What is a bridgehead?

Question

I am doing a presentation on battles of World War 2. I was looking at the battle of Normandy (D-Day) and came across the word bridgehead. I looked up the definition and am still confused about what it is.

Can you please give me a description of what it is along with an example?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

As an army advances, they are forced to cross rivers. In the past, this has been a difficult and dangerous task for the soldiers.

What usually happened is that the enemy would try to blow up the bridges, and the attacking forces would try to secure them before that happened.

If the attacking forces managed to catch a bridge before it had been blown up, they will send a platoon or so of soldiers across the bridge and set up a fortified position. This is called a bridgehead. These soldiers defend the bridge from the enemy coming back and blowing up the bridge!

Answer 2

When a military force attacks across a major physical barrier -- such as a river or, in the example you are studying the English Channel -- in order to secure the invading force they need to build up an area secure from direct fire attacks. So the leading forces attack inland to make a safe "bubble" of terrain into which more troops, equipment, and supplies can be delivered with limited hazard. This area is called a "bridgehead".

The term comes from engineering lingo -- a bridgehead is the area of land at each end of a bridge that is specifically designed and graded and improved to support traffic onto and off of the bridge. When crossing a river or a canyon, one bank may be secure, but the opposite bank is generally not, so the lead combat elements attack to secure the "bridgehead" on the opposite bank. Once secure, engineering elements can improve that far side for the bridge that will be built, and then install the bridge, and then more supplies can move over more rapidly than through a ferry system.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

bridge·head (brjhd) KEY

NOUN:


A fortified position from which troops defend the end of a bridge nearest the enemy.
A forward position seized by advancing troops in enemy territory as a foothold for further advance.
The area immediately adjacent to the end of a bridge.

A bridgehead (also 'Bridge-head') is literally a military fortification that protects the end of a bridge that is closest to the enemy. The term has been generalized in news coverage and the vernacular to also mean any kind of defended area that is extended into hostile territory (also called a foothold or incorrectly, a beachhead), in particular the area on the farside of a 'defended river bank' or a segment of a lake or riverine coastline, such as the Bridge at Remagen, and is especially applied when such a terratory is initially seized by an amphibious assault with the tactical and strategic intent of establishing a supply line across the geographic barrier feature.

Bridgeheads typically exist for only a few days, the invading forces either being thrown back or expanding the bridgehead to create a secure defensive lodgement area before breaking out into open country as happened when the U.S. 9th Armored Division seized the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen in 1945 during World War II. In some cases, such as during the Gallipoli Campaign in World War I, a bridgehead may exist for months.