Operation Plunder
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Operation Plunder | |||||||
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Part of the U.S. 89th Division crossing the Rhine under fire | |||||||
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| 16,000 captured[3] |
Operation Plunder was a military operation to cross the
The First Allied Airborne Army conducted Operation Varsity on the east bank of the Rhine in support of Operation Plunder, consisting of U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps, the British 6th and the U.S. 17th Airborne Divisions.
Preparations such as accumulation of supplies, road construction, and the transport of 36 Royal Navy landing craft, were hidden by a massive smoke screen from 16 March. The operation commenced on the night of 23 March 1945. It included the Varsity parachute and glider landings near Wesel, and Operation Archway, by the Special Air Service.
Battle
Four thousand Allied guns fired for four hours during the opening bombardment. British bombers contributed with attacks on Wesel during the day and night of 23 March 1945.
On the night of 23 March, companies E and C of the
Three Allied formations made the initial assault: the
The first part of Plunder within the framework of XXX Corp's Operation Turnscrew[6] was initiated by the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, led by the 7th Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of 154th Brigade at 21:00 on 23 March, near Rees, followed by the 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (also of 154th Brigade). At 02:00 on 24 March, the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division landed between Wesel and Rees. At first, there was no opposition, but later they ran into determined resistance from machine-gun nests. On the same day the 51st Division's commander, Major-General Tom Rennie, was killed by mortar fire. The British 1st Commando Brigade entered Wesel.
The U.S. 30th Infantry Division landed south of Wesel. The local resistance had been broken by artillery and air bombardment. Subsequently, the U.S. 79th Infantry Division also landed. American casualties were minimal. German resistance to the British landings continued with some effect, and there were armored counter-attacks. Landings continued, however, including tanks and other heavy equipment. U.S. forces had a bridge across by the evening of 24 March.
Operation Varsity started at 10:00 on 24 March, to disrupt enemy communications. Despite heavy resistance to the airdrops and afterward, the airborne troops made progress and repelled counterattacks. The hard lessons of Operation Market Garden were applied[clarification needed]. In the afternoon, the 15th (Scottish) Division linked up with both airborne divisions.
Fierce German resistance continued around Bienen, north of Rees, where the entire 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade was needed to relieve the Black Watch. The bridgehead was firmly established, however, and Allied advantages in numbers and equipment were applied. By 27 March, the bridgehead was 35 miles (56 km) wide and 20 miles (32 km) deep.
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The city of Wesel in ruins after Allied bombardment, March 1945.
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British Commandoson the outskirts of Wesel
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3-inch mortar of the 8th Royal Scotsunder enemy fire during the Rhine crossing, 24 March 1945
Aftermath
Impact on German forces and command
The Allied operation was opposed by the
.Joseph Goebbels was well aware of Plunder's potential impact from the beginning. On 24 March, he began his diary entry with, "The situation in the West has entered an extraordinarily critical, ostensibly almost deadly, phase." He went on to note the crossing of the Rhine on a broad front, and foresaw Allied attempts to encircle the Ruhr industrial heartland.
On 27 March, command of the 1st Parachute Army was passed to General Günther Blumentritt, because Schlemm had been wounded. Blumentritt and his superior, Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz, both recognised that the situation was lost. The army's front was incomplete, there were no reserves, weak artillery, no air support and few tanks. Communications were weak, indeed, one corps was never contacted. The reinforcements were so poor that the generals decided against using them, to avoid needless casualties.
Although Blumentritt had strict orders from Supreme Command to hold and fight, from 1 April, he managed a withdrawal with minimal casualties, eventually withdrawing beyond the
Winston Churchill
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was present at Field Marshal Montgomery's headquarters near Venlo on the eve of Plunder. Subsequently, Churchill and Montgomery watched the Varsity air landings on 24 March.
The next day, 25 March, Churchill and Montgomery visited General Dwight D. Eisenhower′s headquarters. After lunch and a briefing, the party went to a sandbagged house overlooking the Rhine and a quiet, undefended stretch of the German-held riverbank. After Eisenhower's departure, Churchill, Montgomery, and a party of U.S. commanders and armed guards took a LCVP landing craft and landed for 30 minutes in enemy territory, without challenge. They next visited the destroyed railway bridge at Wesel, departing when German artillery appeared to target them.
Military rivalries
The Plunder crossings in the third week of March were planned as the primary assault across the Rhine, but at the Yalta Conference in early February 1945, it was decided to add another crossing to the south of the Ruhr. The additional crossing was intended to draw off any concentration of forces in opposition to Plunder. Two earlier crossings actually happened.
On 7 March, U.S. troops unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge during the Battle of Remagen. Within the next 10 days six divisions and 25,000 troops established a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Rhine.
On 22 March, General
In culture
- "Crossing the Rhine", Episode 8 of The Lost Evidence, The History Channel, UK, 2004.
- Heinz Bosch, Wilhelm Haas: Der Krieg am Niederrhein, Kreis Kleve, 1976 (German).
- "World War II": season 5, episode 8 of Drunk History.
See also
- Ludendorff Bridge, the bridge at Remagen
Notes
- ^ "Headquarters, 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade". 25 November 2016.
- ^ MacDonald 1973, p. 297.
- ^ a b c Ford 2007, p. 91.
- ^ They Remember War
- ^ 2nd Armored WW2 facesbeyondthegraves.com
- ^ Tim Saunders 2008 "Operation Varsity", p. 61, accessed 10 September 2020.
- ^ MacDonald 1973, p. 273.
- ^ Saunders 2006, p. 15.
Bibliography
- Churchill, Winston (1960). The Second World War. London: Cassell. pp. 301–305.
- Delaforce, Patrick (2015). Onslaught on Hitler's Rhine: Operations Plunder and Varsity, March 1945. England: Fonthill Media. ISBN 978-1-78-155441-8.
- Ford, K. (2007). The Rhine Crossings 1945. Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84-603026-0.
- MacDonald, Charles B (1973). "Chapter XIII The Rhine Crossings in the South". The Last Offensive. United States Army in World War II European Theater of Operations. Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
- Moore, William (1986). Decisive Battles. England: Windward. pp. 118–124. ISBN 0-7112-0453-5.
- Saunders, Tim (2006). Operation Plunder. Battleground Europe. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 1-84415-221-9.
- ISBN 1-872947-03-4.