous barrage across the bridge and into the tunnel defenses. It is speculated that a round from one of these tanks severed the blasting wires. In any case, having a opportunity to read the book and then trace the route of approach and reconorder the actual site of the battle was an experience to remember.
Why do we love Mark Felton's videos so much? 1) Utterly perfect narration. Never too much information, always the perfect amount. 2) Captivating content that sucks you in, often with stories you've never heard about 3) Original imagery 4) I love the artistic style thumbnails 5) Impartial and accurate
Yea that really struck me. Hearing stories told first hand from the people who were there is something else. I interviewed a US Paratrooper in a Vets nursing home when i was in elementary school. He told me all about how he dropped way ahead of the front and had to live in the loft of a barn for 2 weeks with Germans coming in and out of the barn all the time until the US lines caught up to him. Crazy stuff man.
If i look out of my window, i can see the bridge towers still standing. My grandfather lived in Erpel, his house was bombed and get was strafed by attacker planes in early 1945 as a 14 year old boy. He told me that he was playing with explosives and fished with it after the war, whatever 14 year old boys do. Thanks for making this video about my home area and greetings from Erpel.
The large numbers of German immigrants to the United States was one reason why the US was unwilling to declare war on Nazi Germany until Germany did so first. They were happy to sit back and let their Hun brothers in Europe commit mass murder and wage a criminal war of aggression. It's also probably why the Soviets/Russians regarded ( and still do) the Americans as such a pack of hypocrites/shit talkers who weren't much different from the Germans because to a degree they were Germans.
The Americans are a meltingpot of many different people, the largest group being.....German immigrants. And 5% of the immigrants were Dutchmen. That explains the very German sounding names.
@@andersonsroad5161 The Scandinavians, Dutch, French (Franks) and Anglo Saxons were pretty much all Germans too, along with all of their ex colonials. Not much left of the west is there?
The Germans had a policy of admitting the Eastern "Volksdeustche", many whom didn't speak German at all, and some had quite "swarthy" features, but nevertheless allowed them to immigrate as the Wehrmacht advanced eastwards into the Soviet Union. These types, of course, were subject to retribution as the Soviets reclaimed their territory. Heinrich Himmler noted the quandry, remarking that the "Germans" coming in peacefully from the East were less the racial ideal than the "Germans", in American and British uniforms, entering by force of arms from the West.
I had the opportunity to visit Remagen a couple of years ago. Today, it’s a beautiful peaceful German town with friendly helpful residents. Although the original bridge is long gone, as mentioned in the video the four brick towers still stand. On the Remagen side of the Rhein, it is now an interesting museum, complete with original architectural drawings of the Ludendorff bridge as it was known then. What really impressed me were the photos of the German defenders, mostly children. The place is definitely worth visiting.
Not really. This happened just a few weeks before the war ended. The krauts would have had trouble blowing up a bridge if it would have been made of toothpicks.
Great job! I loved the way you also gave the German view of the battle which is normally ignored by most historians. The interview with the German officer was fascinating! How ANYONE can give a thumbs down to something so informative and high quality as this just boggles my mind!
Agreed. Watching and listening to Willi Bratge recount was indeed fascinating. What boggles my mind is how Dr. Felton is able to continually present us with such amazing footage that I, for one, have never seen before. And I must say, nothing makes my day more than hearing the opening of a new Mark Felton production.
Thanks to your family for liberating us. I live less than half an hour from the bridge and i can't tell you Americans enough how thankful my grandparents tell me they where when the Nazis where gone.
Many young engineers, recent university graduates, died tried to fix that bridge as it collapsed. The number might have been higher than is stated in this Mark Felton video.
My grandfather was gun chief of a 155mm towed howitzer firing in support of the crossing. While in college I had a German music professor who spoke one day of having been a Luftwaffe antiaircraft gunner defending at Remagen. After class, I told him about my grandfather....he replied, "The American artillery were very good, they killed and wounded a lot of us." Small world. RIP, MSG T.E. Dunnington & Dr Harald Rohlig.
My grandfather dropped into the Rhine as a pioneer,he and a friend ended up beings sheltered by a Dutch family until the Allies rolled in. He passed away in the late 70's,but before then he told my uncle (his son) about his experiences during the war, about the familiy that sheltered him and how they probably saved his life. Not long after my grandfather passed my uncle tracked down that family,he visited them in NL and even thought the parents had passed away the kids remembered my grandfather and his mate quite well. Not a amazingly story,but I loved that my uncle could go over and find a connection to his dad that he never knew existed. As for my grandfather,I never had a chance to meet him,but by all accounts he did good for himself for "some paddy from Roscommon"
You have done an amazing job with this one Mark. The part with German commander describing how they ended up surrendering the tunnel and the dramatic translation by a very talented unseen actor made me feel as if I were there when it happened. Thanks so much for your hard work!
I have seen video of those things firing, the biggest problem is keeping ammunition upto each gun as it tracks and fires at aircraft. Empties ammo cans very quickly and noisily.
I had a neighbor in Phoenix "Joe Coska " that was one of the combat engineers that were cutting the charge cables. He said that they were using hack saws to cut the cables, expecting the bridge to be blown up at any time. I felt privileged to have had known a man that had landed at D day and made it across Europe.
My father was wounded at Remagen (amputee). He was a Marksman supporting the Corp of Engineers. He was wounded on the last day of the battle as the US was putting up the last pontoon bridge just south of the Ludendorff Bridge.
My father (Royal Engineers) after landing at D Day and helping to complete Mulberry advance with the allied forces and was at Arnhem and later crossed the Rhine in command of boats crossing the Rhine with the Coldstream guards; his boat was blown up by a mine and he floated down the Rhine being picked up by the US forces at Remagen bridge. He was unconscious and had lost his dog tags, he was reported as MIA, my mother was not informed any different for 3 months as he had amnesia from the explosion. My mother went to see a medium and she said he was alive and would be in the UK but she would not know it. After being picked up by the US at Remagen he was taken to a field hospital and then shipped out on a Dakota to Brussels which first flew to Norfolk for the seriously wounded US soldiers and then to Brussels where in hospital his memory gradually returned and the MIA was changed and my mother was informed. He was sent back to the front and went finally to Bielefeld. The generation that fought the wars have much to be thank for even those who survived and just did their duty.
