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The course of the Rhine campaign

While the allies were arguing endlessly, the first 12 and the second1army group of the United States hardly moved, just clearing the Ardennes remnants, counting the casualties and preparing for the next battle. The Sixth Army Group, composed of the French First Army and the American Seventh Army, is engaged in a fierce battle with the Germans who are preparing to attack Strasbourg and the Alsace Plain in the far south again.

1945 1 On 25th, the commander-in-chief of Devis Durra Army Group (belonging to the second and ninth German Army Groups) and the leader of SS Himmler launched an action called "North Wind", which captured Sawunguan and divided General Paige's American Seventh Army into two halves. The 7th Army of the United States was in trouble, and was forced to lengthen the front line in 1 month to make up for the gap caused by Barton's going north to Ardennes. When the Germans began to attack, the US Seventh Army could only resist the attack of eight German divisions with seven divisions on a 90-mile-long defense line (including the German 2nd1armored division and an SS armored division). Allied headquarters had to order a strategic retreat, abandon Strasbourg and Alsace plain, wait for the arrival of the sixth army group of the United States, and launch an attack with superior forces. But General Zhu An and General tassigny of the French First Army don't think so. They believe that the newly liberated French territory can not be handed over to the Germans under any circumstances, and they earnestly hope that General de Gaulle can support them.

/KLOC-On the evening of 2nd and 3rd of October, General tassigny sent the Algerian 3rd Division to guard Strasbourg. On the 6th, the German No.1 19 Army suddenly launched an attack from the stable position on the west bank of the Rhine River at the bridgehead of Kolma, and advanced 13 miles to Strasbourg in the Haitz region of Elstein. The bloody fighting around Strasbourg lasted for two weeks. German attacks were shattered again and again. This proves that the French army did not retreat in order to defend this place; Himmler could not organize any attack in the area a little far from the Rhine. By 1 26, the Germans finally realized that it was impossible to recapture Strasbourg. This led to the dismissal of General Weitz, commander of the German No.1 19 Army, and became a scapegoat for his superiors. The disastrous failure of the loyal Himmler prompted the imperial head of state to personally command the decisive army group of Vistula.

A few days after the Battle of Strasbourg, the French army conveyed a written order issued by General tassigny 1 month 15, calling on the whole army: "Don't let go of every German ... liberate Corma intact ... and tightly hold the supply line of the Germans along the Rhine ..." In order to convince the French army of this isolated place, the Allied High Command sent a large number of reinforcements to the French army: except In fact, there are eleven divisions under General tassigny, all of which are assembled in Korma. In contrast to General tassigny, there are seven divisions of the German Army No.1 19, and their bridgehead defense has extended to the west bank of the Rhine 100 miles. The establishment of these seven divisions is not worthy of the name. Each division has only 4,500 to 7,000 people, and there is a serious shortage of ammunition. However, German armored forces can not be ignored. With the powerful 88 mm anti-tank gun, their guns are still quite deterrent. The weather is also suitable for the defense of static braking-first it snows, then it melts, and the allies trudge through the cold and cross the swamp-like mud at the same time.

From the beginning of the general attack on 1 20th to the arrival of the American 3rd Division in Cole Canal on 1 27th, the attack in this period was one of the slowest and most tragic battles of the Allied Forces in Europe. The German General Command authorized the newly appointed commander of the German No.1 19 Army, General Rasp, to evacuate the heavily damaged troops from the Rhine. However, the French 1st 1 Army (commander is General Milburn, who is now the commander of the American army participating in the Battle of Colmar), which has just been reinforced by the US 75th Division and the 2nd1Army, has begun to occupy Colmar and surround the German army in trouble. On February 5, the French army joined the American army, and more than a quarter of the Germans of the German 19 Army were included. On February 9, the German Army 19 escaped from the Rhine, leaving behind 22,000 prisoners, 80 cannons and 70 tanks. However, although more than a quarter of the Germans were captured, General Rasp managed to bring 1500 guns, 60 personnel carriers, tanks and 7,000 other motor vehicles back to Germany, which in itself was a great contribution. With the removal of the obstacles in Kolma, Strasbourg, a hot potato in the hands of the allies, was safely taken out of the German furnace. Even for Eisenhower, the allied front was too neat. The next step is to stride forward from siegfried line to the Rhine and beyond. Although many parts of the German defense line have been divided by the Allies, when the Allies assembled troops along the German border in the direction of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France in early February of 1945, the German defense line was still vast. Only near Aachen, the German "Western Defense Wall" was torn apart.

