Crossing the Rhine.

Discussion in 'Home' started by Trux, Sep 13, 2018.

  1. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    A sharp eye for detail! And plenty of other rivers crossed...
     
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  2. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

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  3. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Very interesting. But from the tweet I cannot tell which archive is holding the pics. An idea? The Times Archive?
     
  4. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

  5. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Forget my previous post - found it...
     
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  6. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Hi Mike,

    I just started looking at a PDF about Canadian participation in Plunder and it references this document. Is it available as a PDF by any chance? (I have no idea how big it is or anything.)

    Cheers,
    Chris
     
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  7. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

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  8. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    Chris - I have a copy of it in PDF.
     
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  9. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Tsk! I was just poking around on my hard drive and I found it. You must have already given it to me. Sorry!
     
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  10. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Hi all,

    I am wondering if anyone has the tables which show when and how the various divisional sub-units crossed the Rhine? Stolpi very kindly gave me the 43rd Infantry Division war diary for March and I was fascinated to look at these. I think I am about to do a dive into the canadiana site to see if I can find them for 3rd Canadian Division.
     
  11. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    I was just looking through the 51 Division orders for Plunder posted by stolpi, and came across this bit about the barrages, which mentions both "pepper pot" and "mustard pot" - I suppose to distinguish the two.

    Screen Shot 2022-06-19 at 1.47.16 PM.png
     
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  12. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Hi, I have a question about Operation Widgeon and the outline of events in post #99. There are times listed for some of the commandos before 22:30 when the bombers struck. I just want to double check that this is correct - some of the commandos crossed over before the bombing raid began?

    And was there any preliminary bombardment at all, such as took place in the 30th Corps area, or was everything more or less silent until just a few minutes before some of the commandos started to cross?
     
  13. Trux

    Trux 21 AG

    Chris.

    Yes there was a preliminary bombardment. This is the Artillery Plan.

    Operation Widgeon
    In support of 1 Commando Brigade.

    2030 hours to 2130 hours.
    1 Commando Brigade Softening Bombardment Programme arranged by Commander Royal Artillery 7 Armoured Division. Resources deployed were
    Ten Medium Regiments
    Four Heavy Batteries of 7.2” guns
    One Super Heavy Battery of 240mm guns

    2130 hours to 2230 hours.
    1 Commando Brigade Initial Covering Fire Programme arranged by Commander Royal Artillery 7 Armoured Division. Resources deployed were
    Seven Field Regiments.

    2230 hours to 2245 hours.
    A heavy bomber attack on Wesel. If this could not take place one US Heavy Artillery Group was on call for a bombardment of the same targets.

    2230 hours to 0800 hours.
    1 Commando Brigade Covering Fire at call. Resources deployed were
    Two Field Regiments
    One Mountain Regiment
    Two Medium Regiments
    One Heavy Battery of 7.2” guns

    And yes there were Commandos on the far bank and waiting to assault Wesel after the air bombardment. They started crossing at 2200.

    Mike
     
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  14. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Thank you very much, Mike!
     
  15. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Tiny nitpick: a troop would have been much more common, but in this case it was a whole battery with nine self-propelled anti tank guns, per the war diary of 6KOSB and the account of 99th Battery.
     
  16. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Trux, I wonder if you've ever come across a chart of codenames for locations for 15th Division's part in the crossing and following days?
     
  17. Trux

    Trux 21 AG

    Chris,

    I have looked but I cannot see anything like that. Sorry.

    Mike
     
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  18. Packhow75

    Packhow75 Senior Member

    Sorry - I havent been through every post - so apologies if this is duplicate material.

    Unfortunately I do not know the date for the 2nd map.

    Extracts from maps in my collection which may be of interest.

    I have a lot of maps of this area, many with defence overlay, some with annotations.

    Tim

    Rhine-2.jpg

    Rhine-1.jpg
     
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  19. Packhow75

    Packhow75 Senior Member

    I also have this extract giving the Tank Park and control points.

    Tim
    Rhine-3.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2022
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