VE Day: Crossing The Rhine (Part 2)

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21st Army Group will now cross the wine. The enemy possibly thinks he is safe behind this great river obstacle.

We all agree that it is a great obstacle, but we will show the enemy that he is far from the safe behind it.

This great Allied fighting machine, composed of integrated land and air forces, will deal with the problem in no uncertain manner. And having crossed the wine, we will quack about it in the...

Keep going, keep going. And having crossed the wine, we will quack about it in the plains of northern Germany, chasing the enemy from pillar to post.

The swifter and more energetic our action, the sooner the war will be over. And that is what we all desire.
To get on with the job and finish off the German war as soon as possible.

Over the wine, then. Let us go.
And good hunting to you on the other side.

And that, of course,

was Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery. Yes.
It's almost like he was in the room. I tell you, the only person who's not wanting the war to be over is him, isn't it?

Well, I think, I'm I'm afraid you're right, you know.

I think

frightfully boring afterwards.

Yes, he's sort of looking at a cliff edge. It's an interesting battle.
Yeah, it's a most interesting battle.

He's looking at a cliff edge, isn't he, really?

And he's achieved everything he could possibly hope to in his career, I suppose, apart from going,

apart from getting to go to Berlin.

But welcome to We Have Ways Away You Talk with me, I'm Murray, James Holland, Second World War podcast.

And this is our Victory in Europe series where we're taking you to the end of the war, or trying to, at least. Yes.

It's finally all about to be over. In the last episode, we dealt with the British Remagen.
Remigan,

whatever we want to call it. And the absolutely extraordinary story of the Americans getting over the River Rhine and then

not really knowing what to do. So I've been, you know, I've been thinking about that whole thing ever since, Jim.

80 years historiography, you leave that to simmer on the pot and it's all about, you know, it's Cautious Montgomery and Flash and

Americans who can grab a moment and create a moment to grab one. But here's an instance where they create a moment, decide, don't know about that.

I will grab it because

it goes against our strategy. It turns out

it wasn't Monty all along. Yeah, it wasn't Monty.
It was the Americans who were being cautious. I mean, and ponderous and wanting to kind of all come up together and attack on a broad front.

And if you look at it, look back at it again, Monty's the one who's all going single for us, single for us, single for us. Let's go for it.
All behind me, boys. So it is really interesting.

And it is fascinating how much that myth has has persisted and persisted again by, you know, Patterns Gloating, which we're going to get to in a minute, and post-war memoirs, which are very unreliable.

We know that Chet Hanson, you know, wrote two of Bradley's autobiographies and they were both kind of, you know, changed with the changing times. Why bother change your story?

Well, because

a myth has already started to emerge. And it's all tying up with the generals at war post-war after Monty's memoirs,

you know, aggrandizing, you know, self-serving memoirs. And it's also tied up with the fact that America has emerged as a kind of preeminent state,

preeminent nation, and Britain is much declined. And, you know, this is, we've talked about declinism and where this all comes from.

And it's from them. You know, it doesn't matter what Britain's like in the 1970s or in 1976 at its IMF moment.
Or it doesn't really matter what it's like right now. It's what it was like in the 1940s.

And it was a different beast then. You know, Britain is diminished by six years of war, but it's still a major player.
And, you know, no one can can take that away from it.

As we will discover, this episode is, is, um, it may change, but right now we've called it Third Army and Operation Plunder. Like, but like all of this, everything's connected but not connected.

Because, I mean, I think what's interesting is there is latitude leeway for people to jump across the Rhine if they get the chance.

But there are very good reasons, as discussed yesterday, not to do that.

So Third Army is now enormous. It's 320,000 strong.
From mid-March, they forged their way across the Saarland and the Palatinate.

I was just going to say, the Palatinate is something you read about, but maybe on a map you go, it's somewhere around there. I mean, it's

the West Rhineland. Yes, this is old patchwork quilt Germany, names of old bits of patchwork quilt Germany, really, isn't it?

They reached the Rhine by the 22nd of March, and they've taken 90,000 people into the bag, POWs, in the process. And the Rhine, I mean, of all the times to get to the Rhine,

after one of the cold winters of the Second World War, I think it's fair to say. Well, they were notoriously cold, also notoriously wet.
Yes. Particularly the

wrong side. Well, first of all, you have a huge amount of rain in the autumn.
Then you have a big dollop of snow, and the snow melts.

And so the amount of rain, amount of water, you know, the water levels in the Rhine are considerable, and that obviously increases the flow of it. So 7.3 feet per second.

The thing is, and this Third Army, of course, is Patton. This

sounds like they're being optimistic, but Patton has been planning this up to the eyeballs.

Well, he was planning to do it months earlier. So he's been planning this since October.

And the thing to remember is you might know Patton for his sort of tactical flair, but you can only do that if you've got your operational art in order.