@@dikkekutgekut4582 My Dad was confused about the period, after the war he started a successful engineering business but was affected by his war service and only recounted when he was maudlin after drinking too much. He was a skilled and sought after engineer in his army life and spent much of it attached to military units of the various allied units. The story seems to be accurate apart from where he was deposited in the Rhine. I did do some research and he was fished out at Remagen bridge after its collapse being stopped by the girder work in the river; your note has made me think that he must have been attached to forces south of the bridge. The thing about ordinary people being involved in extraordinary events and continuing on being affected in their subsequent lives should always be remembered in the debt we owe those generations which stood against evil intentions. There is not a day that goes by when I think of the dead and living sacrifices that were made on our behalf. Kind regards
Wow... what your father experienced! And then to be sent back to the front after all that! And his poor mum -- months of worry and the agony of not knowing. Amazing.
I heard about the bridge at Remagen in the 1960s from a GI who was a corpsman in that area. I was a teen back then and was fascinated by the stories he shared
I remember watching the war film Bridge at Remagan. I knew all the names had been changed (for example, the German Major sent from headquarters was named Kruger in the film, not Scheller). I presume this was due to the fact that many of these men were still alive and did not want to receive undo attention as they had moved on in life. Great video btw. The interviews with Bradley and Bratke were most fascinating.
Here's a story I'm really familiar with Yet Mark Felton fills in so many details including the strategic significance of distracting from Monty's and Patton's advance. So Remagen serves as a decoy and gives the allies a significant boost Great stuff. Love it
I've been watching (and supporting) this channel for a while, and still I am amazed that, in the heat of battle, there was someone filming the action for us to view later. It really brings the history alive.
Can not tell you how much i love and appreciate your brilliant work at putting these fantastic stories of the real war fought by brave and noble men from the entire conflict, thank you Markj
Years ago I spoke with Ken Heckler, the author of "The Bridge at Remagen." He was among the officers who interviewed Hermann Goring after the war. Goring knew the Ludendorff Bridge had gone down, but he insisted that Luftwaffe bombing was responsible. Heckler said Goring was "incredibly arrogant" and refused to believe the bridge had simply collapsed.
own the movie. the uniforms on both sides were smart, the actors impeccable. not much in the way of special effects, but the portrayals were outstanding. a bye gone era of film making to be sure.
I was in the 1/52nd inf. Battalion from 1988 to 1990 which was one of the units that helped secure the bridge. It's great to see some of the history that these men made, great documentary and very informational.
I live closeby of Remagen and anytime when i pass by the twin towers still standing, with shots still visible in the walls, i think of all the drama which has happened here. In the tunnel of the erpeler lay, there is a theatre acting a reenactment of the history of which has happened there, at the original place. Everyone should visit it.
I met a man in our town who was one of the US soldiers that helped secure the bridge. His story is amazing. He tells of furious fighting back and forth as everyone was trying to cut any wire they saw.
One of the neighbors on the block of my boyhood home was one of the infantryman who stormed that bridge. Will have to ask my sister if she remembers his name. Thank You Mark.
Mark Felton.... I class myself as a lay military historian, but your movies on youtube leave me to shame. You seem to have an amazing access and knowledge that far exceeds my own.
My father in law told me years ago the he was at this bridge in his D8 cat and that he was one of the first ti cross and a few days later he pushed the pontoon bridge sections across the river. He told me that he was on his 3rd D8 when the war ended. Those D8s had a steel enclosed cab with slits on 4 sides to see out of. He said it was amazing how many times your helmet could go around inside that cab when you ran over a land mine. Explains why his hearing was not so good. I believe there is a picture of him somewhere burying the dead at a concentration camp. Amazing what these guys went through and then came home and carried on with their lives. Very good video Dr. Felton. Always interested in that bridge. Thanks
I saw the remaining structure, the towers, in 1987 while on trip to W. Germany with my family. Just parked the car and walked down the hill to the water. It was deserted, I believe there was a plaque of some sort. I think it was my Dad's idea - he was a 14 year boy in the U.S. when it happened and probably excited to get the chance to see the location. Fun to do.
Brave German saved lots of civilians from dying unnecessary...ps the Americans suffered over 7000 casualties in this small area alone .Terrible waste on both sides.Timmerman was of German descent and ironically was right up front ignoring machine gun bullets and ripping demolition charges off the bridge with his bare hands .What a guy. Tough as old boots.
@@cinjonsmythe6318 Don't believe everything you hear. He was wanting to pass the position of commander on to someone else. Sounds cowardly to me. He should have just surrendered instead of throwing it into someone elses lap.
Regarding Mark's kindly mentioning the contribution of Canadian forces in this campaign . . . While the Americans didn't go to war with Germany until after Pearl Harbor (and who can blame them?), the Canadians, being British subjects, were committed when Britain declared war on the Germans some two years earlier. My Dad and all my uncles, third-generation Canadians, signed up for the Canadian armed forces in the fall of 1939. Throughout WWII, Canadian and Australian forces played outsized roles, relative to their countries' population, in the eventual Allied victory. When as a teenager I cycled around Normandy and also Holland in 1971, some of the citizens there, upon finding put I was Canadian, were very welcoming -- because Canadian forces played a large role in the liberation of those places. By a miracle, because they all saw action, my Dad and all my uncles made it home unscathed.
The towers on the West bank in the town of Remagen are now a small museum and well worth a visit. The bridge was never rebuilt because unlike other Rhine bridges it served no peacetime purpose having been solely a railway bridge on a line purpose-built solely to take troops to the front in WWI as Mark said. The main railway lines are parallel to both river banks. About 5 years ago the Rhine was extremely low during the summer and a wide stony shoreline normally under water could be explored at Remagen. I found...nothing! Not one cartridge case. How is that?
