March 1945: Modern Warfare over the River Rhine

When German troops failed to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen in March 1945, the Luftwaffe was tasked with bombing it.

Those were the dying days of the war, and the Allies enjoyed complete air superiority over Germany. A conventional attack on the bridge was doomed to fail. Instead, the Luftwaffe sent its most modern platform: The jet-powered Me-262 fighters and Ar-234 bombers.

Operation and Tactics

Several raids were launched against the bridge over a period of 8 days, with the Luftwaffe’s jets accruing casualties due to Allied air defenses (the jets had to fly low and slow in order to hit the bridge with dumb bombs). The bridge finally collapsed on the 17th of March 1945. But by then, the Americans had already established a bridgehead with 6 divisions supplied by pontoon and Bailey bridges.

Impact

The capture of this bridge shortened the war by several weeks. Still, the world got to witness the first-ever aerial raids by jet-powered fighters and jet-powered bombers flying together.