Yeah, and we've had a conversation about Pat, and I think, you know, from an operational level, I think that actually is his greatest strength. Because

when you see him in southern Tunisia, he's pretty raw for all his sort of, you know, chest thumping and kind of, you know, garrulousness and all the rest of it. A lot of which he's done for the press.

It's very much styled to the press for the press.

But he's gung-ho and,

you know, wanting to get at the hun and all that kind of stuff. But actually, he's pretty raw.
And Alexander changes his orders to him six times to keep him on a pretty tight lead.

And he doesn't understand air power at all. Not at all.
He has that huge spat with Mary Cunningham. They kiss and make up.

But Patton, credit where credit due he learns those lessons really really quickly and really proves what a strong operational commander he is in in in sicily where he has to do that big sweep to the west and clear western half of the army just does it so brilliantly again with the help of amazing people around him it has to be said yeah it's got incredible staff but but he's really good and ever since then he's absolutely nailed it yeah you know the complete general is the general who gets the strategic overview is tactically very strong but has an incredibly strong operational grasp yeah you know and that that's that's why there's sort of problems with Rommel, because Rommel learns as well.

None of these people stand still. If they do, they fall by the wayside.

But Patton

is,

I think, an exceptionally good commander by this stage. Anyway,

they're getting ready to go. His chief artillery officer is Colonel Edward T.
Marley Williams,

and he's created a third army troop carrier commander, which is all the artillery spotters pulled together. And the idea is they're going to ferry a battalion across the river in about 90 minutes.

And on the 21st of March, the idea is that's what they're going to to do um as a as a rehearsal and they've got higgins boats because the i mean i think it's interesting because i think well known that the royal navy are involved in the rhine crossing but the fact that the you actually have the us navy and coast guard personnel with 24 higgins boats here is fascinating yeah isn't it they're seeing it the same way that it's the same problem it is because they've come over the previous autumn the previous fall and they've been transported by tank prime prime movers so you know they they do have these huge great low loaders on which they carry tanks around, and they've just put the Higgins boats on those and carried them across country.

Guys, amazing! Yes, it's absolutely amazing.

And on top of that, they've got a further 54 LCMs, which are landing craft mechanized, which are sort of, you know, these are the kind of newer, shinier versions of the Higgins boats.

You know, one of these units was used at Ramagan

and it furried 2,200 troops in three hours. I mean, you know, across the

side of the Rhine, that is pretty, pretty good.

So on the 19th of March, Bradley says, Yeah, okay, great go for it um third army patton george you know go for it same day third army captures 17 000 pows you know so that you know that that dwarfs the loss of the two regiments of the 106th division back in december do you remember when they were here and they were the four 42 2nd and the 42 3rd infantry regiments of 106th up on the you know the wooded hill near schoenberg yes you know vonnegut

yeah all of that so there is a real sense that that you know momentum is with them they've got all the gear they've now got all the ideas as well yeah they're surging towards the rhine and that's great but but you know one of the things about patton is he's always always deeply competitive he's always got to be first you know he's got to be the best if not you know then then america and this is a whole non-existent race for messina nonsense that happened in sicily and all the rest of it but you know if that's what ticks his boat and you know motivates him then you know yeah who cares well and is he then is he doing it so that it's his guys do it as well you know it's like that yeah

he's sort of instilling pride, isn't he? Yes, generates need to radiate confidence and all that. And maybe he's turned that on, basically.
Yeah, I mean, you get you, you know, for those...

veterans that I've interviewed who did serve under Patton, a lot of them said, yeah, it's all well and good, but, you know, it was our blood he was doing this with.

Yes, it's our guts, our guts, his glory. He's determined to get across the Rhine before Monty, which was still, you know, in terms of strategic priority, the main effort.

And Bradley, who's also kind of, you know, as we were discussing yesterday, slightly sort of emerged from his torpor as well he's also smarting from the bulge and the fact that he got isolated in luxembourg city and lost first army for a bit and and you know he felt that ike was sort of favoring monty over him and all the rest of it and you know we know that bradley is a you know can be camudgeony and and also can be kind of waspish and you know and a little bit kind of toys out of pramish i mean i think also the factor is here the end is coming and people want their their thumbprints all over the end um knowing very conscious that ike is now eisenhower is, is, who is obviously the Supreme Ally commander, is running the show much more authoritatively from a kind of field command point of view rather than just an administrative point of view.

Deliberately gives Patton the go-ahead without telling Schaef.

For God's sake. It's ridiculous, isn't it?

Anyway, the US 5th Division is at the rhyme, but it is expecting to have a well-earned rest because that's the strategy that you pause, take a beat, wait for everyone to catch up and then go for it.

But instead, on the the 22nd of March, planning conferences hold and Patton tells his commanders they're now going to get across the Rhine PDQ. Shall I do this one? Yeah, go on.
I want to hear.

I've offered my Monty. I want to hear your Patton.

We've got to get to the bridgehead. Every day we save...
Doing that means saving hundreds of American lives. The Germans are smashed and in chaos now on our front.