Great video. Just watched Bridge at Remagen movie a month ago. Amazing that the bridge was never rebuilt since the war. Would love to visit and see the towers some day. Thanks, Mark!
The non-Hollywood version. Still amazing. 2006 to 2008 I had some business trips to Dusseldorf, another place along the Rhine. All of its bridges had been destroyed. Now you have modern cable stay bridges, which you can walk across. You can also walk both sides of the river, seeing where the bombed out areas were replaced with modern structures.
My dad was in an anti-aircraft unit rushed to the bridge after it was captured and was present when it fell into the river. He said that his unit had been instructed to shoot anything visible on the surface of the river to prevent German swimmers from attaching demolitions to the bridge. One of his friends was hit by "friendly"fire when he bent over a rain barrel a mile from the river when a bullet from a .50 caliber machine gun struck him in the butt. He said that the bridge was kept up long enough for the pontoon bridges and bridgehead to be made too tough for the Germans to overcome. He was very proud of how his fellow troops fought and held the bridge.
People people, three quarters of the comments say "FIRST", instead of "Thank you Mark for your research and stable quality through your video releases!". The truth being, nobody gives a bloody s*** if you are first or last.
No American pilot would fly into the flak storm around the bridge. Post Bulge, US AA guns had the radar proximity fuse. That's why 1/3 of attackers were brought down.
A top of 400 sorties. Meaning they at the maximum istance put only 400 planes in the air during 24h against the only target worthy of them. Impressive for germany in 1945. Abysmal in general terms. And they did face Allied fighters and several got shoot down. Probably one of the last times allied fighters engaged groups of german planes and not very small groups. But not around the bridge. Probably to avoid friendly AA fire allied planes stayed clear of the bridge. But there was an air umbrella around it, that forced the germans to use jets to fly past it.
It takes more time to get a plane ready and up to combat altitude than it does to get an AA ready and fire, so most defence was inévitably going to be by AA, because your enemy isn't exactly going to give an early warning. There were, however, air patrols that intercepted a few enemy planes, just not as many...
Possibly the density of allied AA made putting anything in the air dangerous. Group troops likely opened up on whatever they could see before they could clearly distinguish friend from foe.
Mark, you don't miss anything...watching... I kept thinking "What about the Hitler ordered V-2's?" And you delivered. Phenomenal overall delivery, thanks.
That is a very good presentation and one can see how accurate the 1968 film actually is - although locals will claim it is not. Today the bridge approach is still standing as are the towers as said in this video. The towers on the western side have a museum. On the eastern side the towers still stand. The tunnel is used today as a theatre. However one thing that really stood out for me on visiting was how steep the Erpel 'mountain' actually is. To me, the crossing over the Erpel is the most daring movement of the operation.
The movie about the capture of the Remagen Bridge is one of the most accurate WWII movies made. I worked with a Veteran from that conflict. He was infantry and his platoon was supporting a tank destroyer that had crossed the bridge to help hold the salient.
Mark, there's a connection between Remagen and my family. My second cousin, twice removed was with the 104th Infantry Division (US), which crossed the Rhine at Bad Honnef just north of Remagen. They then fought east out of the Remagen bridgehead on 22 Mar 45. He was killed 24 Mar 45 in the small German town of Eudenbach during heavy fighting.
Most people don't realize it, but more immigrants came to the US from Germany than from any other country, including England, and by quite a large margin. The list of American commanders with Germanic surnames in WWII is a long one, including even the supreme allied commander in Europe himself, Eisenhower.
The movie, Bridge at Remagen is worth a documentary itself, it was shot in Czechoslovakia in 68 when the uprising started and the Russians invaded. Cast and crew had to flee in a hurry, lost a lot of equipment and shot film. In the Movie they got on the bridge in Czechoslovakia, it exploded in Germany and they got off the Bridge in Italy.
Less than 1 hour and almost 10k views. Glad your channel has picked up so much, excellent content! This is by far the best recommendation youtube has ever given me, hit the nail on the head!
I remembered a passage from Pierre Clostermann's "The Big Show", where he was flying a patrol over this bridge against Luftwaffe's attack planes. After constant German attacks, the American AAA was so edgy they shoot and hit his plane too.
Nice work Dr. Felton! Also, don't forget the film, "The Bridge at Remagen", a 1969 DeLuxe Color war film starring George Segal, Ben Gazzara and Robert Vaughn in Panavision [wikipedia]
Great video!!! While in the US Army and stationed in West Germany, had the opportunity to visit Remagen from 1981-1983 & 1985-1988. At the time, there was a museum in the town pertaining to the local history and focusing on this battle. Unfortunately, the museum was closed day of my visit. Got to visit the towers on the east bank of Rhine River, but had to go all the way north to Bonn just to find a bridge to cross the river and make the drive back south to Remagen. The railroad tunnel was sealed closed, but could explore the top of the hill and still see the German fighting positions. Would love to go back to Germany and do more exploring.
Thank you Dr. Felton, very interesting and well produced. The towns and villages mentioned are strikingly familiar living upstream along the Rhein not far from Remagen.
