Customer Reviews

The Rhine Crossings 1945 (Campaign)

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For some readers, British Field Marshall Montgomery's crossing of the Rhine River in March 1945 would seem like the climactic moment of the Second World War. Yet for other readers, this campaign appears more of a foregone conclusion since the Germans lacked the ability to prevent the Allied crossings. This a priori impression will greatly influence the reader's impression of Ken Ford's The Rhine Crossings 1945, number 178 in Osprey's Campaign series. Overall, it is a satisfactory volume, although it is more the result of thorough synthesis of existing secondary works rather than original research. The reader's opinion of the Montgomery's skills as a general - at the core of this account - will also influence assessment of this volume.

In standard Osprey format, the author succinctly lays out the origins of the campaign and the development of each side's operational plans. In the section on opposing commanders, the author provides capsule biographies of 9 Allied and 8 German leaders; the inclusion of Crerar (not directly involved in the campaign) and von Runstedt (relieved weeks before the campaign) didn't make much sense. However, it is when the author gets to describing Montgomery that many readers may take umbrage. First, the author states that Montgomery was "Britain's most famous and well-loved soldier." Was Montgomery really more famous than the Duke of Marlborough, Wolffe or the Duke of Wellington? As for well-loved, Field Marshall Slim was selected by Sandhurst cadets in a post-war survey as the most respected British commander of the war, not Montgomery. The author then states that Montgomery "had accomplished many victories." Like what? Actually, it is questionable that Montgomery every clearly won a battle (El Alamein being an incomplete victory - no breakthrough and DAK got away), but he clearly lost at Arnhem just a few months prior. Adding insult to injury, the author states that "to his men, Monty was infallible" (go ask Roy Urquhuart if he thought Monty was infallible) and that "his name was associated with some of the finest feats of arms of the British Army." Really, like the Battle of Blenheim, the capture of Quebec, Rorke's Drift, Wavell's 1940 campaign in Libya? This section infuriated me for its lack of basis in historical fact and lapse into polemics. There was also an odor of anti-Americanism underlying the author's defense of Montgomery - somehow it was the fault of Americans that Monty has been criticized. Sure, go ask the Canadians what they thought of Monty's 1942 Dieppe Plan, or Urquhuart what he thought about Monty's Market-Garden Plan.

The section on opposing forces is sub-par for several reasons. First, the author paints a picture of the British Army in 1945 that makes it appear stronger than it was. In fact, the British Army was running desperately short of infantry replacements after the 1944 campaigns and had to disband formations. Nor does the author discuss the German defenses in sufficient detail, such as what exactly were the defenses at the river's edge and the composition of the mobile reserve (how much armor in 47th Panzer Corps?). The order of battle provided only goes down to division level, with no mention of artillery brigades, engineer units that supported the crossing or air units. Indeed, the author makes little effort to discuss the Allied air interdiction efforts to isolate the battlefield and the artillery support plan is rather vague.
Graphically, this volume is appealing like most volumes in the series. This volume includes five 2-D maps (the Rhine with Allied and German positions; 21st Army Group Operations; Operation Plunder; Operation Flashpoint; from the Rhine to the Baltic), three 3-D BEV maps (1st Commando Brigade attack on Wesel; Operation Varsity; Expanding 21st Army Group's bridgehead, 24-28 March 1945) and three battle scenes by Howard Gerrard (15th Scottish Division reinforces its bridgehead, 24 March 1945; Glider troops of 17th Airborne Division arriving on landing zone S, 24 March 1945; Royal Engineers build the first Bailey bridge over the Rhine).

The actual campaign narrative is sub-divided into sections covering the British assault, the American assault, the airborne landings and the breakout. These sections are the best written and describe the Allied operations in significant detail, although the emphasis is on British rather than German or American perspectives. It is clear that the author has carefully mined existing secondary sources for all pertinent facts about these operations and he succeeds in melding them together into a careful, if dry, synthesis. In the aftermath sections, the author makes a brief nod to the two main criticisms of the campaign - that Montgomery's crossing was overblown in scale and that the airborne operations were unnecessary - and then shrugs his shoulders, avoiding making any conclusions. There seems to be an element of British ego-soothing in this account, as if being on the winning side was not enough, but that Monty has to be credited with achieving some great feat of arms that brought the war to a close. For an operation that involved hundreds of thousands of soldiers, this seems a very narrow and parochial interpretation.

THE RHINE CROSSINGS, 1945
KEN FORD
OSPREY PUBLISHING, 2007
QUALITY SOFTCOVER, $18.95, 96 PAGES, ILLUSTRATIONS, PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS


As the Allies pushed across Europe and neared the Rhine River early in 1945, Hitler fumed at the widespread desertions and surrenders of his troops. The Rhine hadn't been crossed by an enemy since Napoleon did it in 1805. Hitler saw the Rhine as a "they-shall-not-pass" symbol of the steadfastness of the Third Reich. He approved orders that any commander who gave up a town or communications post was to be put to death. The order especially included the bridges across the Rhine. The campaign for the Rhine bridges began with the March 5, 1945, Allied capture of Cologne. The capture didn't give the Allies an avenue across the river because most of the city lies on the western bank of the Rhine and German troops destroyed the bridges in their retreat from the city. Patton's Third Army, reaching the Rhine near Koblenz, was similarly frustrated. But on March 7, 1945, as Patton planned an assault crossing with out a bridge, American troops found a bridge not yet blown-the Ludendorff Railway Bridge at Remagen. The passage of U.S. troops across this bridge began the Rhine crossings. Within days, Patton's Third Army crossed the Rhine at Oppenheim, south of Mainz. Allied ground and airborne forces continued to capture bridges with the help of air support. By March 23, 1945, the Allies had a bridgehead 35 miles wide and 12 miles deep. By the start of April, 1945, there were seven Allied armies across the Rhine. U.S. Army combat engineers (many of them black soldiers consigned to labor units under the U.S. Army's segregation policy) built more than sixty bridges-railroad bridges, highway bridges, and floating bridges of pontoons and rafts-acrossthe Rhine. The 2,8000-foot railroad bridge at Mainz (called the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memoral Bridge) was built in nine days and twenty-two hours, beating the ten-day record set by Julius Caesar's engineers in bridging the Rhine. I agree with R.A. Forczyk's review in regard to the Order of Battle as well as other questions on the Allied plans. In THE RHINE CROSSINGS, 1945, the author gives a brief insight to the two main criticisms of the campaign-that Montgomery's crossing was overblown in scale and that the airborne operations were unnecessary. This book is a good primer in discussing this campaign but the reader should look for other books for a better understanding of this important campaign.


Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida

Ken Ford's THE RHINE CROSSINGS: 1945 covers the last major battle of World War II in a region which no invading army had crossed since Napoleon's forces. The history of these last battle strongholds comes to life in a survey filled with black and white vintage photos and detailed discussions of crossing tactics and logic.