If we delay 72 hours from now, they will have reorganized. We must not give them that chance.

And I don't give a goddamn what other plans there may be I don't propose to give the sons of a bitches a chance to recover from the killing we gave them in the Palatinate we're gonna make the crossing immediately I don't care where or how we get the necessary equipment but get it steal it beg it or make it we're gonna get it across the Rhine and we're gonna do it today and of course this suggests that they've got to somehow kind of you know rustle around and and gather all the kits when he's saying i don't care where we get the kit from he's saying that to fifth division but he's got all the kit he's got all the kit yes go and get it from the depot chaps go and get it from the depot that's what he means he doesn't mean i'm gonna defy money and and and do my own thing he's he's already got all that stuff yes i mean patent patton when he's like this is is his own rhetorical creation is the is the point it's a lot so much of this is for public consumption i i read a thing not not that long ago about how a great deal of how american generals presented themselves in the 30s before the war is is to do with american business culture Tycoon boss, who's leading the way, you know, by personality and drive.

I'm going to whip this company into shape. And that is very much the sort of

what Patton was drawing on or keeping an eye on during the 30s. And all of these things.
Interesting. Absolutely make no mistake.

Anyone listening to this, this is not a thrown together operation, but very carefully planned. So let's just go back to that a little bit.

A little bit of recap for Third Army's preparation. So these have begun the previous October in 1944 and the key figure here is Brigadier General John F.

Conklin who is the chief engineer of Third Army and in October 1944 he establishes a training school for all units who are going to be involved in the Rhine crossing.

So each engineer battalion and Third Army spends three days training with bridging equipment. And then they do, they're also given one to ten thousand scale models of various crossing points.

And they also then further do training throughout that time after the training school. An engineer depot is set up in Moselle, so this is exactly where they're going to get all the bridge equipment.

So, all the bridging equipment is built up and prepared.

And by March 1945, just remember that last quote from Patton: I don't care where or how we get it, steal it, beg it, or make it, we're going to get across the Rhine and do it today.

What he has in the Third Army Arsenal, this is ridiculous, but by the beginning of March, not by the 22nd of March, by the beginning of March, 1,500 assault boats, 300 storm boats, 15,000 paddles, 910 outboard motors, 11,000 feet of treadway, 7,000 feet of bailey bridging, British, by the way, just saying, 2,200 feet of pontoon bridging.

Routes have already been worked out and planned.

Why routes are important is because you need to work out what convoy of equipment is going to go where and when on what route it's going to do so you don't have a huge jam.

So you need multiple routes.

So, you know, if you were to put into into, you know, into your Google Maps, it might take you on one route, but you have to ignore Google Maps because you need one route for one bit and another route for another bit and another route for another bit.

And they're not all going to be exactly the same.

And one might be, you know, you know, on Google Maps, you get three options and one, one takes one hour, 43 minutes, and the other one takes one hour, 47. But it's kind of like that.

This has already been worked out beforehand. Well, 7,000 feet of Bailey Bridges is hundreds and hundreds of trucks.

It isn't as though going across the River Rhine is manslaughter, it's premeditated murder.

Yes, exactly that. And there are lots and lots of sappers to do this bridging work and to help clear roads and make sure it all goes fine.

So just in 12 Corps, the 1135th Engineer Combat Group total 7,000 men. Wow.

That is a full-strength brigade.

That's extraordinary.

So then, back on the 10th of December 1944, so just before the Battle of the Bulge, Third Army and the U.S.

Navy staff have a joint conference conference at Third Army headquarters to discuss the Rhine crossings. Aerial photos are studied, crossing points agreed, ferry, men, and bridging allocated.

Detailed analysis of the areas shows that the Nierstein-Oppenheim is the most favourable crossing stretch in the Third Army sector. So it's all been worked out three months earlier.

So it's not a hastily jumped seater pants thing. This is very, very carefully worked out because it has to be very, very carefully worked out because

the the allies know that logistics is how you win is how you win wars so so just i've got a very very brief brief red herring for you rabbit hole for you so so so one of the things that i've been thinking about a lot since we were doing the the battle of the bulge is why is it that the germans spend the whole time complaining about the state of the roads and the americans never do

That's a very, very, very good question. When the Americans have got considerably more mechanization than the Germans can even dream of.

The Americans are bringing metalled roadway with them and they can tread well.

Well, they're bringing repairing kit with them so so i i when i was in when i was at carlisle you know and i was at the army heritage and education center last week doing my research i found a whole load of stuff about engineers and they were all talking about repairing roads they just repair them as they go graders and stuff graders bulldozers sand scalpings it all comes to yeah so that's that's all factored in

steamrollers steamrollers old schmang they're they're just it's just and it's such a given that no one really mentions it anyway so 12 corps they don't use their guns as support.

They go for surprise, don't they? Even though their guns are stocked, ready, they can go if they want. 12th Corps and the U.S.

