Memorial 238th Engineer Combat Battalion U.S.

The Pont de Jambes is a road bridge over the Meuse in Jambes, a sub-municipality of the Walloon capital Namur. The bridge connects the district on the right bank with the Citadel of Namur on the left bank.
The bridge and its surroundings were of military strategic importance for a long time, but also of commercial and administrative importance.

The strategic importance of the bridge was highlighted in the summer of 1914 when the Belgian army blew up three arches of the bridge in the hope of halting or slowing the rapid advance of the German army during World War I.
The bridge was rebuilt, but was blown up again for the same reason in 1940 during the Second World War. The bridge remained in this state for many years, with the destroyed part of the bridge being covered with a temporary bridge deck.

There is a memorial plaque on the bridge:
"238th Engineer Combat Battalion
VII Corps 1st US Army
September 7-8, 1944
on the ruined bridge of Jambes,
construction of two "Bailey" bridges:
one 46 meters long and the other
15 meters long,
for the freedom of our Belgian friends
to recover

Namur, Belgium "

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck