Operation Plunder

Lore & Background

The Battle of the Rhine was crucial for the Allied advance into Germany, and was planned by Montgomery as a three-army assault, including an airborne assault, a five-thousand-gun artillery barrage, and Anglo-American bombers. Thousands of tons of supplies were brought forward including huge amounts of bridging equipment. 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. Operation Grenade in February by Simpson's Ninth Army and Harry Crerar's First Canadian Army was also expected to prepare the ground. 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.

In Their Own Story

The landing craft's bow drops and the ramp slams into the sand with a sound like a cannon shot. You are already moving before the last man clears the hull, boots churning in wet shingle, the channel wind whipping salt into your eyes. Above, the sky is a grey smear of smoke and the distant thump of naval guns still hammering the batteries to the north. A machine-gun nest in a concrete pillbox to your left opens up, the tracers stitching a line across the dune. You drop behind a half-buried landing craft, the metal groaning under the weight of men, and wait for the next wave to push the position. The smell is diesel, cordite, and the cold iron tang of the sea. Somewhere ahead, past the hedgerows and the barbed wire, the road to the interior is waiting. You check your magazine, listen to the English and the French and the German all bleeding into one sound, and step forward into the surf again.

Reader's Guide

Three Allied formations made the initial assault: the British XII Corps and XXX Corps and the U.S. XVI Corps. The British 79th Armoured Division—under Major General Percy Hobart—provided specially adapted armored vehicles (known as Hobart's Funnies). One 'funny' was the LVT-2 'Buffalo' operated by the 4th Royal Tank Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Alan Jolly, an armed and armoured amphibious tracked personnel or cargo transporter, which was able to cross soft and flooded ground. These were the vehicles for the spearhead infantry. The first part of Plunder within the framework of XXX Corp's Operation Turnscrew 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. 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 wide and deep.

Did You Know?

• Four thousand Allied guns fired for four hours during the opening bombardment.
• On the night of 23 March, companies E and C of the 17th Armored Engineer Battalion, part of the U.S. 2nd Armored Division, constructed treadway rafts to prepare the crossing of the Rhine about five kilometers south of We
• Bridge construction started at 9:45 a.m. and by 4:00 p.m. the first truck crossed the floating pontoon bridge. Over of M2 treadway and 93 pneumatic floats were laid in the six hours and fifteen minute construction proje
• 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.
• On 25 March, 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.