Navy haven't worked together before, but 5th Division had done 22 river crossings since arriving in Normandy. So they are familiar with

the procedure. So 3rd Army start crossing at 10.30 p.m.
on the night of the 22nd of March. Which, just so everyone knows, is 24 hours before the planned crossing of the Rhine in 21st Army sector.

So he's 24 hours ahead of Monty. And the first wave go across, calm, balmy, bright spring evening.
The first wave could go across, and it's a thousand feet wide, the river, at this point.

And they're using assault boats, ducks, and some DD tanks, DD Shermans of the 748th Tank Battalion. It's good, good to see the funny still going.

Yeah, so they're using these storm boats, which have 10 men. So they have eight infantrymen and two engineers.
And they've got a little 55 horsepower. outboard on.
And they get across.

It's Lieutenant Irvin H. Jacobs and Lieutenant John A.
Manau leading K Company, the 3rd Battalion of the 11th Infantry, and they get across. There are seven Germans who surrender immediately.

And then companies I and L follow, and there's barely a shot fired, which is interesting, isn't it? So you don't need your big artillery barrage.

And if there's at least barely anyone there, upstream 700 yards, it's more difficult for A and B Company, the 1st Battalion of the 11th.

They run into actual resistance, Pansfaus, machine guns, as they beach. They lose some of their officers, so it gets a bit sticky.

And then staff staff sergeant foster ferguson rallies the the the men they break through there's a great great quote here from private edgar n valderama of sea company by the time my boat reached far side our first sergeant a young hillbilly from tennessee was standing on the levee with a little notebook in one hand and a flashlight in the other taking roll call i could see trace of bullets flying over his head and shoulders the heavy artillery fire made me nervous enough to jump ship a few yards before we reached shore.

I didn't want to be branded a coward, so instead of dashing for cover, I heroically yanked the boat the last few feet of shore and then dashed for cover.

Very good. I mean, it's all there, isn't it? But maybe he sounded like he sounded like the hillbilly from Tennessee rather than

Noy Josie. Not wanting people to think any less of you.
So you're yes. Isn't that interesting? Right there, right there in that account.

Key thing here is they get their artillery forward observers quickly. You know, it is artillery, which is,

you know, that is the

biggest fist that the Americans, the Allies, can deliver onto the enemy at any one time.

Your infantry are there to actually physically take the ground, but the enablers are the artillery. It's firepower, firepower, firepower, every stretch of the way.

The moment you get your Varturi forward observers there, whether you be at the Lausdal crossroads in the Battle of the Bulge, whether you be crossing the River Rhine, life gets easier for the doughboys up at the front.

That is the truth of it. The Americans have perfected combined arms by this point.

Yes, they have. Exactly.

So what we're talking about here is we've got forward observers we've got engineers we've got infantry going across in their storm boats very quickly are followed by the 737th tank battalion the 403rd tank destroyer battalion and that changes everything so by 5 a.m on the 23rd of march the following morning two regiments are across so that's three battalions of infantry times two so that's six battalions the first ferries working and higgins boats are scuttling back and forth with ever heavy equipment you know anti-tank guns and all the rest of it and bazookas and so on.

Then the German artillery starts becoming more accurate and the infantry then discovered an intact German bunker with 70 men directing the artillery.

So they're you know that that makes life a little bit easier. By late morning, fifth have they've got a bridgehead seven miles wide, six miles deep.
I mean that's a that's a big bridgehead.

It's pretty good. It's pretty good isn't it? Yeah.
You compare that to efforts on D-Day for instance, although, you know, that means

you've secured the far bank and you haven't got any to worry about anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And yes, because you can bring guns over that can fire at range without

and your engineers can make those bridges. He gets artillery in, Eddie gets artillery into the bridgehead ready for a counter-attack, but by midnight of the 23rd, he has 17 artillery.

17 artillery battalions. You cannot tell me that hasn't been worked out beforehand because of course it has, because otherwise the artillery wouldn't be in position to be ferried over quickly.

You know, it is not an easy job moving a 105. It's certainly not easy moving anything larger.
Well, that means it's ammunition, of course. They're ammunition too as well.

So there's no point moving them over. And there's an officer candidate school nearby at Wiesbaden, but they do the right thing and surrender swiftly.
So that's that.

And within 20 hours, there's a bridge capable of taking tanks across the Rhine. The Luftwaffe are tri-attacking on the 24th.
But they're all a bit crap by this point.

They don't know how to fly anything. They'll get shot down.
The Americans are now officially across the Rhine ahead of schedule, but according to plan, is what it comes down to, doesn't it, really?

Yeah, exactly. Between the 24th and the 31st of March, 60,000 vehicles get across.

I'm wondering whether we could get George Patton to do something about Hammersmith Bridge because it's been closed for five years now. Six years.

It's absolutely crazy, isn't it?

It's described as improvised, but it ain't.

