#Audiospot
Building bridges in Bislich
24 March 1945: British troops crossed the Rhine and captured Bislich. The attack is part of Operation ‘Plunder’, the Allies' major offensive along the Lower Rhine. British general and commander Miles C. Dempsey arrives to take a look at Bislich.
British general and commander Miles C. Dempsey boards a motorboat and is transported to the third Bislicher Bailey Bridge. This huge structure was a masterpiece of British pioneers. The bridge rested on tall wooden piers so that shipping could pass under it even after the war. By the end of May 1945, the bridge was completed and named after the British general who crossed the Rhine at Bislich: the Dempsey Bridge. But already in February 1946, the bridge was badly damaged after a collision with a Rhine ship and was demolished again. The Deichdorf Museum Bislich displays original sides of the Bailey bridges, found on the banks of the Rhine.