Operation Plunder_The British and Canadian Operations

By late March 1945, Second British Army and Ninth US Army were poised to carry out an assault crossing of the Rhine. In the British part of the operations, Montgomery’s best assault divisions were assembled to carry out the British and Canadian part of the attack between Emmerich and Wesel.

A commando brigade and two Scottish divisions carried out the initial assault under cover of darkness and a tremendous bombardment on the evening of 23rd March. Despite the best efforts of the German first Parachute Army they had established a bridgehead by dawn. During the following morning 6th British Airborne Division dropped around Hamminkeln, in the immediate rear of the Germans, in an operation codenamed VARSITY.

By 27 March, after some heavy combat, the Allies were prepared to launch their final drive to the Baltic. The Rhine crossing, though by no means the final battle, sealed the fate of Nazi Germany.

ReviewLavished with photographs, maps and veterans accounts, this is a concise, thorough and eminently readable description of Field Marshal Montgomery's assault crossing of the Rhine on the 23rd March 1945, with two British and two American divisions carrying out what would be the last set-piece battle of the Second World War. Tim Saunders first describes the difficult advance on the Rhine, the preparations undertaken by both sides, and the various phases of the British crossings; beginning with the bloody diversionary attack by the 51st Highland Division around Rees, the capture of Wesel by the 1st Commando Brigade, and the main crossing by the 15th Scottish Division who were to relieve the Airborne troops further inland. The battle to secure the Diersfordterwald and the bridges over the River Issel by the 6th British and 17th US Airborne Divisions is also included, though in less detail as this is a separate subject in its own right, one indeed which is covered by Tim Saunders in another book in the series; Operation Varsity. Mark Hickman - Pegasus Archive