I think we've made that pretty clear. Then Middleton's 8 Corps on the night of the 24th get across, 12 miles up

from Coblentz. Golden Acorns, the 87th, get across.
I mean, this is Ike's plan, isn't it? That you have crossings going on all over. You have them all at once, and and then you don't.

Germans don't know which way to turn. Exactly, exactly, which is why you don't want isolated crossings.
Yeah, yeah.

I'm sorry with Ike on this. By the 2nd of April, 87th and 89th Divisions have cleared the area between Koblenz and Biesbaden.
It's a 50-mile front, taking 30,000 PRWs.

And then Patton's 3rd Corps, 20 Corps, they cross at 1 o'clock on the 28th at Castell and Costheim. But, you know, that's a success too.

They have a little bit of luck. Yeah.
Patton crosses at at Nierstein on the 27th of March. And because he's a really grown-up person, Patton, famous for his being a great big grown-up,

he has a short halt. Time for a short halt.

Has a slash into the river.

Slash. I've been looking forward to this for a long time.

And it's photographed. And it's photographed.
Yes, because none of this is happening by accident. You know, he's got his...

If you're Patton, you don't take a pee in the river and no one photographs it. Where's the point in that?

Work it out. Work out who he is and how he operates, everybody.
Anyway, the Americans are crossed the river, not just spontaneously as at Rehmagen, but officially with Third Army.

And now, in the next part, which we will take a very short break for, we come back with Monty's plan.

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Welcome back to Way of Ways I Make Your Talk. It's the victory in Europe is approaching, ladies and gentlemen, but you've got to get across the Rhine.
And as we've seen...

We're finally coming to the main event, which is really exciting. Yes, the Americans are across the Rhine successfully and entirely in

premeditated form. But now we come to Phil Bonnie.
Who's all we're waiting for? Yeah, I know. Let's be honest now.
Sure, let's face it.

So in early March, Monty writes to his son david who's looked after i mean no he's been a terrible dad during the war i'm busy getting ready for the next battle the wine is some wither but we shall get over it yours filmorry i don't think there's any lots of love it's basically um i will get over the rhine and you will get over the way i've i've brought you up i think it's the implication

um

but i mean so the main effort synchronized effort is going to be the north because it's an ideal place for it well it's close to berlin and you know close to the north well and

vasel is also one of of the mooted sites for Market Garden when they're looking for

and it's written off as too difficult. So inevitably, this being Monty, there are a couple of iterations of this plan.
Yep.

And the original plan calls upon only the British Second Army to cross and in three places. So first of all, at Rees,

which is the northernmost spot, which is 25 miles upstream from Arnhem. Then at Zanton, which is seven miles further upstream and really close to Wessel.

And then at Rhineberg, which is a further 60 miles on.

So, in the original plan, there's absolutely no place for the Canadians or Simpson's 9th Army, who, as you remember, was trying to get across at Erdogan prematurely, and which is still attached to 21st Army Group.

And both Harry Creerar, who's the Canadian Army commander, and Bill Simpson are really put out about this. They want to be in on the action

and want to be across. I'm sure their men don't feel quite the same way.

I'm quite happy to say this one out, don't worry.

And I suppose it is something coming from Simpson because Simpson's been such a brilliant diplomat. He's gone very well with Monty.
I think they do actually get on.

I don't think this is something that's been particularly forced by Simpson. I think he just finds Monty less annoying than the others.

But he does feel that his Ninth Army should be a part of this, not least because they've been kind of jumping the bit to get across for a couple of weeks now. So there's a bit of back and forth.

And then Monty agrees to include the Ninth Army in the initial assault.

And also to add the Canadian 9th Brigade which is also going to be followed up by I think the 3rd Brigade if I remember rightly and the 9th Brigade of course are Normandy veterans so 2nd Army is stuck with the sticks with the crossings at Rees and near Wessel while the 9th Army takes over the Rheinberg area crossing.

Second Army with the Canadians attached is going to be called Operation Plunder and well the whole operation is going to be called Operation Plunder with little sub operation names in between it and it's going to involve 1.2 million men compared to the 320,000 in third army and it's it's going to be the largest, that is the largest number of men under British commander and the largest river assault ever made at that point in the planning.

Yeah. Yeah.
And it, and it, and it's a, you know, Monty style, so it's, it's a great big set piece.

Why risk it? Belt and braces. Why risk it?

Why risk it? Yeah. It is after all the great...
You don't know. You don't know it's going to be...

And it's the great German front. It's the great German frontier.
Historically, it always has been.

You know, this is a psychological barrier that you're crossing far more than the Siegfried line, the West, or the, you know, the West Wall, isn't it? In Germany, no two ways about it.

So, yeah, and it's 400 yards wide at this point. I've been to the crossing points at Ries and Wesaur, and I can tell you, it looks freaking enormous when you're on.
It certainly does, doesn't it?

Yeah, it really, really does. You see how big it is at the Vaal,

where the 504th go across. At Nijmegen, it's bigger than that.
It's flat either side. There's these sort of dikes each side.