1at dawn on February 8, 945, before dawn, the northern attack began, and 1400 cannons of the first Canadian army roared. The commander of the 84th German Division, the German H Army Group (founded in September 1944, mainly under the First German Paratrooper Division) tasted the devastating shells. General von Braszwitz assured the German 84th Division more than once that, generally speaking, especially for Montgomery, who is known as cautious, the allies would not attack this area so rashly. Von Blaszwitz and the German high command, even Hitler himself, were convinced that Montgomery would not attack through a swamp with floods on one side and German forests on the other. At 0: 30 a.m./kloc-0: 30 a.m., on the front line between the Maas River and the Wall River near the German-Dutch border, the expanded British 30th Army launched an attack, which proved that the German high command was completely wrong. The 30th British Army invested five divisions in the first round of attack, leaving two divisions including the Guards Armored Division as reserves. That night, 1300 Germans were captured and the front was about to collapse.

After several days of brutal and bloody fighting, by February 13, the Canadian First Army had approached clervaux. In clervaux, when the British 52nd Division and the British 1 1 Armored Division, which reinforced the Canadian First Army, arrived, General Schlemm, the commander of the German First Parachute Division, increased the pressure on the allied forces and strengthened the resistance accordingly. He transferred two infantry divisions and an armored division from the south to balance the strength of both sides. At a distance of 0/5 mile from the attack site/kloc-,the allied forces' progress almost stagnated. Before the American army attacked the west of the beachhead, the Second Army of the British army blocked the German reinforcements in Caen, and Montgomery played the winning card again in Normandy. By forcing the German First Parachute Division to engage with the Canadian First Army, he reduced the obstacles to the implementation of "Grenade Operation".

The so-called "grenade operation" means that the Ninth Army of the United States crossed the Ruhr River and advanced to the Rhine River in Dover, Dissel. As the engineers opened the gate of the Ruhr Dam when the Germans retreated, the Eiffel area was flooded, and the Grenade operation had to be postponed from February 10 to the 23rd. On the 22nd, as a prelude to this operation, the Allied Air Force began to bomb the German transport network on a large scale, so as to reduce the German material supply and reinforce troops, which made the existing chaos of the German command organization worse. At dawn the next day, American artillery began to shell the German No.1 15 Army position along the Ruhr River. Soon, Dylan and Jurich were conquered. Subsequently, although the Germans who went to reinforce the German First Parachute Division continued to gather, the US troops continued to advance, reaching the vicinity of Elklinz on February 27 and advancing to Reed on March 1 day. On the left side of the Ninth Army of the United States, the Sixteenth Army of Britain advanced at the same speed to Lummont and Fenlow. The 1st19th Army of the right-wing British arrived in Neuss, just across the Rhine River in Dissel. The first German paratrooper division was under great pressure, and the German high command had to order the first German paratrooper division to withdraw from the Rhine. On the way to retreat, the German First Parachute Division mastered excellent retreat skills, and its guards successfully blocked the allied forces in Zanten and Rheinisburg. When they retreated across the river, the engineers blew up the bridge.

The ninth army of the United States and the first army of Canada advanced from the north and south respectively, and joined forces at Wessel to connect the Rhine front. Since February 8th, 53,000 Germans have been captured in the theater of the 2nd1Army Group of the United States, but at the same time, British and Canadian troops have also paid the price of15,500 casualties. On March 6th, the 6th Army of the United States captured Cologne, thus forming a continuous front of allied forces in the area between Niemiegen and Cologne 100 miles. South of Cologne, the German Fifth Armored Army is facing the American First and Third Army which are rapidly breaking through the German positions. After the capture of Cologne, the US military was not satisfied with its present victory. After defeating the German Fifth Panzer Corps, if we continue to pursue it, it is likely that the Germans will be surrounded before they have a rest. This is feasible at present. On March 7, the US Seventh Army set out from Cologne to attack Bonn, while the US Third Army went to seize the bridge on the Ayr River. At noon that day, the battle group B of the US Seventh Armored Division (affiliated to the US Third Army) heard an exciting news.