Wow ! A brilliant and highly informative video on the iconic Remagen Bridge crossing ! The question of a broad front attack or a spearheaded attack was always the bone of contention between the US commanders and Montgomery, but in this case the broad front did make more sense as General Bradley explained. Ironic that the American soldiers attacking the bridge were commanded by an officer named Karl Timmermann, obviously of German heritage himself. Former Wehrmacht officer Bratke was still obviously very emotional regarding his part in the surrender of the near intact bridge in the post- war video, and it was typical of the paranoid mindset of Hitler and his cronies to have Major Scheller shot for not destroying the bridge in time - as if he could have, having been provided with second grade troops to defend it and weak explosives to blow it up ! My father crossed the Rhine at Wesel with a Royal Air Force Forward Air Control unit attached to the Canadian Army, with whom he had been since landing on Juno Beach on D-Day itself. What an excellent, precise and well documented video on the last futile attempts by the German forces to stop the inevitable tide of Western Allied troops crossing the Rhine - they really threw everything but the renowned "kitchen sink" at the Ludendorff Bridge after it's heroic capture by the US 9th Armoured Division after some seriously heavy fighting! The sacrifices of men of both sides in that terrible conflict should not be forgotten, nor should the idiocy of war - a few months later it was all over and friendships between Allied soldiers and German civilians began that last until this day. Thanks again to Mark Felton for providing us with such an excellent video on the subject. 🌟🌟🌟
The Germans had difficulty blowing up bridges the Allies were intent on taking (see Nijmegen Bridge, Operation Market Garden). Yet the British had a similar problem while retreating from the Greek mainland in 1941 with the Germans actually capturing a bridge before the combat engineers had enough time to prepare charges. Fortunately for the British Forces, a single shot from a rifle was all that was needed to detonate the charges already placed and the Germans were sufficiently delayed to allow the bulk of British forces to be evacuated from the mainland.
In the summer of 1968 I was an mech infantry company commander with the US 8th Infantry Division stationed at Baumholder. I had just read the book about the capture of the bridge as had another officer in the battalion. Together we decided to drive up to Remagen following the route taken by the 9th Armored Division. When we reached the towers on the West side of the Rhine I was amazed by the width of the river and the thought of making an infantry assault across the bridge was chilling. I think Lt Timerman received the DSC for his effective leadership crossing the bridge. There were many that thought he should have received the MoH. We tried to get in but the doors on both of the towers were locked. We then drove up the river and crossed at the first bridge that we encountered and drove back down the east side of the river to Remagen. We wanted to see the bridge from the defender's perspective. We found one of the towers unlocked and made our way up to the firing ports. The field of fire was clear to the high ground/rail embankment leading to the western approach to the bridge. Any vehicle approaching the bridge on the rail embankment would be in clear sight of the machine gunners in the eastern towers. Before we left I scraped around in the debris on the floor and found a couple of German shell casings. The tunnel was sealed up and had a locked walk door that we were told led to a mushroom garden inside. It was easy to see how a fortification built in the mouth of the tunnel would have a clear field of fire right down the center of the bridge. Fortunately for the attacking Americans, tanks had positioned themselves on the rail embankment and maintained a continuous barrage across the bridge and into the tunnel defenses. It is speculated that a round from one of these tanks severed the blasting wires. In any case, having a opportunity to read the book and then trace the route of approach and reconorder the actual site of the battle was an experience to remember.
Steve Hansen. .splendid narrative! Ads a real contemporary sense of time and place to Dr. Felton’s excellent historical presentation
Why do we love Mark Felton's videos so much?
1) Utterly perfect narration. Never too much information, always the perfect amount.
2) Captivating content that sucks you in, often with stories you've never heard about
3) Original imagery
4) I love the artistic style thumbnails
5) Impartial and accurate
And a nice narration voice
Mark is a great story teller. I'd listen to him if gave a traffic report.
@Neil
My heart was pounding through the whole thing! Whew!
And unassuming personality too.
6. Impressive pronunciation of foreign names
The German man had a hell of a story to tell about his surrender at the bridge. You can tell it was very emotional for him.
In his own words: the most difficult décision of his life!
Good man. Can't be easy being on the wrong side.
Like many old soldiers I have spoken to, he deserves a bloody Oscar!
Yea that really struck me. Hearing stories told first hand from the people who were there is something else. I interviewed a US Paratrooper in a Vets nursing home when i was in elementary school. He told me all about how he dropped way ahead of the front and had to live in the loft of a barn for 2 weeks with Germans coming in and out of the barn all the time until the US lines caught up to him. Crazy stuff man.
You could tell he was reliving the moment as he told the story.
If i look out of my window, i can see the bridge towers still standing.
My grandfather lived in Erpel, his house was bombed and get was strafed by attacker planes in early 1945 as a 14 year old boy. He told me that he was playing with explosives and fished with it after the war, whatever 14 year old boys do.
Thanks for making this video about my home area and greetings from Erpel.
13:41 “Hitler was Führerious”
Lol
Ryan sir I will always remember you and that joke😆
Excellent comment
The Fast and the Führerious II: Blitzkrieg edition.
I hate this, take your like and get out.
Fascinating how oftentimes, in that conflict theatre, the names of the advancing Americans are indistinguishable from those of the retreating Germans.
At least now there won't be any more brother wars in Europe.
The large numbers of German immigrants to the United States was one reason why the US was unwilling to declare war on Nazi Germany until Germany did so first. They were happy to sit back and let their Hun brothers in Europe commit mass murder and wage a criminal war of aggression. It's also probably why the Soviets/Russians regarded ( and still do) the Americans as such a pack of hypocrites/shit talkers who weren't much different from the Germans because to a degree they were Germans.
The Americans are a meltingpot of many different people, the largest group being.....German immigrants. And 5% of the immigrants were Dutchmen. That explains the very German sounding names.
@@andersonsroad5161 The Scandinavians, Dutch, French (Franks) and Anglo Saxons were pretty much all Germans too, along with all of their ex colonials. Not much left of the west is there?
The Germans had a policy of admitting the Eastern "Volksdeustche", many whom didn't speak German at all, and some had quite "swarthy" features, but nevertheless allowed them to immigrate as the Wehrmacht advanced eastwards into the Soviet Union. These types, of course, were subject to retribution as the Soviets reclaimed their territory. Heinrich Himmler noted the quandry, remarking that the "Germans" coming in peacefully from the East were less the racial ideal than the "Germans", in American and British uniforms, entering by force of arms from the West.
Always surprised the bridge stood as long as it did after being blown.
German engineering, more often then not it cant be destroyed even if one trys.
German engineering...
Haha, German engineering backfired.
