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Operation Plunder was a military operation to cross the Rhine on the night of 23 March 1945, launched by the 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.The crossing of the river was at Rees, Wesel, and south of the river Lippe by the British Second Army under Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey, and the United States Ninth Army under Lieutenant General William H. Simpson.
Map of Allied operations in the lower Rhine from March 24–28. Operation Flashpoint was the Ninth United States Army part of Operation Plunder, the crossing of the lower Rhine by the 21st Army Group during March 22–28 March 1945, in the last months of World War II, in which the Ninth Army established bridgeheads in the sector between Wesel and Walsum on the right bank of the Rhine.
The Rhineland Offensive was a series of allied offensive operations by 21st Army Group commanded by Bernard Montgomery from 8 February 1945 to 25 March 1945, at the end of the Second World War. The operations were aimed at occupying the Rhineland and securing a passage over the Rhine river.
The US Ninth Army remained part of 21st Army Group during the drive to the Rhine (Operations Veritable and Grenade), the Rhine crossings (Operation Plunder) and the battle of the Ruhr Pocket until April 1945. The US 17th Airborne Division also took part in the Rhine crossings as part of Operation Varsity in March 1945.
The final troop movements for Operation Plunder involved 662 tanks, over 4,000 tank transporters and 32,000 other vehicles. [91] Vehicles crossing the Rhine did so with full fuel tanks and a reserve of filled jerricans. Additional fuel supplies were loaded on DUKWs, to be ferried across the river until bridges were opened.
Created Date: 8/30/2012 4:52:52 PM
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The airborne operation was preceded by a two-day round-the-clock bombing mission by the Allied air forces. Then on 23 March 3,500 artillery guns targeted the German positions. At dusk Operation Plunder, an assault river crossing of the Rhine by the 21st Army Group, began. [36]