Operation Lumberjack Operation Lumberjack was a military operation with the goal to capture the west bank of the Rhine River and seize key German cities near the end of World War II . The First United States Army launched the operation in March 1945 to capture strategic cities in Germany and to give the Allies a foothold along the Rhine River . One unexpected outcome was the capture of the Ludendorff bridge , a strategic railroad bridge across the Rhine River . Despite the German ' s attempts to destroy the bridge , the U . S . forces captured it intact and were able to use it for ten days to establish a beachhead on the far side before it collapsed . Strategic importance . The Germans had repeatedly frustrated Allied efforts to cross the Rhine . Previously crossings had been limited to small infantry reconnaissance patrols by boat . When elements of the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion , Combat Command B , 9th Armored Engineer Battalion reached the heights overlooking the town of Remagen , they were stunned to find that the Ludendorff Bridge was still standing . The Ludendorff bridge was the last standing bridge across the Rhine River , which formed the last natural line of defense that the Germans hoped could be used to substantially resist the Western Allied advance . Initially , officers in the 27th began calling for artillery to drop the bridge and trap German forces on the west bank . Unable to secure artillery support , the 27th continued to observe the bridge . When word of the bridge ' s status reached General William Hoge , commanding Combat Command B , he issued orders for the 27th to advance into Remagen with support from the 14th Tank Battalion . Importantly , the battle convinced the Allied high command in Western Europe that they could envelop the German industrial area of the Ruhr as opposed to focusing primarily on General Bernard Montgomery ' s plan , Operation Plunder , which would bring the British 21st Army Group across the Rhine into northern Germany . With the 21st Army Group firmly established along the Rhine , Bradley ' s 12th Army Group prepared to execute Operation Lumberjack . General Omar Bradley ' s plan called for the U . S . First Army to attack southeastward toward the juncture of the Ahr and Rhine Rivers and then swing south to meet Patton , whose U . S . Third Army would simultaneously drive northeastward through the Eifel . If successful , Lumberjack would capture Cologne , secure the Koblenz sector , and bring the 12th Army Group to the Rhine in the entire area north of the Moselle River . The 12th Army Group also hoped to bag a large number of Germans . Allied forces . During the operation , the U . S . First Army controlled the III , V , and VII Corps . III Corps had the 9th Armored Division and the 1st , 9th , and 78th Infantry Divisions attached . V Corps had attached the 2nd , 28th , 69th , and 106th Infantry Divisions attached as well as the 7th Armored Division , although the 7th was not committed to the operation and had transferred to the III Corps by March 7 . The VII Corps controlled the 3rd Armored Division and the 8th , 99th , and 104th Infantry Divisions . German forces . From north to south , the attacking U . S . forces were confronted by the LXXXI ( 9th and 11th Panzer Divisions , and the 476th , 363rd , and 59th Infantry Divisions ) and LVIII Panzer Corps ( 353rd and 12th Infantry Divisions , as well as the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division ) of the German " Fifteenth Army " , and the LXXIV ( 85th and 272nd Infantry Divisions , as well as the 3rd Airborne Division ) , LXVII ( 89th and 277th Infantry Divisions ) , and LXVI Corps ( 5th Airborne Division ) of the German " Fifth Panzer Army " . Over 75 , 000 German troops were on the western banks of the bridge . Their only escape route was across the Ludendorff bridge . Hitler ordered that the charges should not be laid until the very last moment , although the circuits could be in place , and that bridges should be demolished only as a last resort . Battle . Bradley launched Lumberjack on 1 March . In the north , the First Army rapidly exploited bridgeheads over the Erft River , entering Euskirchen on 4 March and Cologne on the fifth . Simultaneously , the Third Army swept through the Eifel to the Rhine . The distance advanced by U . S . units during Lumberjack varied between about . In the north , the U . S . VII Corps advanced to the banks of the Rhine River in Cologne , while its neighbor to the south , III Corps , advanced to positions near Bonn and into Remagen . Further south , the V Corps pushed about into the High Eifel . Battle of Remagen . In the First Army area , a task force of the 9th Armored Division — commanded by Lt . Col . Leonard Engeman — advanced toward Remagen as part of the Lumberjack offensive . As the armored task force reached the edge of the city , it discovered that the Ludendorff railroad bridge over the Rhine was , surprisingly , still standing . Engeman ordered Company Commander Lt . Karl H . Timmermann to capture the bridge . The German commander had requested of military explosives , but received only of weak industrial explosives . They failed to do the job and the bridge lifted slightly and settled back into place . At about 1530 hours , Timmerman led an under - strength squad of men to capture the bridge , half of which he sent to the east side to provide covering fire to the rest of the men . He ordered the other half of his men to remove the demolition charges . The men dodged machine gun fire , moving from bridge girder to girder , cuttin demolition wires , and removing as many of the remaining explosive charges as possible , not knowing if the Germans would detonate them at any second . Timmerman set out removing charges himself . Timmerman was the first officer to cross the river and Alexander A . Drabik was the first enlisted man across . A three man detachment from 2nd Platoon , B Company , 9th Armored Engineer Battalion ( Lieutenant Hugh Mott , Staff Sergeant John Reynolds , and Sergeant Eugene Dorland ) moved with the first squad of A / 27th AIB to reduce the remaining explosives after the first unsuccessful bridge demolition by the Germans . They were the third , fourth , and fifth US Soldiers onto the bridge . Crossing with lead elements , Dorland destroyed the main demolition switch box on the far bank . The remainder of B Company with the rest of A / 27th AIB , found and eliminated more explosives on the bridge . After the bridge was initially secured , Lt . Mott led B Company in hasty bridge repairs that allowed the first Sherman tanks to cross the bridge by 22 : 00 that evening . The Allies finally had a bridgehead on the Rhine , and General Dwight D . Eisenhower told Bradley to push five divisions across the Rhine to secure the bridgehead . Eisenhower ordered Bradley to limit the expansion of the Remagen bridgehead to a maximum width of and a depth of , to avoid distracting from the main effort by the 21st Army Group . In next few days , the Germans tried desperately to destroy the bridge , including air attacks by Messerschmitt 262 jet fighter - bomber s , V - 2 ballistic missiles and frogmen trying to implant explosives . The battle ended on 25 March 1945 when the allied forces could break out of their bridgehead and advance into the rest of Germany . Several German officers who had been assigned the task of destroying the bridge when ordered were court - martialed for their failure and were convicted , sentenced to death and executed . The Ludendorff bridge collapsed ten days after it was captured on 17 March , but the Allies had meanwhile built three pontoon bridges about down river and had strengthened their bridgehead on the east shore . The bridge was not rebuilt after the war . However , the bridge towers remain and in 1980 a peace museum was open to the public . In popular culture . The battle was depicted in the novel " The Bridge at Remagen " by Ken Hechler , which was later adapted into the film of the same name .