VERITABLE 1945: 15th Scottish & 43rd Wessex Divisions in the Reichswald battle

Thank you @stolpi for this truly amazing research, account, photos, youtube links and the remarkable maps (I found creating a rough route of 15 recce from Normandy to Hamburg so hard > https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1LZZYCERJGNkzTXYgw3sdzkC7089Wqvw&ehbc=2E312F )! Truly stellar work!

 

Great work. I'm guessing you've seen these but here's the link just in case... https://www.15thscottishdivisionwardiaries.co.uk/

 

What an excellent thread and it has encouraged me to explore this area.

My father was Captain Townsend (see entry for Valentine's Day - 14 February 1945). Here is a picture of him receiving his MC.

He didn't speak too much about the war but I do remember him telling me (and my brother and sister) about Nijmegen. He was an FOO and was in one of the churches directing artillery fire. The Germans realised that there was an FOO and started shelling the churches (there were two suitable for observation). He said that he took comfort from the fact that he was in a protestant church (he was quite a devout Catholic) and if he were killed it would be the protestant church that was damaged! It was said tongue in cheek but it must have been a tense time.

 

As you may have noticed, he was in the thick of the battle for the Eselsberg ('A' Coy area) on the 14th, when he earned a Military Cross. See: VERITABLE 1945: 15th Scottish & 43rd Wessex Divisions in the Reichswald battle

Has he ever revealed any details about this specific action?

 

This week i was searching in the Heritage reels, always intresting what they reported that days.
One of the document i found is: "Seven days fighting through the Reichswald" See attachment. Some intresting facts of these first 7 days.

 

Here the citation for his MC. Respect for these people.

 

Thanks for the share Bedee. I'm heading back to 4 Wilts soon, I hope.

 

Picture 5 - this is the so-called Voltaire-Path - more information Niederrhein - so gut. so weit.

 

I recently discovered this very nice visual presentation of Op Veritable:

Clearing the Reichswald.

By scrolling the pictures you follow the operation step-by-step. Overall very well done, although corrections are needed at several places. To mention a few: the 52 Lowland Division (operating south of Gennep) is not indicated on the map, nor is the involvement of 15 Scottish Division in the attack on Goch (northern pincer).

 

And 2 Cdn Div captures Kranenburg!
Then the op ends when Goch is captured! I am seriously tempted by more exclamation marks and some caps lock here.
But yes, a lovely visualization. Well done Canadian Research & Mapping Association for creating this.

 

While we're at it ... it ommits the capture of the Querdamm and Zyfflich (in the polder) by 3rd Cdn Inf Div. See Bedee's contribution: VERITABLE 1945: 3rd Canadian Division in Op Veritable

The second phase of the 51st HD operations, the crossing of the Niers near Ven-Zelderheide and the advance to Goch, also is not well represented on the map, to say the least. Also missing is the 32rd Guards Brigade (crossing of the Kendel stream at Hommersum). See: VERITABLE 1945: 51st Highland Division Reichswald Forest.

 

Project '44 is for the average reader a good overview of the Operation. And its a lot of work to do this.
But for sure they missed some details. On the right side of the page you can see a kind of road sign, click on that for story maps like Clearing the Reichswald. and here The Hochwald Gap

 

I live in Kranenburg since 70 years and really interested about the information in this thread. The area around Kraneburg was evacuated after Market Garden/shellfire on Kleve 7th October 1944. In the German military archive in Freiburg you don't find detailed informationm about the Operation Market Garden/Operation Veritable. After the war in 1964 Wilhelm Michels/Wilhelm Haas (both teacher) and Peter Sliepenbeek historian from Nijmegen wrote a book about the WW2 in our region called "Niederrheinisches Land im Krieg". This book is really interesting for someone who don't know what happend at the end of the war in our region. The authors visited different archives and put the puzzle of information together. Very often I visit the war graves from the allied forces - Groesbeek/Reichswalde/Kleve and the German war grave in Donsbrüggen. I'm still wondering about the number of soldiers in the German war graves. Concerning the allied forces for my opinion it's excatly known how many allied soldiers lost their lives for our freedom - in the abocve mentioned book the authors speak about 15674 victims from 7th Feb until 8th Mar 1945. If you visit the war graves you can imagine, that this amount of victims can be. At the German war cemetery in Donsbrüggen there are about 2500 victims - about 600 people from the shellfire on Kleve 7th October 1944. In the above mentioned book the authors speak about 22000 victims. In other literature they speak about a higher amount of victims with German soldiers. What is your meaning about this subject? Do you know what happened with German soldiers during pullback? Do you have information about this subject? For my opinion the German victims were buried in graves at the place where they were killed. Could it be, that many German soldiers still are burried in the forest or other places?

 

Michael,
As far as i know, German casualties were always recovered if possible by their comrades. After recovery they received a so called Field grave close to the battle field.
Later after the war Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge collected the bodies and re-burried them on official war cemeteries. Donsbruggen for example in 1950.

When you look on their website then you will not find that high number of 22.000 in this region of victims.

Statistics like here on Wikipedia show that there are still 4.3 million missing German soldiers.

But really hard to find more information as everything is or in Freiburg and still not open for public, and you can do a request for information only when you are a family member,. A pitty.

 

Bedee, i think you misinterpreted the Wikipedia entry. It is 4,3 million dead - from areas which were German before 1938. And 5,3 including what the Nazis considered "ethnic Germans" and after 1938 then recruited into the Wehrmacht. Overmans estimates 900.000 to one million still missing. A large majority of those still missing were lost on the eastern front. But you will find quite a number of "Unbekannt" (Unknown) inscribed on grave stones in cemeteries in the Rhineland. It can, however, be ruled out - maybe with very rare exceptions - that German soldiers killed in action in the Rhineland 1944/45 are still to be found in scattered and unmarked field graves.

 

You are absolutly right Alberk. And yes im sure some soldiers will be found during the coming years. They all deserve a decent grave.

 

Planning to be in the Kleve area on the Feb 25, for the 80th Anniversary, I will be concentrating on the break out by the 15th Scottish Div, as my father was in the 7th Seaforth Highlanders. He was wounded on the 16 Feb 45, on the out skirts of Moyland.

 

Bump ... 8 Feb 1945 the battle for the Rhineland started

 

Thank you for recording and uploading all of this information. I now know how my Great Grandfather Robert F Farley 5569253 died. Will be passing this on to my family. Thanks

 

Does anyone know where I could find the page that is referenced to my Grandfather ‘Robert F Farley 5569253’ in the book ‘The Maroon Square’?

page 7. 7.44

he was in A battalion. There is an asterix next to his name and I was also wondering what that meant. Thank you in advance!