Ries is sort of just to the south, to the right-hand side of the crossing, main crossing points.

You don't want to go straight into, obviously, into a village, you want to go or a town, you want to go where there's sort of you know clear space.

But you know, the Germans do have quite a considerable amount of fortifications along there. They've got bunkers and concrete and you know, minefields and all the rest of it.

You know, and on paper, there's you know, and you're defending the Third Reich, you know, you're now really defending the Third Reich. So, there's every suggestion that

caution is a better pass of valor, and you know, know,

it's better to overestimate your enemy's strength and then be presently surprised and underestimate it and then be gone.

Well, and also, you're coming to the end of the war, and you must know that your men are thinking, I don't want to die at this phase now, right?

And you've got all this ordinance, you've got all this equipment, for everyone you use.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, no one wants to die at any point, obviously, but there is this thing, isn't there, as it's coming towards the end, um, where you're thinking, well, you know, so, so, of course, you load, of course, you load the dice, of course, of course, you, I mean, what I don't understand why anyone could possibly be critical of this.

So there are enormous stockpiles of ammo and they've been preparing for this even as they're clearing out

the yeah, that sort of hinterland of the, I suppose that is still the platinum, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.

60,000 tons of ammunition, 30,000 tons of bridging equipment and other sappering stuff, 28,000 tons of extra daily supplies. So 9th Army has got 138,000 tons stockpiled as well.

There's 37,000 British sappers, Royal Engineers. I mean, blind me.
22,000 American plus, and then there's 5,500 artillery pieces.

It's got to be too big to fail, which, after all, is the attitude on D-Day, isn't it? As well.

And the other thing is, the weather's only going to get better. So if you delay a little, if you're doing it like, you know,

all these things are in your favor for taking your time and getting it right.

If you're off balance, you're vulnerable to a thing like the bulge happening, is what they must be thinking as well. There's new troops too, because that's the other thing is

you've got a load of new people combed through, coming through because infantry casualties in particular have been so high.

Monty's also operating on this principle of not asking too much people for fear of damaging their morale, which is his command style.

Which is ditto a good thing. So there's a 66 mile long smoke screen along the west side of the river to hide the reparations.

You know, I mean, some might say that's over the top, but I just say that's sensible. Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Do you want to read Major John Graham? Yes, absolutely.

He might well be in the Argyle and Southern Highlanders, but it'll absolutely talk like this.

Our men were not sufficiently well trained at this stage of the campaign to be able to exploit against a professional soldier in a hasty impromptu crossing.

We couldn't overcome the shortage of leaders. By that time of the war, the experienced corporals and sergeants had disappeared.
It still seems absurd that I was twenty-one and a major.

I think it would have been a pretty unwise commander who launched them into battle without the most thorough preparations.

This is the point.

But But when Monty takes command of 8th Army, this is the thing he says to himself: I can't ask things of 8th Army that

I'm not confident it can pull off. The key difference, though, is his method and his staff and his staff's method and the army method.
That's all been shaken down, hasn't it?

They know what they're doing operationally now. It's the fact that

the guys who've got to cross the start line, you need to take care of them as well. And

they're not who you had six months ago.

Exactly.

So the plan is to send two British divisions, the 51st Highland and 15th Scottish.

And you may remember that the 15th Scottish were the ones who launched the attack in British 8 Corps to start Epsom, Operation Epsom, on the 26th of Monday, the 26th of June, 1944 in North America.

Normal. Going through the first cornfields.
All of that.

And they're going to cross at Rees and Wiesel, and they're going to be reinforced by the Canadian 9th Brigade.

So Operation Turnscrew is going to be the crossing at Rees and Operation Torchlight at Zanton near Wiesel. So the plan was for Turnscrew, Rees, to go in first at 9 p.m.

on the 23rd of March with Major General Tom Rennie's Highlanders and the Canadian 9th Brigade. And then, as soon as their success was over, they would be reinforced by the 43rd Wessex,

also including 8th Armoured Independent Brigade or Independent Armoured Brigade.

And then the 3rd Division and the Guards Armoured Division are there to do the exploitation afterwards. Yeah.

And it was after that you had the Sherwood Rangers going, Don't knock your paint. That's right.
Yeah.

Then an hour later,

an hour later, after turn screw, Operation Widgeon.

What is a widgeon? Is that like a...

It's like a little duck.

Oh, right. So it's a sort of aquatic pigeon.
Operation Widgeon

is launched. That's the first one.

Yeah, but if it's a widgeon, it's like a... I'm trying to say it's a kind of swimming.
A water-based pigeon. It's a water-based pigeon, a widgeon.
Anyway. It doesn't look like a pigeon.

Well, it's been been in the water a long time um first commando

game bird so that's commando so that's first commando brigade um and they do a silent crossing so another surprise crossing but there has been a massive air raid though so it's not like no well the air raid is that night well there will there will have been a massive air raid there will be yeah so they they get across north of vasel and they're command their crossing and then they're primed to take out Vasil.