Miracles, man. Stupidly huge amount of coincidences that eventually ended the war
They over engineered things before CAD.
I had the opportunity to visit Remagen a couple of years ago. Today, it’s a beautiful peaceful German town with friendly helpful residents. Although the original bridge is long gone, as mentioned in the video the four brick towers still stand. On the Remagen side of the Rhein, it is now an interesting museum, complete with original architectural drawings of the Ludendorff bridge as it was known then. What really impressed me were the photos of the German defenders, mostly children. The place is definitely worth visiting.
German engineers almost designed and built the bridge too good.
Yes, but if it was a tank then it would easily breakdown.
Not really. This happened just a few weeks before the war ended. The krauts would have had trouble blowing up a bridge if it would have been made of toothpicks.
*too well
They ran out of good explosives by the end of that war.
@@HunterKillerSub But still over gun pretty much everything the Americans had.
"The strategic situation in early March 1945 was in favor of the Allies" - Understatement of the year.
True, but that doesn't mean the tactical situation on the ground was any less dangerous for the men that were fighting.
Great job! I loved the way you also gave the German view of the battle which is normally ignored by most historians. The interview with the German officer was fascinating! How ANYONE can give a thumbs down to something so informative and high quality as this just boggles my mind!
Perhaps
Agreed. Watching and listening to Willi Bratge recount was indeed fascinating. What boggles my mind is how Dr. Felton is able to continually present us with such amazing footage that I, for one, have never seen before. And I must say, nothing makes my day more than hearing the opening of a new Mark Felton production.
Dr. Felton is a natural educator. His subject matter and delivery are compelling and “accessible” to so many followers.
Mark, thank you for never failing to mention Canada.
I know I really appreciate it
Canada is a Land Full with Boring people
Eh?! 😉
I duuno what the fus is aboot
@@TheEDFLegacy eh??
"Cross the Rhine with dry feet-courtesy of the 9th Armored Division." ~ sign posted on Ludendorff bridge.
That's amazing.
W1se0ldg33zer until it collapsed
@@leonardusrakapradayan2253 By then the Engineers already had their pontoon bridges up and running.
9th ENGINEERS NEVER FORGETS, I have a piece of that bridge sitting in my room..
Tom Fitzgerald / Thank you, Tom!
Lucky you!
Thanks to your family for liberating us. I live less than half an hour from the bridge and i can't tell you Americans enough how thankful my grandparents tell me they where when the Nazis where gone.
God has always had a hand on your life like my Father who served WW2 Korea and Vietnam! Real patriot men
Many young engineers, recent university graduates, died tried to fix that bridge as it collapsed. The number might have been higher than is stated in this Mark Felton video.
My grandfather was gun chief of a 155mm towed howitzer firing in support of the crossing. While in college I had a German music professor who spoke one day of having been a Luftwaffe antiaircraft gunner defending at Remagen. After class, I told him about my grandfather....he replied, "The American artillery were very good, they killed and wounded a lot of us." Small world. RIP, MSG T.E. Dunnington & Dr Harald Rohlig.
My grandfather dropped into the Rhine as a pioneer,he and a friend ended up beings sheltered by a Dutch family until the Allies rolled in.
He passed away in the late 70's,but before then he told my uncle (his son) about his experiences during the war, about the familiy that sheltered him and how they probably saved his life.
Not long after my grandfather passed my uncle tracked down that family,he visited them in NL and even thought the parents had passed away the kids remembered my grandfather and his mate quite well.
Not a amazingly story,but I loved that my uncle could go over and find a connection to his dad that he never knew existed.
As for my grandfather,I never had a chance to meet him,but by all accounts he did good for himself for "some paddy from Roscommon"
My Dad was at this bridge - told the story to us many times - thanks for posting this.
You have done an amazing job with this one Mark. The part with German commander describing how they ended up surrendering the tunnel and the dramatic translation by a very talented unseen actor made me feel as if I were there when it happened. Thanks so much for your hard work!
Great job Mark! My Dad was there... commanded two M16 Halftracks with Quad 50s anti-aircraft guns... part of that anti-aircraft defense you mentioned.
I have seen video of those things firing, the biggest problem is keeping ammunition upto each gun as it tracks and fires at aircraft. Empties ammo cans very quickly and noisily.
I had a neighbor in Phoenix "Joe Coska " that was one of the combat engineers that were cutting the charge cables. He said that they were using hack saws to cut the cables, expecting the bridge to be blown up at any time. I felt privileged to have had known a man that had landed at D day and made it across Europe.
My father was wounded at Remagen (amputee). He was a Marksman supporting the Corp of Engineers. He was wounded on the last day of the battle as the US was putting up the last pontoon bridge just south of the Ludendorff Bridge.
My father (Royal Engineers) after landing at D Day and helping to complete Mulberry advance with the allied forces and was at Arnhem and later crossed the Rhine in command of boats crossing the Rhine with the Coldstream guards; his boat was blown up by a mine and he floated down the Rhine being picked up by the US forces at Remagen bridge. He was unconscious and had lost his dog tags, he was reported as MIA, my mother was not informed any different for 3 months as he had amnesia from the explosion. My mother went to see a medium and she said he was alive and would be in the UK but she would not know it. After being picked up by the US at Remagen he was taken to a field hospital and then shipped out on a Dakota to Brussels which first flew to Norfolk for the seriously wounded US soldiers and then to Brussels where in hospital his memory gradually returned and the MIA was changed and my mother was informed. He was sent back to the front and went finally to Bielefeld. The generation that fought the wars have much to be thank for even those who survived and just did their duty.
The rhine flows downstream...if your man falls in the rhine at the monty crossing ..he d flow AWAY from remagen towards arnhem..
Just being there for the sake of democracy and freedom makes him an eternal hero to us. Bless his memory always!
@@dikkekutgekut4582 I noticed that too. Must of been a really powerful mine to throw him that far up river.
