Location Former Rail Bridge Maas River

Location of a former rail bridge dating from 1874. The current bridge (photo) dates from after the war in 1955.

German troops passed the border unnoticed in the night of 9 and 10 May 1940, even though an attack was expected. The important bridges had already been rigged with explosives because of that, even though the Dutch wanted to wait with blowing them up. When the guard of the bridge was warned by a phone call about an imminant attack, a German squad in Dutch uniforms approached the bridge. The guard was overwhelmed by the Germans, before they used the same trick at the other side of the bridge at a blockade. This was just in time for an approached armoured train with troops and equipment.

This made the bridge at Gennep one of the few bridge which wasn't demolished by the Dutch in 1940. The bridge was eventually destroyed by the German Wehrmacht in 1944 to make sure that the Allied Forces couldn't use the bridge in their advantage.

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Source

• Text: Projekt Memoo
• Photos: Lennard Bolijn