With the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge by Company C, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 9th Armored Division and elements of the 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, on March 8th, 1945, the 99th Infantry Division was quickly moved from its concentration area along the Erft Canal and the Rhein to an area in the vicinity of Arzdorf, south of Bonn.
The 393rd Regiment moved on the night of 9-10 March in a drizzling rain through towns still flaming and smoldering from vicious air and artillery assaults, closing in the new area about 04:00 hrs on March 10th.
No one who crossed that bridge in the first few days would ever forget the experience. The Germans did everything they could to destroy the bridge; artillery, air assaults, floating TNT by swimming commandos and even eleven V-2 rockets were fired from the Hellendoorn area in the Netherlands.

Foot elements and a few supply vehicles of the 99th Division's 393rd Regiment crossed first. More casualties were sustained in the crossing than at any time since the January offensive in the Monschau Forest. "Dead Man's Corner - the intersection just before the bridge - was a scene of much carnage. MP's directing traffic there would fall wounded or killed and another would take their place.
Eight thousand soldiers would cross the bridge in the first 24 hours. When the 99th Division crossing was completed, they were the "first full American division" on the east side of the Rhein River. Additional combat teams of the 9th Armored, 9th Infantry and 78th Infantry Divisions also crossed during this time.
On March 17, after ten days of attack and bombardment, the Ludendorff Bridge collapsed killing 28 Army engineers that were working to strengthen the weakened bridge.

Sixty-five years later, the 99th Infantry Division, 393rd Regiment, Easy Company reenactors, headquartered in Erie, PA, honored this historical World War II event in the Borough of Tidioute, PA.

With over 200 participating reenactors, the second annual "Battle of Remagen" was staged at the town's bridge over the Allegheny River and gives an authentic period style of construction similar to that of the original Ludendorff Bridge that American soldiers fought and died to capture in 1945.

Reenactors from 10 states (Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Massachusetts) and Canada came to this year's event.

Several vehicles, both German and American were taking part in the action. An estimated crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 spectators watched as the GI's attacked through Tidioute, ever pushing the German units back across the bridge.

Cartwright Fireworks of Franklin, PA, provided the pyrotechnics again this year and engulfed the bridge with fire and explosions. The infantrymen and Jeep convoy then pushed across the bridge and destroyed the German garrison on the opposite side.

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU BACK IN 2011 !