Then there will be the huge, there'll be the huge bombardment and air raid with bombers coming over and flattening Vasil. And then once it's been flattened, flattened, then they go in and take it.

Yeah, yeah. But that's all on that on that first night.
That's what's what's happening. Yeah.
And the whole thing's in phases and staggered.

So then at two o'clock on the 24th, two in the morning, 15th Scottish will cross the Rhine at Santon, midway between the two towns of Wasel and Rees. This is Torchlight, Operation Torchlight.

And 15th Scottish are commanded by Major General Tiny Barber, who I'm happy to tell listeners is six foot six tall because it's the British Army.

This is what he calls Tiny. So they call him Tiny.

They're going to stick up a Bailey Bridge as well um across the river which is amazing yes uh and then 11th army bailey bridge yeah and then overgoes overgo 11th armoured to exploit then the following morning two airborne divisions 6th and 17th US airborne division 6th British airborne division 17th US airborne will land to

to stifle the German guns is the idea. And that's going to come in at sort of 10 a.m.
on the 24th.

That we're going to keep our powder dry for that one because that is the treat for episode three. Yes.

And then finally, Simpson's men cross an 11 mile sector south of ASOL called Flashpoint on the early hours of the 24th of March. Lots of phases, loads going on.
With careful planning.

Tons of careful planning because, you know, it's a war.

I mean, oh my God. Honestly, it miles me so much that he gets criticism for being careful in his planning.

What state are the Germans in the other side of this river, though? Pretty bad. Yeah.
So there's the first Fauschenjäger army under General Alfred Schlem. Schlem had a Fauschmieger Corps in Italy.

So it was his corps that was responsible for the Marzabotto massacre, for example. The whole thing was authorised and organised by

1st Fauschenbjäger Corps under Schlem. Anyway,

he's not in Italy anymore. He's now over here.
Schlem's Fauschenbjäger army is directly opposite where the planned crossings are. And

despite deception measures, Schlem correctly predicts the crossing points at Ries and is not far out of V. Saliva.
So obviously he can reinforce those bits, which he does.

Um, he also predicts an airborne assault, which is not really surprising because he's an airborne Fauschen Rjäger officer. Also, it's all pretty

leads itself to it, doesn't it?

So, what Schlem does is he increases the flak defenses, the anti-aircraft defenses near Vesel, has 814 heavy and light flak guns, and also mobile anti-airborne units covering all the likely drop zones.

And he also orders his gunners to sleep fully cloven to be ready at all times. So, he's expecting it, basically.
At Vessel is

General Mayor Erich Strauber's 86th Corps, two Fauschemjäger Corps, which amounts to somewhere between 10 and 12,000 men.

When you consider that a full-strength division is supposed to be, you know, 15,000 to 17,000 men in two entire corps, which is multiple divisions, they've only got no more than 12,000 men.

You can see how depleted they are. This is how it's.
So Schlemm has also got some armor to call on. He's got the 47th Panzer Corps.
Remember them from Bolge and Bastogne and all that?

Still under General Leuten and Freiherr Heinrich von Lutwitz.

And with the 116th Panzer Division from Normandy and from the Bulge and all the rest of it, and 15th Panzer Grenadier Division, who were also in Italy and Sicily

before they got moved over to the Battle of the Bulge and the Bastogne battle. But the thing is, that sounds like

a lot. A lot, but it ain't.
No. How many tanks they got between them? It's 35, isn't it? It's not great, is it? Anyway, there's a Volkssturm division in reserve as well, and a new Verwolf.

So the Volkssturm are the new, you know, these are the new home guard,

you know, 16 to 60, and mostly 16 or 60. And so

they're not much cop, under-trained, under-equipped, all the rest of it.

But overall, you know, despite the bunkers, despite the kind of the corps and all the rest of it, and army groups and armies and all the rest of it, this is pretty weak. The defense is under strength.

Allied air forces are making their lives an absolute misery. They completely dominate the skies.

The morale is dreadful. There's no real carrot on offer, so instead, they mainly use a stick.

Threat of the Russians coming and terrorizing them all, and of course, the threat of the death penalty, which grows, and we'll deal with this a little bit more in a further episode.

But on February the 12th, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, who's chief of staff of the Oberkommando de Wehrmat, which is the German general staff, issues an order warning: Any officer who aids a subordinate to leaves the combat zone unlawfully by carelessly issuing him a pass or other leave papers citing a simulated reason is to be considered a saboteur and will suffer death.

Don't go and see your lightning about your ingrowing toenail. He's not going to let you.
Yeah, and actually, Blaskovitz made it even more clear.

He also sent out a note saying basically anyone will be shut or hanged. I mean, the British and the Americans are still building up supplies, just a quarter of a million tons of supplies.

