Customer Reviews

The Rhineland 1945 (Campaign)

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Ken Ford, an English book-seller and amateur historian, has attempted a difficult task: to summarize the Allied offensives to clear the German forces from the west bank of the Rhine River in February-March 1945 and to do this in only the 96 pages allowed by the Osprey Campaign Series format. Although there are American and British official histories that cover this phase of the war in great detail, Ford has succeeded in supplementing the meager collection of one volume accounts of the battles in the Rhineland. Unfortunately, much of the account is overly-generalized and wastes space on well-known facts instead of getting down into the weeds and telling this story as it should be told.

The author gets off on the wrong foot in the initial sections on the origins of the battle, opposing commanders and opposing armies. Ford begins with a three-page discussion of Eisenhower's well-known "Broad Front" strategy that adds very little to a discussion of the Rhineland campaign. Worse, he focuses on very high level leaders like Eisenhower, Bradley, Model and ciphers like Simpson, Hodges and von Zangen. Corps commanders and below, like Horrocks and Meindl get no background detail. Most readers will be aware that Horrocks, as the commander of the British 30th Corps, failed to break through to the besieged British paratroopers at Arnhem in September 1944. Finally, the four pages on opposing armies fails to convey the tactical methods, organization or strengths and weaknesses of either side and instead focuses on the army and army group level. What the author failed to provide was any kind of background on the units that actually fought in the Rhineland battles. Ford calls all German paratrooper units "elite" when in actuality, the two units facing the British were far from elite: the 6th Parachute Division was formed only eight months prior and had been smashed in Normandy and Holland, while the 8th Parachute Division had been in existence for only two months and had no combat experience. Both units were in fact only regimental-size battle groups but Ford depicts them as full-size divisions on his maps. Similarly, the 9th, 11th and 116th Panzer Divisions that Ford mentions were also really just battlegroups with 20-30 tanks each and 3-4,000 troops. Furthermore, in a campaign where river-crossing and obstacle reduction was crucial, the failure to detail Allied engineer assets and capabilities was an enormous omission.

The discussion of the British Operation "Veritable" and the American Operation "Grenade" are succinct but do succeed in linking these operations together. Too often, accounts tend to "de-link" these battles because of nationalistic bias. Ford to his credit, does not. Both sections could have had greater detail however and it is difficult to get a feel for the desperate battles in the gloomy Reichswald Forrest here. Finally, covers the final US 1st, 3rd and 7th Army drives to the Rhine River. This should have concluded the campaign, but unfortunately Ford goes on to recount the subsequent Rhine-crossings and collapse of Germany; this was space that would have been better spent provided greater detail on the actual campaign rather than events outside its scope.

Ford's volume does have a good order of battle for both sides, the battle maps are decent and most of the photographs are excellent. The section on wargaming the campaign is quite good for an Osprey title and even mentions relevant board and computer games that cover the battle. However, this volume does not offer either new information or a fresh perspective on the battle but rather, an overly generalized summary that lacks sufficient background detail.

When you have only 91 usable pages and you have to allow 30 pages for maps, photos and illustrations, an author has to dilligently select his words and topics extremely carefully if a stellar boook is to be achieved. Although Mr Ford hasn't written anything objectionable, his writting sometimes strays and is not effective to rendering a really good story. Practically every chapter has examples where he loses focus on the primary theme and writes tangential aspects which causes less space for the more crucial points of this campaign.

The first chapter, "The Origins of the Battle" displays a map of the entire Western Front of Jan, 1945 when the Americans pushed the Germans back to their start line for the Ardennes Offensive. The front line extends from Amsterdam in the north to the Swiss border in the south and includes much of the German Siegried Line. Though the idea is appropriate, the author spends too much time discussing the "broad front" policy instituted by General Eisenhower. I'm not sure if this is just a matter of fact or if Mr Ford is shrewdly condemming the policy. He then wastes more time discussing the importance the German people place on the Rhine River going all the way back to Napoleonic times and even back to the Roman Empire.

