Operation Lumberjack

Operation Lumberjack was a military operation with the goal of capturing the west bank of the Rhine River and seizing key German cities, near the end of World War II in Europe. The First United States Army launched the operation in March 1945 to capture strategic cities (Cologne, Bonn, and Koblenz) in Nazi Germany and to give the Allies a foothold along the Rhine. One unexpected outcome was the capture of the Ludendorff bridge, a strategic railroad bridge across the Rhine, in the Battle of Remagen. Despite German attempts to destroy the bridge, Allied forces captured it intact and were able to use it along with pontoon and treadway bridges to establish a bridgehead. The bridge finally collapsed at 3:00 pm on 17 March 1945 after ten days of aircraft bombing, direct artillery hits, near misses, and demolition attempts.