Onslaught on Hitler s Rhine: Operations Plunder and Varsity March 1945 - Rilegato

Delaforce, Patrick

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1781554412 ISBN 13: 9781781554418

Casa editrice: Fonthill Media, 2015

Riassunto

"Operation Plunder was Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's swan song. It is rarely mentioned in the Second World War history books, and when it is, both American and British military historians dismiss it as being ultra-cautious. Monty was by nature a cautious commander with dwindling manpower resources. Operation Market Garden in September 1944 had not been successful in achieving a major lodgement over the Rhine. Monty knew that Hitler regarded the Rhine as his final barrier, and his storm-troopers and paratroops had fought like demons for four weeks in February/March 1945 defending the Siegfried Line in Operations Veritable and Blockbuster. Presumably they would continue to defend their own country to the bitter end. So, in command of a British, a Canadian and an American army Monty ensured by very careful planning, including a huge airborne drop in Operation Varsity, that the great onslaught would be furious, quick, ruthless and highly successful. And so it was. Patrick Delaforce fought in Blockbuster, Plunder and all the river battles in his armoured battle group, which reached the Danish frontier just before Stalin's Cossacks. The book is part of a Fonthill trilogy by Delaforce: Monty's Rhine Adventure (Market Garden); and Invasion of the Third Reich (the campaign after Plunder)"--Publisher description.

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L'autore:

Patrick Delaforce on his role in the operations: I fought in Operation Blockbuster in early March 1945 as a Troop Leader in an armoured half-track leading a troop of four 31-ton Sexton SPs with 25-pounder guns. The regiment then moved to the Buderich area, a village two miles from the Rhine, SW of Wesel. The area is clearly shown on the map Operation Varsity with all the gun positions (page 187). The Americans were almost next door to us. Fox Troop had 4 Sextons, 2 tanks and 2 armoured half-tracks. Christopher Studdert-Kennedy was the Gun Position Officer (GPO), a lieutenant aged 23. I was 21 and a veteran of a dozen battles since Normandy. I was wounded in Holland, awarded the Bronze Cross of Orange- Nassau for all sorts of skulduggery in the Dutch Peel country and polders. During Plunder we fired almost non-stop for nearly 10 hours supporting the 15th Scottish in Operation Torchlight around Wesel and on the many German AA batteries east of the Rhine, identified by aerial photos. We commanded one hour on, one hour off. No problem, we were fit and knew what we were doing. The ranges varied from 6,500 yards to 9,500 yards and usually 25 rounds per gun per target. In the year s campaign we fired just over 1,000 rounds per gun. In Plunder probably about 250 per gun. The rest of 11th Armoured 265 brand new Comet tanks crossed near Wesel a couple of days later, heading for the four great German river battles: Dortmund-Ems, Wesel, Aller and the Elbe via Bergen-Belsen first battlegroup in.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Fonthill Media
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1781554412
• ISBN 13: 9781781554418
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 239