Operation Plunder

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During World War II, Operation Plunder was the crossing of the Rhine river at Rees, Wesel and south of the Lippe Canal by the British Second Army, under Lieutenant-General Miles C Dempsey, and the US Ninth Army, under Lieutenant-General William H Simpson. These formations formed part of the 21st Army Group under General Bernard Montgomery. This was part of a co-ordinated set of Rhine crossings.

Western Front (World War II)
France - The Netherlands - Dunkirk - Britain - Dieppe - Villefranche-de-Rouergue - Normandy - Dragoon - Arnhem - Scheldt - Hurtgen Forest - Aachen - Bulge - Plunder - Varsity - Aintree

Preparations (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 itself commenced on the night of 23 March 1945. It included the Varsity parachute and glider landings near Wesel and the Archway SAS effort. The landing areas were flooded, deserted farmland rising to woodland.

Three Allied formations made the initial assault - the British 30th and 12th Corps and the US 16th Corps. One unit, the British 79th Armoured Division, under Major-General Sir Percy C S Hobart, had spear-headed the Normandy landings. They specialised in providing solutions to all situations with specially adapted armoured vehicles (referred to as Hobart's Funnies). One "funny" was the Buffalo, an armed and armoured amphibious tracked personnel or cargo transporter able to cross soft and flooded ground. These were the transport for the spearhead infantry.

The first part of Plunder was intiated by the British 51st (Highland) Infantry Division (World War II) , led by the 7th Black Watch at 9pm on the 23 March, near Rees, followed by the 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. At 2am on the 24th, the 15th (Scottish) Division landed between Wesel and Rees. At first there was no opposition, but later they ran into determined resistance from machine-gun nests. The British 1st Commando Brigade entered Wesel.

The US 30th Division landed south of Wesel, the local resistance had been broken by artillery and air bombardment. Subsequently, the 79th Division also landed. US casualties were minimal.

German resistance to the Scottish landings continued with some effect and there were armoured counter-attacks. Landings continued, however, now including tanks and other heavy equipment. The US forces had a bridge across by the evening of the 24th.

Operation Varsity started at 10am on the 24 March, to disrupt enemy communications. Despite heavy resistance to the airdrops and afterwards, the airborne troops made progress and repelled counter-attacks. The hard lessons of Operation Market Garden were applied. In the afternoon, 15th Scottish Division had linked with both airborne divisions.

Fierce German resistance continued around Speldrop, north of Rees, where the entire 9th Canadian Brigade was needed to relieve the Black Watch. The bridgehead was firmly established, however, and the Allied advantages in numbers and equipment were applied. By the 27 March, the bridgehead was 55 kilometres wide and 30 km deep.

[edit] Impact on German forces

The Allied operation was opposed by the German First Parachute Army, commanded by General Alfred Schlemm, a part of Army Group H. Although this formation was considered to be the most effective German force in the area, it was severely depleted from its previous action in the Reichswald. Unable to withstand Allied pressure, the First Parachute Army withdrew north-eastwards towards Hamburg and Bremen, leaving a gap between it and the German Fifteenth Army, in the Ruhr.

On 27 March, command of the First Parachute Army was passed to General Günther Blumentritt, urgently because Schlemm had been wounded. Blumentritt and his superior, Colonel General 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 that were supplied were so poor that they were never used, so as to avoid needless casualties.

Although Blumentritt had strict orders from Supreme Command to hold and fight, he in fact, from 1 April, managed a withdrawal with minimal casualties, eventually beyond the Ems Canal to the Teutoburger Forest. Within a week of the start of Plunder, the Allies had taken 30,000 prisoners of war north of the Ruhr.

[edit] Winston Churchill

The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was present at General Montgomery's headquarters near Venlo on the eve of Plunder (23 March). Subsequently , Churchill and Montgomery watched the Varsity air landings on the 24th.

The next day, the 25th, Churchill and Montgomery visited 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" bank. After Eisenhower's departure, Churchill and Montgomery and a party of US commanders and armed guards commandeered a river launch and actually landed for half an hour in enemy territory, without challenge.

They then visited the destroyed railway bridge at Wesel, only departing when German artillery appeared to target them.

It's hard to imagine many modern heads of government being allowed to visit the front in this manner.