Operation Plunder
Operation Plunder

Author: Tim Saunders

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2007-03-26

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1783460792

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This WWII history and battlefield guide examines the Allied push across the Rhine with maps, photos, and informative text. By late March of 1945, the advance through Europe had brought Allied forces to Hitler’s doorstep. 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, Field Marshal 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 March 23rd. They fended off the German first Parachute Army, and by dawn they had established a bridgehead. During the following morning 6th British Airborne Division dropped around Hamminkeln, in the immediate rear of the Germans, in an operation codenamed VARSITY. By March 27th, 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. This comprehensive guide provides essential information on historic sites along with maps and photographs.

Monty's Functional Doctrine
Monty's Functional Doctrine

Author: Charles Forrester

Publisher: Helion and Company

Published: 2015-08-19

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1912174537

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Using a combination of new perspectives and new evidence, this book presents a reinterpretation of how 21st Army Group produced a successful combined arms doctrine by late 1944 and implemented this in early 1945. Historians, professional military personnel and those interested in military history should read this book, which contributes to the radical reappraisal of Great Britain’s fighting forces in the last years of the Second World War, with an exploration of the reasons why 21st Army Group was able in 1944–45 to integrate the operations of its armor and infantry. The key to understanding how the outcome developed lies in understanding the ways in which the two processes of fighting and the creation of doctrine interrelated. This requires both a conventional focus on command and a cross-level study of Montgomery and a significant group of commanders. The issue of whether or not this integration of combat arms (a guide to operational fighting capability) had any basis in a common doctrine is an important one. Alongside this stands the new light this work throws on how such doctrine was created. A third interrelated contribution is in answering how Montgomery commanded, and whether and to what extent, doctrine was imposed or generated. Further it investigates how a group of ‘effervescent’ commanders interrelated, and what the impact of those interrelationships was in the formulation of a workable doctrine. The book makes an original contribution to the debate on Montgomery’s command style in Northwest Europe and its consequences, and integrates this with tracking down and disentangling the roots of his ideas, and his role in the creation of doctrine for the British Army’s final push against the Germans. In particular the author is able to do something that has defeated previous authors: to explain how doctrine was evolved and, especially who was responsible for providing the crucial first drafts, and the role Montgomery played in revising, codifying and disseminating it.

Monty's Men
Monty's Men

Author: John Buckley

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2013-10-15

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 0300160356

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Historian John Buckley offers a radical reappraisal of Great Britain’s fighting forces during World War Two, challenging the common belief that the British Army was no match for the forces of Hitler’s Germany. Following Britain’s military commanders and troops across the battlefields of Europe, from D-Day to VE-Day, from the Normandy beaches to Arnhem and the Rhine, and, ultimately, to the Baltic, Buckley’s provocative history demonstrates that the British Army was more than a match for the vaunted Nazi war machine.div /DIVdivThis fascinating revisionist study of the campaign to liberate Northern Europe in the war’s final years features a large cast of colorful unknowns and grand historical personages alike, including Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery and the prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill. By integrating detailed military history with personal accounts, it evokes the vivid reality of men at war while putting long-held misconceptions finally to rest./DIV

Montgomery's Rhine River Crossing
Montgomery's Rhine River Crossing

Author: Jon Diamond

Publisher: Pen & Sword Military

Published: 2019-10

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781526731739

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After the Normandy break-out, the Allies' headlong dash east came to a halt in the autumn with the ill-fated MARKET GARDEN operation and over-extended supply lines short of the Rhineland. After repulsing the Nazis' daring Ardennes offensive, Montgomery's and Bradley's Army Groups cleared the Reichwald and Rhineland and closed on the Rhine. With both sides aware of the strategic significance of this physical barrier the stakes could not have been higher. Eisenhower's plan involved a vast airborne assault by General Ridgway's XV11 Airborne Corps (codename VARSITY) and the simultaneously coordinated river crossing by Monty's 21 Army Group codename PLUNDER with Dempsey's British Second Army and General William H. Simpson's US Ninth Army. This superbly illustrated and researched book describes the March 1945 assault crossing involving naval amphibious craft, the air and artillery bombardment and diversionary attack by the British 1st Commando brigade at Wesel. In concert with VARSITY and PLUNDER, Patton's US Third Army Group crossed further south. As a result of this triumph of strategic planning and tactical execution, the fate of Hitler's 'Thousand Year Reich' was finally sealed.