@@dikkekutgekut4582 My Dad was confused about the period, after the war he started a successful engineering business but was affected by his war service and only recounted when he was maudlin after drinking too much. He was a skilled and sought after engineer in his army life and spent much of it attached to military units of the various allied units. The story seems to be accurate apart from where he was deposited in the Rhine. I did do some research and he was fished out at Remagen bridge after its collapse being stopped by the girder work in the river; your note has made me think that he must have been attached to forces south of the bridge. The thing about ordinary people being involved in extraordinary events and continuing on being affected in their subsequent lives should always be remembered in the debt we owe those generations which stood against evil intentions. There is not a day that goes by when I think of the dead and living sacrifices that were made on our behalf.
Kind regards
Wow... what your father experienced! And then to be sent back to the front after all that! And his poor mum -- months of worry and the agony of not knowing. Amazing.
Lt Timmerman's Mother was from Remagen. He spoke fluent German as well.
This channel is far more compelling and compulsive viewing than TV Documentaries, champion.
I heard about the bridge at Remagen in the 1960s from a GI who was a corpsman in that area. I was a teen back then and was fascinated by the stories he shared
I remember watching the war film Bridge at Remagan. I knew all the names had been changed (for example, the German Major sent from headquarters was named Kruger in the film, not Scheller). I presume this was due to the fact that many of these men were still alive and did not want to receive undo attention as they had moved on in life.
Great video btw. The interviews with Bradley and Bratke were most fascinating.
@ThoughtfulPug1
Bratke knocked my socks off.
Here's a story I'm really familiar with
Yet Mark Felton fills in so many details including the strategic significance of distracting from Monty's and Patton's advance. So Remagen serves as a decoy and gives the allies a significant boost
Great stuff. Love it
I've been watching (and supporting) this channel for a while, and still I am amazed that, in the heat of battle, there was someone filming the action for us to view later. It really brings the history alive.
Thank you for being unbiased. As always. I appreciate your time. Keep teaching world war history!
The captain certainly told a dramatic tale, it's a great pity that more men died while trying to repair the bridge when it finally collapsed.
I absolutely love that you included footage of commanders recounting their experiences
Can not tell you how much i love and appreciate your brilliant work at putting these fantastic stories of the real war fought by brave and noble men from the entire conflict, thank you Markj
Years ago I spoke with Ken Heckler, the author of "The Bridge at Remagen." He was among the officers who interviewed Hermann Goring after the war. Goring knew the Ludendorff Bridge had gone down, but he insisted that Luftwaffe bombing was responsible. Heckler said Goring was "incredibly arrogant" and refused to believe the bridge had simply collapsed.
own the movie. the uniforms on both sides were smart, the actors impeccable. not much in the way of special effects, but the portrayals were outstanding. a bye gone era of film making to be sure.
Great film. I wasn't expecting too much but I found its portrayal of ordinary Germans quite moving.
What movie?
And the musical score was OUTSTANDING!
ruclips.net/video/A8OJd7v31Xk/видео.html
It had 1 great special effect.
The attempt to blow up the bridge.
ruclips.net/video/_4ZNQTearE8/видео.html
@@Armo1997 The Bridge at Remagen, released in 1969. m.imdb.com/title/tt0064110/
People just be liking the video before they finish it
that’s not a bad thing :)
Exactly, you KNOW it's going to be great everytime.
Guilty.
I like it before I watch it!
😛😛 me one of them
we know we getting quality :)
That german's testimony gave me goosebumps, excellent video as always 👍❤
I was in the 1/52nd inf. Battalion from 1988 to 1990 which was one of the units that helped secure the bridge. It's great to see some of the history that these men made, great documentary and very informational.
I live closeby of Remagen and anytime when i pass by the twin towers still standing, with shots still visible in the walls, i think of all the drama which has happened here. In the tunnel of the erpeler lay, there is a theatre acting a reenactment of the history of which has happened there, at the original place. Everyone should visit it.
Mark Felton's videos are truly a work of art and dedication!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have visited there on my travels, there is as I remember a small museum in one of the towers.
I met a man in our town who was one of the US soldiers that helped secure the bridge. His story is amazing. He tells of furious fighting back and forth as everyone was trying to cut any wire they saw.
One of the neighbors on the block of my boyhood home was one of the infantryman who stormed that bridge. Will have to ask my sister if she remembers his name. Thank You Mark.
The history of strategy over the Rhine is one of my favorite topics, thank you Mark for this awesome content!!
-Harald
An amazing and compelling story. Thank you for the work you do for us. Much appreciated.
Mark Felton.... I class myself as a lay military historian, but your movies on youtube leave me to shame. You seem to have an amazing access and knowledge that far exceeds my own.
My father in law told me years ago the he was at this bridge in his D8 cat and that he was one of the first ti cross and a few days later he pushed the pontoon bridge sections across the river. He told me that he was on his 3rd D8 when the war ended. Those D8s had a steel enclosed cab with slits on 4 sides to see out of. He said it was amazing how many times your helmet could go around inside that cab when you ran over a land mine. Explains why his hearing was not so good. I believe there is a picture of him somewhere burying the dead at a concentration camp. Amazing what these guys went through and then came home and carried on with their lives. Very good video Dr. Felton. Always interested in that bridge. Thanks
I saw the remaining structure, the towers, in 1987 while on trip to W. Germany with my family. Just parked the car and walked down the hill to the water. It was deserted, I believe there was a plaque of some sort. I think it was my Dad's idea - he was a 14 year boy in the U.S. when it happened and probably excited to get the chance to see the location. Fun to do.
Brave German saved lots of civilians from dying unnecessary...ps the Americans suffered over 7000 casualties in this small area alone .Terrible waste on both sides.Timmerman was of German descent and ironically was right up front ignoring machine gun bullets and ripping demolition charges off the bridge with his bare hands .What a guy. Tough as old boots.
And it blew me away he was worried about the Geneva convention. It must have been just SS troops and Gestapo types that ignored it
@@cinjonsmythe6318 Or the winner writes the history books....
