US Remagen Veterans Speak at 65th Aniversary
Veterans of the US 9th Armored Division speak of crossing the Ludendorff Bridge near Remagen.
Interviewed by Andrew Denison, www.transatlantic-networks.de
Men—in squads, platoons, companies, then battalions and regiments, of the 9th Armored, of the 9th, the 78th, the 99th, and the 1st Infantry
—they rushed across the span. Ten long days,
240 hours,
the bridge bore the heavy burden,
the stomp of weary feet,
the rattle and roar
of an unending column of vehicles,
weighted down with the implements of war.
Worth its weight in Gold, reckoned the Supreme Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Then
the bridge collapsed
into the dark, cold river,
taking 28 young men with it.