Operation Varsity
Operation Varsity

Author: Tim Saunders

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 184415601X

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"[This book] covers the airborne aspects of the operation, focusing on the British 6th Airborne Division, but also includes sufficient background to place Varsity into its correct context alongside the other operations to cross Germany's last strategic barrier"--Introd.

Patton's Peers
Patton's Peers

Author: John A. English

Publisher: Stackpole Books

Published: 2009-02-05

Total Pages: 639

ISBN-13: 0811741230

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• Covers Canadian Harry Crerar, Briton Miles Dempsey, Frenchman Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, and the Americans Courtney Hodges, William Simpson, and Alexander Patch • History of the campaign for northwest Europe, including the race across France, the liberation of the channel ports, the battles of the Huertgen Forest and the Bulge, crossing the Rhine, the climactic battle for Germany, and more • Corrects the historical misperception that Patton contributed more to victory than other generals • Assesses commanders' individual performances • Impressively researched in primary and secondary sources • New interpretations and an entertaining narrative will appeal to both general readers and scholars Through the force of his personality and the headline-grabbing advance of his U.S. Third Army, Gen. George S. Patton has eclipsed the other six men who, like him, led field armies in the great Allied campaign to liberate northwest Europe in 1944-45. Certain to rank among the lassics of World War II history like Eisenhower's Lieutenants by Russell Weigley, Patton's Peers presents a masterful reassessment of the eleven-month struggle from D-Day to Germany's surrender, shedding long-overdue light on the contributions of these forgotten Allied field army commanders. Seasoned military historian John A. English unearths the vital roles played by these six generals. As the leader of an army of several hundred thousand troops, each had to plan operations days and eeks in advance, coordinate air support, assess intelligence, give orders to corps commanders, manage a staff of sometimes difficult subordinates, and deal with superiors like Eisenhower, Bradley, and Montgomery. Some performed less ably than the rest while others rivaled Patton in their achievements. All deserve to be lifted from Patton's shadow.

Gunfire!
Gunfire!

Author: Stig H. Moberg

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2017-03-30

Total Pages: 631

ISBN-13: 1473895626

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This book provides an insight into how artillery resources were established, developed and employed during the Second World War, using the British Royal Artillery as an example. Beginning with an overview of the nature and state of readiness of the Royal Artillery on the outbreak of war, the book analyses in great detail the weapons available to the Royal Artillery, their technical functionality and their performance capabilities. With this knowledge the author then examines the organization, methods, procedures and tactics employed by the Royal Artillery. To complete this fascinating study, Stig Moberg looks at a number of key battles from the war to see how the artillery was used, and the effectiveness of its support to the British and Allied infantry, in campaigns in North Africa, Burma and Europe. British Artillery of the Second World War is profusely illustrated throughout with photographs, maps, plans, graphs, charts and diagrams to demonstrate precisely how the British Artillery was used on the battlefields around the world. Although I am an infantryman, and proud of it, I have many times said that the Royal Regiment of Artillery, in my opinion, did more to win the last war, more than any other Arm of the Service.Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery

Fire and Steel
Fire and Steel

Author: Peter Caddick-Adams

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022-06-06

Total Pages: 928

ISBN-13: 0190601884

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The final volume in one of the most acclaimed works of military history of this generation. Here is Peter Caddick-Adams' third volume in his trilogy about the final year of the Western front in World War Two. Fire & Steel covers the war's final 100 days-beginning in late January 1945 and continuing until May 8th, 1945, when the German high command surrendered unconditionally to all Allied forces. Caddick-Adams' previous two volumes in the acclaimed series-Sand & Steel, which covers the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, and Snow & Steel, the definitive study of the Battle of the Bulge, the German's final offensive in the war-have set the stage for this concluding volume. In these final months of World War Two, all of Germany is ablaze, from daily bombing runs launched from just across its borders and incessant artillery fire from the east. In the west, the Allied progress was inexorable, with Eisenhower's seven armies taking on Germany's seven armies, town by town, bridge by bridge. With his customary narrative verve and utter mastery of the material, Caddick-Adams does these climactic final months full justice, from the capture of the Ludendorff Railway Bridge at Remagen, to the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, to the taking of Munich on Hitler's birthday, April 20th, and through to VE Day. Fire & Steel ends with the return of prisoners, demobilization of servicemen, and the beginning of the occupation of Germany. A triumphant concluding volume to one of the most distinguished works of military history of this generation.