That’s because shooting back after the white flag was waved would mean complete annihilation for them.
@@cinjonsmythe6318 Don't believe everything you hear. He was wanting to pass the position of commander on to someone else. Sounds cowardly to me. He should have just surrendered instead of throwing it into someone elses lap.
" It's a mother beautiful bridge and it's gonna be there."
"Crap"
Not the right movie, but still a good line.
Keep up with the positive waves!
Less of those negative vibes Moriarty
John White as long as there are no negative waves from Moriarity....LOL
I'ts so enjoyable that I forgive you for showing footage of the capture of Aachen for the town of Remagen. Great intricate storytelling Mark!
Another fantastic Mark Felton production. Thank you sir for your incredible work and fantastic content.
Bridge at Remagen, good rainy Sunday afternoon movie
Gonna watch it now
the film is really accurate and i want to watch it again
Robert Vaughn :)
Regarding Mark's kindly mentioning the contribution of Canadian forces in this campaign . . . While the Americans didn't go to war with Germany until after Pearl Harbor (and who can blame them?), the Canadians, being British subjects, were committed when Britain declared war on the Germans some two years earlier.
My Dad and all my uncles, third-generation Canadians, signed up for the Canadian armed forces in the fall of 1939. Throughout WWII, Canadian and Australian forces played outsized roles, relative to their countries' population, in the eventual Allied victory. When as a teenager I cycled around Normandy and also Holland in 1971, some of the citizens there, upon finding put I was Canadian, were very welcoming -- because Canadian forces played a large role in the liberation of those places. By a miracle, because they all saw action, my Dad and all my uncles made it home unscathed.
The towers on the West bank in the town of Remagen are now a small museum and well worth a visit. The bridge was never rebuilt because unlike other Rhine bridges it served no peacetime purpose having been solely a railway bridge on a line purpose-built solely to take troops to the front in WWI as Mark said. The main railway lines are parallel to both river banks. About 5 years ago the Rhine was extremely low during the summer and a wide stony shoreline normally under water could be explored at Remagen. I found...nothing! Not one cartridge case. How is that?
Did you use a metal detector? Strange, but not impossible...
Should have tried downstream. The Rhine carries a lot of water and sometimes runs very strong.
barryolaith the river flow would have washed away anything.
Probably because there wasn't too much combat around the bridge, and stony shore doesn't holds those well after 70 years.
@barryolaith
Because no submarines used by either side.
Watch the movie "The Bridge Of Remagen" with Robert Vaughn, George Segal, Ben Gazerra... (1968).
Great video. Just watched Bridge at Remagen movie a month ago. Amazing that the bridge was never rebuilt since the war. Would love to visit and see the towers some day. Thanks, Mark!
This was also the last mission in _Call of Duty: Finest Hour_
One of the most bizarre and solemn posts you have made. Amazing American heroes. RIP
hi, nice video man. i always look forward to when a new one is released. great job
The non-Hollywood version. Still amazing. 2006 to 2008 I had some business trips to Dusseldorf, another place along the Rhine. All of its bridges had been destroyed. Now you have modern cable stay bridges, which you can walk across. You can also walk both sides of the river, seeing where the bombed out areas were replaced with modern structures.
I love your short but concise videos gets to point with nice video clips, nice work.
My dad was in an anti-aircraft unit rushed to the bridge after it was captured and was present when it fell into the river. He said that his unit had been instructed to shoot anything visible on the surface of the river to prevent German swimmers from attaching demolitions to the bridge. One of his friends was hit by "friendly"fire when he bent over a rain barrel a mile from the river when a bullet from a .50 caliber machine gun struck him in the butt. He said that the bridge was kept up long enough for the pontoon bridges and bridgehead to be made too tough for the Germans to overcome. He was very proud of how his fellow troops fought and held the bridge.
People people, three quarters of the comments say "FIRST", instead of "Thank you Mark for your research and stable quality through your video releases!". The truth being, nobody gives a bloody s*** if you are first or last.
@Han Lockhart nahh, he's just stating what we all feel, perfectly
incredible...1945 and the Germans could still fly "400 sorties a day", and their only problem was AA- not Allied fighters..??
Glad you mentioned this. I was wondering this myself...
No American pilot would fly into the flak storm around the bridge. Post Bulge, US AA guns had the radar proximity fuse. That's why 1/3 of attackers were brought down.
A top of 400 sorties. Meaning they at the maximum istance put only 400 planes in the air during 24h against the only target worthy of them. Impressive for germany in 1945.
Abysmal in general terms.
And they did face Allied fighters and several got shoot down. Probably one of the last times allied fighters engaged groups of german planes and not very small groups.
But not around the bridge. Probably to avoid friendly AA fire allied planes stayed clear of the bridge. But there was an air umbrella around it, that forced the germans to use jets to fly past it.
It takes more time to get a plane ready and up to combat altitude than it does to get an AA ready and fire, so most defence was inévitably going to be by AA, because your enemy isn't exactly going to give an early warning.
There were, however, air patrols that intercepted a few enemy planes, just not as many...
Possibly the density of allied AA made putting anything in the air dangerous. Group troops likely opened up on whatever they could see before they could clearly distinguish friend from foe.
LT Timmerman was not briefly a national hero. He Still is a national hero. 🙂
These are the best historical videos on RUclips I get so pumped when I see a new video in my subscription feed
Mate, you're bloody amazing. I've learned more from you than any other source.
We are simple men. We see Mark Felton post a 16 minute video and we watch it straight away.
Mark, you don't miss anything...watching... I kept thinking "What about the Hitler ordered V-2's?" And you delivered. Phenomenal overall delivery, thanks.
That is a very good presentation and one can see how accurate the 1968 film actually is - although locals will claim it is not. Today the bridge approach is still standing as are the towers as said in this video. The towers on the western side have a museum. On the eastern side the towers still stand. The tunnel is used today as a theatre. However one thing that really stood out for me on visiting was how steep the Erpel 'mountain' actually is. To me, the crossing over the Erpel is the most daring movement of the operation.
