Veterans Bridge 50 Years During Rhine Ceremony

German veterans and the Americans who defeated them joined under cold, bright skies Tuesday to celebrate the bold U.S. thrust over the Rhine 50 years ago that hastened the end of World War II.

The veterans, many in their 80s, shivered through speeches at a ceremony in the shadow of the stone towers of the Ludendorff Bridge. The American capture of the bridge signaled the end of a miserable war and the start of a long friendship with Germany.

“In small or large measure, it hearkened the end of the war,” said George Ruhlen, a retired Army major general who served with the 9th Armored Division, which took the bridge March 7, 1945. “No one knows exactly by how much the war was shortened, but if it was only by five minutes, it’s still worth celebrating.”

The German speakers at Tuesday’s ceremony focused on the half a century of peace, prosperity and democracy that the loss of the bridge hastened.

“In the name of two postwar generations, I want to thank the Americans for acting as resolutely as they did on March 7, 1945,” said Gerd Scheller, 51. “They gave us the chance to free ourselves from dictatorship and rebuild.”

Scheller’s father, Hans, had taken command of the bridge hours before it fell. He became a victim of Hitler’s enraged determination to have the heads of those responsible for the debacle and was executed as a traitor five days later.