Mott and his two sergeants found about 160 kilograms (350 lb) of unexploded charges on top of one of the piers. On the afternoon of Wednesday, 7 March, Captain Carlton G. "Pappy" Denton, Commander, Battery D, squeezed his 482nd anti-aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion to the head of Combat Command B. The remaining sappers and convalescing troops followed them out, and Friesenhahn and Bratge were the last two captured within the tunnel.Lt. He later reported:
Then we just sat and waited for others to come.
Each battalion was equipped with four batteries of M3 halftracks, each armed with a Colonel Patterson, in charge of the anti-aircraft artillery for III Corps, described the anti-aircraft defenses as the "million dollar show," because "it cost the American taxpayers a million dollars in antiaircraft ammunition" every time a German aircraft dared attack the bridge.
Scheller was convicted of failing to blow up the bridge and Peters of allowing his secret anti-aircraft weapon to fall into American hands. Hübner then tried Maj. Scheller and after him Lt. Karl Heinz Peters. He surreptitiously marked all of the bridge materials, including those destined for Patton's Third Army, as being destined for the First Army at Remagen.While the bridges were being prepared and constructed, a large fleet of vessels were employed. Emmett Burrows of New York City, sped down the slope to the bridge entrance. At 3:20 pm, Friesenhahn made the last connections to the detonator and twisted the handle, but nothing happened.
(English:) In memory of Major Hans Scheller, Major Herbert Strobel, Major August Kraft, Lieutenant Karl-Heinz Peters, fought for the Bridge at Remagen, innocently sentenced to death in Rimbach and Oberirsen, summarily shot on 13 and 14 March 1945.Plaques commemorating the battle for the bridge have been placed by the Belgian 12th Fusilier Battalion, U.S. 9th Armored Division Association, U.S. 99th Infantry Division, and the U.S. 78th Infantry Division on the wall of the towers on the western side of the Rhine.The 9th Infantry Division retained a foot-long piece of railroad track from the bridge as a memorial to what the division accomplished in its capture of the bridge. This has happened because the responsible leaders have abandoned the bridgehead.
Hodges also complained later that Milliken repeatedly disobeyed his orders including a directive to drive his forces north along the east bank and open a crossing for VII Corps, and that he failed to attach enough infantry support to the 9th Armored Division. In addition, the tanks engaged the flak guns on the east bank which were opposing the crossing.Company commander 2d Lt. Timmermann led an under-strength squad of men from the 27 AIB onto the west side of the bridge, despite the risk that the bridge could be destroyed with them on it.The explosion blew large holes in the planking covering the rails above the pier, twisted some of the steel supporting girders, and cut a 9.1 meters (30 ft) gap in the truss supporting the southern side of the bridge. The first was between Cologne and Geographically, the northwest shoulder of the bridge was situated on a shallow salient exposed to the eastern bank of the Rhine. In the evening comes the news that it has still not been possible to eliminate the Remagen bridgehead. Directed by The 51st Engineer Combat Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Harvey Fraser, built a Class 40, 25 Ton 969-foot (295 m) reinforced heavy When the treadway and pontoon bridges were operational, the engineers closed the Ludendorff Bridge for repairs on Monday, 12 March. They discovered that one of the steel pipes containing the wires connecting to the main charge had been severed, possibly by artillery.I felt inside me that I could never live with the knowledge that I had given up that opportunity without making a try for it. Hodges and some of his staff had complained about the poor control of forces on both sides of the bridge and the lack of information on troop dispositions.
Scheller concluded the bridge could not be defended and was ready to destroy it when Lieutenant Karl Peters pleaded for extra time to get his unit across the bridge. Peters was a passerby trying to get his experimental anti-aircraft system back across the Rhine. The Battle of Remagen during the Allied invasion of Germany resulted in the unexpected capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine.After capturing the Siegfried Line, the 9th Armored Division of the U.S. First Army had advanced unexpectedly quickly towards the Rhine. The foot soldiers dodged around discarded equipment, weapons, helmets, and packs. The bridge was also defended by an engineer company of 125 men commanded by Captain Karl Friesenhahn, 180 The German defensive doctrine called for positioning the majority of forces at the front lines, leaving minimal troops to reinforce rear areas.On the afternoon of 7 March 1945, Lt. Col. Leonard Engemann led Task Force Engemann towards The three tank companies of the 14th TB each consisted of three platoons.
General Battalion Commander Major Murray Deevers asked Timmermann, "Do you think you can get your company across the bridge?" Timmermann asked, but Deevers did not answer.At 1:50 pm, the troops of A/27/9 AIB set out for the town. On the contrary the Americans have reinforced it and are trying to extend it. Meanwhile, the pontoon ferries, DUKWs and LCVPs continued to supplement the two tactical bridges.From the day the bridge had been captured until the middle of March, III Corps Commander Milliken had never visited the eastern bank of the Rhine. Lt. Col. Leonard Engemann of Minneapolis, in command of a reconnaissance party, was determined to save this bridge if it was at all possible.