Hodges Bridge

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The Hodges Bridge was a pontoon bridge made of prefabricated parts - similar to the Bailey Bridge - over the Rhine and was completed on April 6, 1945 . The bridge connected the Bad Godesberg Bastion and the Niederdollendorfer ship landing stage at river kilometer 647.7 . It was the most important makeshift bridge over the Rhine for the US armed forces, as the Remagen bridge collapsed due to overloading on March 17th and the Hindenburg bridge near Bingen was blown up by Wehrmacht pioneers on March 15th, 1945 . Thus no other bridge suitable for tanks was available for hundreds of kilometers of river.

The 148th and 207th US Engineer Battalions built the bridge day and night. As a preparatory exercise, they had built a bridge over the Meuse near Liège at the end of 1944 . Construction of the bridge began on March 25, 1945. It was named after General Courtney Hicks Hodges , commander of the 1st US Army.

The 207th Engineer Battalion began on the west bank, the 148th on the east bank. Barges were moored close together with steel cables as supports for the bridge segments. Several barges set on the ground served for additional anchoring. The bridge had a two-lane carriageway. When the cargo ship traffic over the Rhine began again later, the pontoon bridge was erected.

14 soldiers of the 148th battalion died in an accident while the bridge was being built. A memorial plaque was dedicated to them. While the bridge was being built, five Wehrmacht combat swimmers tried to destroy the bridge. The action was unsuccessful, the soldiers were taken prisoner of war.

From May 8, 1945 (end of the war), the bridge was used by refugees, for whom a lane was opened for one hour every morning. Up to 15,000 people are said to have waited for the transition in Niederdollendorf .

In November and December 1945 the bridge was demolished because it obstructed shipping traffic across the Rhine.

literature

  • Günther Gratzfeld, Gustav Hofmann: The "Hodges Bridge" between Bad Godesberg and Niederdollendorf on the Rhine in 1945 . In: Godesberger Heimatblätter: Annual booklet of the Association for Home Care and Home History Bad Godesberg eV , ISSN  0436-1024 , Issue 44 (2006), Association for Home Care and Home History Bad Godesberg , Bad Godesberg 2007, pp. 158-170. [not yet evaluated for this article]

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 41 ′ 33.1 ″  N , 7 ° 10 ′ 26.8 ″  E