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.

Onslaught on Hitler's Rhine
Onslaught on Hitler's Rhine

Author: Patrick Delaforce

Publisher: Fonthill Media

Published: 2017-05-17

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13:

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Operation Plunder was Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s swan song. It is rarely mentioned in the Second World War history books, and when it is, both American and British military historians dismiss it as being ultra-cautious. Monty was by nature a cautious commander with dwindling manpower resources. Operation Market Garden in September 1944 had not been successful in achieving a major lodgement over the Rhine. Monty knew that Hitler regarded the Rhine as his final barrier, and his storm-troopers and paratroops had fought like demons for four weeks in February/March 1945 defending the Siegfried Line in Operations Veritable and Blockbuster. Presumably they would continue to defend their own country to the bitter end. So, in command of a British, a Canadian and an American army Monty ensured by very careful planning, including a huge airborne drop in Operation Varsity, that the great onslaught would be furious, quick, ruthless and highly successful. And so it was. Patrick Delaforce fought in Blockbuster, Plunder and all the river battles in his armoured battle group, which reached the Danish frontier just before Stalin’s Cossacks.The book is part of a Fonthill trilogy by Delaforce: Monty’s Rhine Adventure (Market Garden); and Invasion of the Third Reich (the campaign after Plunder). Illustrations: 194 black-and-white photographs and maps

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

Author: Jon Diamond

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2019-10-30

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 1526731746

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“Highly recommended . . . excellent maps, [a] large number of black and white images, and detailed coverage of the subject.” —AMPS After the Normandy breakout, the Allies’ headlong dash east came to a halt in the autumn with the ill-fated Market Garden operation and overextended 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.

Battle of Central Europe
Battle of Central Europe

Author: Source Wikipedia

Publisher: University-Press.org

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 9781230561066

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Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 23. Chapters: Operation Plunder, Operation Varsity, Colmar Pocket, Race to Berlin, Operation Blackcock, Battle of Kassel, Operation Archway, Ruhr Pocket, Operation Lumberjack, Operation Amherst, Operation Grenade, Operation Keystone. Excerpt: Operation Varsity (24 March 1945) was a joint American-British airborne operation that took place toward the end of World War II. Involving more than 16,000 paratroopers and several thousand aircraft, it was the largest single airborne operation in history to be conducted on a single day and in one location. Part of Operation Plunder, the effort by the British 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to cross the Rhine River and from there enter Northern Germany, Varsity was meant to help the 21st Army Group to secure a foothold across the Rhine River in western Germany by landing two airborne divisions on the eastern bank of the Rhine near the towns of Hamminkeln and Wesel. The plans called for dropping two airborne divisions by parachute and glider behind German lines near Wesel. Drawn from US XVIII Airborne Corps, they were instructed to capture key territory and to generally disrupt German defenses to aid the advance of Allied ground forces. The British 6th Airborne Division was ordered to capture the towns of Schnappenberg and Hamminkeln, clear part of the Diersfordter Wald (Diersfordt Forest) of German forces, and secure three bridges over the River Issel. The U.S. 17th Airborne Division was to capture the town of Diersfordt and clear the rest of the Diersfordter Wald of any remaining German forces. The two divisions would then hold the territory they had captured until relieved by advancing units of 21st Army Group, and then join in the general advance into northern Germany. The airborne forces made several mistakes, most notably when pilot error caused paratroopers...

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.

BAOR BATTLEFIELD TOUR - OPERATION PLUNDER - Directing Staff Edition
BAOR BATTLEFIELD TOUR - OPERATION PLUNDER - Directing Staff Edition

Author:

Publisher: Naval & Military Press

Published: 2021-11-16

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 9781474535328

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This is the extended Directing Staff version of the BAOR Battlefield Tour covering Operation Plunder - 12 British Corps crosses the Rhine 1945. A complete description of this operation including details of both the planning and the execution. Illustrated with 16 colour maps, two orders of battle and many of the original plans for the operation. An unrivalled source for the assault crossing of the River Rhine in 1945. The Allied operation was opposed by the German 1st Parachute Army, commanded by General Alfred Schlemm, a part of Army Group H. Unable to withstand Allied pressure, the 1st Parachute Army withdrew north-east, towards Hamburg and Bremen, leaving a gap between it and the 15th Army in the Ruhr. 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". Within a week of the start of Plunder, the Allies had taken 30,000 prisoners of war north of the Ruhr.

The Rhineland 1945
The Rhineland 1945

Author: Ken Ford

Publisher: Greenwood

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13:

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In early 1945 Allied Armies attempted to enter Germany by seizing the west bank of the Rhine. The Germans opened the Roer dams and the ensuing battle was characterized by amphibious attacks, frontal assaults on the much vaunted Siegfried Line and grim fighting for the Reichswald Forest.