Crossing the Rhine February - April 1945

After the Battle of the Bulge, Germany herself was the next target. It was clear to everyone but the most fanatical Nazis, including Hitler, that Germany was finished.  The war was over except for the final body count.

Throughout February and March 1945, the Allies fought their way through the Siegfried Line, a series of antitank fortifications, pillboxes, and artillery that ran along the Western border with Germany. Manned by young boys and old men, the Siegfried Line was a tough line that held the Allies out of Germany since September. Patton’s Third Army had little gasoline to advance from their positions outside of Aachen, the first German town to be conquered.

The Allies advanced and captured Cologne, the first major German city, on March 5, 1945. US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commanding the Allied forces, realized that the capture of Berlin was secondary to destroying the German military industrial machine. He ordered the Allied Expeditionary Force to advance on the Ruhr.

Churchill, especially, wanted the Allies to capture Berlin, but Eisenhower had enough of long narrow advances in Holland. The Allies would cross the Rhine and advance on the Ruhr.

Hitler saw the Rhine as a symbol of German resolve. No invading army had crossed the Rhine in 140 years, since Napoleon in 1805. Any commander surrendering or retreating would be shot. Bridges were to be blown up.

Cologne’s bridges were thus destroyed before the city was captured. The US First Army, planning to cross the Rhine without a bridge, found the Ludendorff Railway Bridge still standing on March 7 in Remagen, Germany.

The Allies rushed to cross the Rhine under air and artillery attack. By March 23 the Allies had a bridgehead thirty-five mile wide and twelve miles deep. Bridges were put up over the Rhine by special bridge units; many of them segregated black units. Often the crossings were under heavy German fire.

Allied airborne forces, in the last operation in Europe, dropped over the Rhine on March 25 in Operation Varsity on March 24, 1945. German antiaircraft units were waiting and casualties were heavy, but the paratroopers landed together and took the East bank of the Rhine to protect the bridgehead.

The Rhine had been cracked. Bridges went up all over the Rhine, more than sixty in total. Hitler was unable to stop the Allies in the west. The Red Army was advancing in the East; Berlin was their next and final target.

Internal Links

The Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of Berlin

The Surrender of Germany

Internet Links

The Bridge at Remagen

Erpel - Old Beauty on the River Rhine

Taking the Remagen Bridge

Ludendorff Bridge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Operation Lumberjack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Operation Plunder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crossing the Rhine River

Rhine Crossing, 1945

Attack to the Rhine
Planning for an attack eastward to the Rhine to smash and clear the enemy salient south of Drusenheim began on January 26.

MS1726 "Varsity" mission, March 24, 1945

Operation Varsity

1st Allied Airborne Army

Operation Varsity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Operation Varsity - The Rhine Crossing

Valor: Operation Varsity - March 1996

TheHistoryNet | World War II | Operation Varsity: Allied Airborne Assault Over the Rhine River
Paratroopers from two Allied divisions were droppped east of the great natural barrier, penetrating into Germany itself.

Operation Varsity

The Last Battles

Operation Varsity 1945

Germany

17th Airborne Division During WW II - Overview

Army Air Forces in World War II

BBC - WW2 People's War - Operation Varsity
Their second jump was in conjunction with the British 6th Airborne in the area of Wesel, Germany called ...

BBC - WW2 People's War - Operation Varsity
He achieved the rank of staff sergeant and served with 'B' Squadron, No 1 Wing the Glider Pilot ...

Robby's Roost: Sgt. Robert Robson (ret.) Memoirs. WWII and Korea.
A small collection of photos, and reminicences of my service in WW II with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. I also served in the Korean conflict.

B-26 Marauder Historical Society - Mission "Varsity"
The B-26 Marauder Historical Society, the nation’s largest organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the accomplishments and importance made by the B-26 Martin Marauder and the nearly 300,000 service personnel during World War II.

Gliders

 

Bibliography From Amazon.com

 

 

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