The ludendorff Railway Bridge on the Rhine River in Remagen was not bombed by the Germans. Taking the bridge completely is a godsend. Therefore, the United States 7th armored division to Remagen. In the afternoon, when the 7th Armored Division of the US Army was preparing to cross the bridge, the German army on the opposite side was about to blow up the bridge, but it failed, so that the 7th Armored Division of the US Army successfully crossed the Rhine River and established a stable bridgehead. At this point, Hitler was furious and began to bomb the railway bridge in ludendorff, using heavy artillery. He also transferred the "Tiger Hunting" of the German No.11/KLOC-0 armored division and the independent heavy-drive tank battalion [commanded by Ernst and Otto Callios] from Bonn, and even used V-2 rockets. It was not until March 17 that the bridge was blown up. But six American divisions, including an armored division, have been stationed on the east bank of the river. Germany's 1st 1 1 division and the 2nd May Day tank battalion have been unable to turn the tide, but the reason is that there is almost no fuel, so they can't resist!

The 7th armored division of the United States crossed the railway bridge to the south, and Patton's 3rd Army of the United States has drawn three divisions into the 1st 1 Army of the United States, leaving only twelve divisions (three of which are armored divisions).

t】。 By the end of February, these troops had basically wiped out the Germans in central siegfried line and launched an attack on Saarbourg. The German Seventh Army, which was guarding Saarbourg, put up a tenacious resistance. On March 1 day, it finally collapsed due to insufficient supply. Two days later, on March 3rd, the 5th US Army Division arrived in Saarbourg, enabling the 4th US Army Division to raid Bonn. Three days later, the fourth division of the U.S. Army has reached the Rhine River near Kornland. On March 14, the 4th and 2nd1armored divisions of the 7th Army of the United States were sent to the front of the Rhine River from Tres. In forty-eight hours, the U.S. Fourth Armored Division only advanced thirty-two miles, because the U.S. Fourth Armored Division was inextricably linked with the frontal German Second Armored Division. The problem was not solved until General Gefei's army reinforced him. On February1day, the 4th Armored Division of the US Army captured Vorms, the 90th Division of the US Army captured Mainz, and the 20th Army of the US Army moved on and pounced on ludwigshafen.

The battle between the American Seventh Army in the south wing and the German First Army is very difficult. From March 15 to March 19, the US Army made slow progress, and the Third Army of the US Army also encountered difficulties in breaking through the area where the "western defense wall" was very strong. It was not until 24th that the American Seventh Army defeated the German First Army and captured Lando. From the evening of March 22nd to the early morning of March 23rd, the Third Army of the United States had crossed the Rhine near oppenheim, and 5,000 American troops had set foot on the east bank of the Rhine. Montgomery's army was not far behind him, but when his army crossed the river, it was already behind.

The British army crossed the Rhine when Marshal Kaiser became the new commander of the headquarters of the German West Line (including the B, G, H Army Groups and the Fifth Armored Army), the American army had already established a fairly strict pier fortress in Remagen on the east bank of the Rhine, but the British Army Group 2 1 (from north to south, it was composed of the Canadian First Army, the British Army Group 2 and the American Army Group 9 in turn) was still in the west bank. The British army has made preparations for crossing the river for a long time, which is obviously too cumbersome for informal Americans. In late March, everything was ready. A Royal Special Forces of the British Army from Antwerp transported 45 land boats and a batch of Bison amphibious tanks to the 2 1 0 border crossing point on the front line of the Army, with a journey of 20 miles. From March 20th to 22nd, the British Air Force and the 8th and 9th Air Forces of the United States dispatched fighter planes16,000 sorties, violently bombed the attack area and its distant supply lines, dropping almost 50,000 tons of bombs. From the early morning of March 2 1 to the evening of March 23, the 75-mile-long levee on the west bank of the Rhine River was densely covered with smoke to cover the mobilization of allied forces and make final preparations for crossing the river.