Listening to this episode I kept seeing George Segal in the classic 1969 film, The Bridge at Remagen.
This is one of my favourite mark felton production.
This is channel is a golden nugget for youtube.
The movie about the capture of the Remagen Bridge is one of the most accurate WWII movies made. I worked with a Veteran from that conflict. He was infantry and his platoon was supporting a tank destroyer that had crossed the bridge to help hold the salient.
Went to Remagen couple years ago. Cool museum out there. Thanks for the vid!
Great job Mark...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this longer format!!!
This should be a short movie._.
There is a movie about this. ruclips.net/video/4eKxa_oa6D8/видео.html
There is a movie called "Remagen Bridge"
The Bismarck there is a movie about this.... it’s called “The Bridge at Remagen”
It’s almost like I’ve seen a feature length film of this subject before...
There is a fairly old movie about this exact subject aptly named "The Bridge at Remagen".
Thanks again Mr Felton for a different perspective that I've never seen . Anxiously awaiting the next video
Mark, there's a connection between Remagen and my family. My second cousin, twice removed was with the 104th Infantry Division (US), which crossed the Rhine at Bad Honnef just north of Remagen. They then fought east out of the Remagen bridgehead on 22 Mar 45. He was killed 24 Mar 45 in the small German town of Eudenbach during heavy fighting.
Stange, how many of the US commanders in the Remagen campaign were of German descent
Most people don't realize it, but more immigrants came to the US from Germany than from any other country, including England, and by quite a large margin. The list of American commanders with Germanic surnames in WWII is a long one, including even the supreme allied commander in Europe himself, Eisenhower.
@Andy Manning
I assume Eisenhower wasn’t Portuguese.
It caught my attention, too.
The Golden Book ....Palatine immigration.
Karl failed to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge...
*This enraged Adolf's father who punished him severely*
The movie, Bridge at Remagen is worth a documentary itself, it was shot in Czechoslovakia in 68 when the uprising started and the Russians invaded. Cast and crew had to flee in a hurry, lost a lot of equipment and shot film.
In the Movie they got on the bridge in Czechoslovakia, it exploded in Germany and they got off the Bridge in Italy.
What valuable film clip interviews you've included!
As a history addict you are my drug of choice, great information and video yet again
Less than 1 hour and almost 10k views. Glad your channel has picked up so much, excellent content! This is by far the best recommendation youtube has ever given me, hit the nail on the head!
Damn, I drive by these towers daily for the last 20 years, never realized there is a tunnel behind them :)
Having Bratge's testimony and watching his face made this a great-watch.
Good work, Mark. Freakin EXCELLENT video.
Stunning historical footage - you're amazing Mark!
Mark. Great work on this one. Use of interviews great addition. Happy to be patreon supporter. Looking forward to more.
I remembered a passage from Pierre Clostermann's "The Big Show", where he was flying a patrol over this bridge against Luftwaffe's attack planes. After constant German attacks, the American AAA was so edgy they shoot and hit his plane too.
A 16 minute video? Oooh, Dr Felton you are spoiling us!
Nice work Dr. Felton! Also, don't forget the film, "The Bridge at Remagen", a 1969 DeLuxe Color war film starring George Segal, Ben Gazzara and Robert Vaughn in Panavision [wikipedia]
I've driven past this bridge a few times, it's very interesting to learn about the history of what happened there.
Great video!!! While in the US Army and stationed in West Germany, had the opportunity to visit Remagen from 1981-1983 & 1985-1988. At the time, there was a museum in the town pertaining to the local history and focusing on this battle. Unfortunately, the museum was closed day of my visit. Got to visit the towers on the east bank of Rhine River, but had to go all the way north to Bonn just to find a bridge to cross the river and make the drive back south to Remagen. The railroad tunnel was sealed closed, but could explore the top of the hill and still see the German fighting positions. Would love to go back to Germany and do more exploring.
Thank you Dr. Felton, very interesting and well produced. The towns and villages mentioned are strikingly familiar living upstream along the Rhein not far from Remagen.
Wonderful videos
Great Mark!
Wow ! A brilliant and highly informative video on the iconic Remagen Bridge crossing ! The question of a broad front attack or a spearheaded attack was always the bone of contention between the US commanders and Montgomery, but in this case the broad front did make more sense as General Bradley explained. Ironic that the American soldiers attacking the bridge were commanded by an officer named Karl Timmermann, obviously of German heritage himself. Former Wehrmacht officer Bratke was still obviously very emotional regarding his part in the surrender of the near intact bridge in the post- war video, and it was typical of the paranoid mindset of Hitler and his cronies to have Major Scheller shot for not destroying the bridge in time - as if he could have, having been provided with second grade troops to defend it and weak explosives to blow it up ! My father crossed the Rhine at Wesel with a Royal Air Force Forward Air Control unit attached to the Canadian Army, with whom he had been since landing on Juno Beach on D-Day itself. What an excellent, precise and well documented video on the last futile attempts by the German forces to stop the inevitable tide of Western Allied troops crossing the Rhine - they really threw everything but the renowned "kitchen sink" at the Ludendorff Bridge after it's heroic capture by the US 9th Armoured Division after some seriously heavy fighting! The sacrifices of men of both sides in that terrible conflict should not be forgotten, nor should the idiocy of war - a few months later it was all over and friendships between Allied soldiers and German civilians began that last until this day. Thanks again to Mark Felton for providing us with such an excellent video on the subject. 🌟🌟🌟
The Germans had difficulty blowing up bridges the Allies were intent on taking (see Nijmegen Bridge, Operation Market Garden). Yet the British had a similar problem while retreating from the Greek mainland in 1941 with the Germans actually capturing a bridge before the combat engineers had enough time to prepare charges. Fortunately for the British Forces, a single shot from a rifle was all that was needed to detonate the charges already placed and the Germans were sufficiently delayed to allow the bulk of British forces to be evacuated from the mainland.