30 Corps alone has 8,000 sappers, 22,000 tons of bridging, 25,000 wooden pontoons, 2,000 assault boats, 650 storm boats, 120 river tugs, 80 miles of balloon cable. Wartime efficiency.

This is one of those occasions when people say, oh, you know, wartime efficiency. No, this is about waste.
This is about redundancy. This is about

having the wriggle room to.

It's the Rhind, people. And it's the Third Reich.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
And they're using Buffalo's, which is the

version of the L V T, the landing vehicle tract.

Amtrak's as they're also called. Yeah, which is a good.
Amphibious tractors. Yes, sort of wedge-shaped or prism-shaped.
Well, they sort of look a little bit like a First World War tank, don't they?

US 9th Army, they're expecting to chuck up a 1,150-foot treadway in just nine hours.

So, Samuel Alexander Flatt of Royal Canadian Engineers say the usual Hollywood words such as colossal, stupendous, and unbelievable would have been of little use in describing the situation as seen here.

Nothing had been left to chance, and a timetable had been worked out that reminded us of the detailed planning for the D-Day assault. And there's no shortage of air support either.

That's the other thing. I mean, because

we've been working in two dimensions here, and now here's the third dimension. Tactical and strategic air resources.
So, the RAF and the USAF start basically strangling the Ruhr

in February. They're blowing up bridges on the main routes leading to the area.
617, and we talked about this the other day about precision bombing as well as the sort of area bombing.

They attacked the Biederfeldt railway viaduct with a Grand Slam bomb. It's the earthquake bomb, 22,000-pound bomb.

They're isolating like they did in Normandy. And on the 22nd of March, Schlemm's headquarters is raided.
So, he's badly wounded, forced out of the battle.

And he's replaced by General Gunther Blumentritt, who we've come across before. Each one of these things, if you factor it,

you can feel the inevitability of the end of the war if you're looking at it from this point of view, really, can't you? Just the sheer overwhelming power of it. And this isn't a phase of the war.

I mean, this is a... the phase of the war where the British are regarded as kind of as a junior partner now, but there's nothing junior about this, is there? At all.
No, none at all.

So there's last-minute training.

Fifth black watch to do an exercise in buffaloes you know they get lost in the fog which actually is pretty you know um realistic given the enormous smoke screen across the rhine um 44th royal tank regiment they're given dd shermans but they haven't used them so they then have to go under um 10 days of intense training and um brigadier darrell uh brigadier derek mills roberts is worried about the storm boats do you think so eustis oh yeah he's he's in command of the commando brigade yeah so he takes dempsey for a ride in one and it breaks down and the army commander ends up adrift i mean it's very interesting all this just testing stuff.

Security storms. Well, these stormboats are new.
And the problem with stormboats is

they don't have a high side. They're designed for 10 men, but they're 10 men who are incredibly laden.
So by the time everyone gets into them,

people are going at the front.

To start off with and if you don't if you don't load up properly the front just disappears in the water the whole thing sinks Yeah, yeah, you know, so so they require quite careful loading and then they've got this little 55 horsepower outboard on

you know i mean it's just yeah exactly and and you can see how they all go wrong because of the you know the engines get swamped with water and

you know it's just

well

they what they really need to do is go okay we're only going to have six men in but then that would just completely wreck the entire plan and absolutely every single one of those commandos is carrying four more grenades than he's been told to and two more and and and another extra clips of bren magazine two more clips of bren uh ammo and and a pickaxe you know this this is the fact, the facts.

And the sensible ones

are not carrying their backs when they get into the boat. They're carrying them on their shoulders.
And there's a case where one goes in and they get sunk and they just get drowned.

They're carrying 60 pounds on their backs. So security is very tight.
Ninth Army remove their shoulder patches and units. IDs on vehicles are painted over.
You also have the airborne land tail.

The people who can't arrive, they've turned their berets inside out. So

they're all in disguise. So they aren't giving away their maroon berets.
Although, as we've pointed out, the Germans have already figured out it's coming.

By the 22nd of March, the Germans have 3,411 artillery pieces on standby.

That's in contrast to how many at Alamein Gym? 874. And the Americans have 2,070 guns ready to go.
So they've been between them, they've got 5,500. Yeah.
The code words launch

enormous number of tubes. I mean, even before, um, even before the start of Diadem, you know, the battle for Rome, where they've got two entire armies side by side, you've only got 1600 guns.

And the code words for launching the battle are two if by sea, two, number two, if by sea. And we will be coming back in our next episode, issuing those code words, and the crossing will commence.

The crossing will commence. And we'll start with Operation Widgen, the aquatic pigeon of

the world,

how plunder is enacted and what happens with Operation Varsity, the

airborne drop, be sure to tune in to episode three.

Tune in to episode three.

Thanks very much for listening, everyone.

Episodes three and four are available for members early if you're a member of the R Officer class. We will return in our next episode with the Immortal Words to if by sea.
See you then. Bye-bye.

Cheerio.