The next chapter is the Commanders and its done pretty well. All of the army commanders are mentioned from both sides. Five pages are devoted to this; since there are many generals (American, British, Canadian, French and German) each person is given little space. Its adequate for the barest understanding of each person. No Corps level commanders are mentioned here but will be in the action chapters.

The next two chapters are the most disappointing to me. The first is Opposing Armies. There is little space allocated to this subject and much of it is given to the Allied Air Force and the Luftwaffe and definitely not enough to the ground forces. The next chapter is Opposing Plans. The plans are brief and are the most general description possible though Mr Ford does mention the southern segment of the line which includes the Eifel and Colomar Pocket. The two biggest operations, Veritable and Grenade, are very brief while Blockbuster is not even mentioned. Enough is said so that the reader will understand the objective is to reach the Rhine River.

The next four chapters deal with battle action. It starts with the Canadian/British drive eastward to clear the area up to the Cleve-Goch line and then to the Rhine capturing the strongpoint city of Xanten with an eye on Wessel and Rees. This is Operation Veritable and Blockbuster. The 2-D maps of these operations are very good. The US 9th Army under Simpson begin Operation Grenade a few days later from just west of the Roer River near the Juilich-Duren sector with the intention of driving northeast to meet the Canadians near Wessel. The last battle chapter concerns the American 1st, 3rd and 7th Armies advancing eastward in the Eifel area, Trier area and the Saarbrucken area respectively. Here again the 2-D map was very good. Most of the advance was difficult but the Rhine River objectives would eventually be made. The six 2-D maps were very good and the three 3-D maps were OK. The battle illustrations were great and the photos were good.

The Aftermath chapter consumes three pages and deals mostly with Operation Plunder, the actual crossing of the Rhine. Operation Plunder, the big production Montgomery makes in crossing the Rhine, will be Mr Ford's next installment in this two volume set. Two of those three pages would have been better spent elaborating on the Opposing Plans or the chapter on the US southern advance.

There is a Chronology which is OK and a Orders of Battle list which was good. There is a Bibliography which contains only secondary sources. The books are good and should be read if you have any interest but it makes me think that Mr Ford allowed those authors do the hard work for him.

The author spends five pages on Wargaming. I admit the chapter was good but those pages could have been better spent on the campaign.

This campaign was good but it could have been better. It makes a good starting point and the suggested reading will help expand your understanding of this important time.

I have just reviewed three Osprey books, and found two excellent, but this is one is a dud. Most of this book is about the Battle of the Bulge. True it covers the British in the Reichswald and Operation Grenade, but barely. The account of the American 1st, 3rd and 7th US Armies is so sketchy it's embarrassing. I have seen more detailed accounts in magazines and board games. It is a huge subject and I wondered how they would cover it in a small book, but they make it much worse by trying to cover the Battle of the Bulge as well under the excuse of background. The result is so thin it's useless. Even the maps have to cover so much ground they are useless. It's not even a good "Bulge" book in the end. The long chapter on "where to visit" turns out to be 90% on the Bulge as well. Only the artwork is up to the usual standard. I am a fan of the Osprey series but this is one of the few times in recent years I have been disappointed. I hope it's because it is five years old, and they will not do it again.

The clear intention of The Rhineland 1945 book is to provide neophite military buff or the beleagured student of history with a barebones generalized overview of the operations leading up to the crossing of the Rhine in March 1945. Anyone familiar with this period, wanting more specialized or in-depth studies would, I would presume, know well enough that based on the format of the series, that one is not to expect all that much from such a slim volume. That said, I find this book to be an very good introduction to this period of the war in Western Europe. The book is written in such a way that it can stand alone or act as a continuation of the books dealing with earlier campaigns. I found the format logical, the layout and design excellent, and the selection of pictures suitable for evoking the realities of the fighting conditions.