For the next two days I was travelling with Edwin Popkin, a fantastic historian based near Eindhoven in the Netherlands. I have known Edwin for some years and his knowledge is second to none. His company Battlefield Discovery offers World War II tours either bespoke or agenda set.
I was looking for an oversight of Operation Veritable (The push to the Rhine) on day one and Operation Plunder (Crossing of the Rhine) on day two.
These operations were much larger than I have initially thought, and you could spend days looking at each in more detail. It is only being on the ground, walking the ground do you understand how complex these operations were and the sheer size and planning needed to get them off the ground.
17th August 2022 Operation Veritable.
I started at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery. It contains 2,600 graves predominantly Canadian.
Veritable was an operation to clear the Rhine lands and if possible, capture one of the remaining bridges crossing the Rhine at Wesel. It was commanded by General Crerar, a Canadian. It started on the 8th February 1945 under the British 21st Army Group. The weather was very cold, and the frozen ground was staring to thaw. The British and Canadians would start close to the location of the Cemetery and the Americans were push from the south. The Americans were delayed due to flooding in their sector. We followed the Canadian advance as one day was not enough to look at both the Canadian and British movements. The Canadians had the northern sector, which included the flooded plains north of Kleve.
I was amazed how large this operation was. 400,000 men, huge logistics and an operation which was estimated to last a week yet took over a month. This was a tough encounter as the Allies were now fighting on German soil and not one inch was going to be given up without a fight. Divisions had to be added due to the ferocious fighting. The Canadians came up with a new plan, Blockbuster on the 26th February due to the slow progress.
Over a period of two weeks the Essex Scottish were depleted three times during three different engagements. In the Hochwald Gap, the Canadians tried to push forward under heavy artillery fire. Many Algonquin’s and South Alberta regiments lost their lives over the three days it took to push through the gap. A young 17-year-old soldier RL Ash’s body was found on the battlefield, and we paid respects at the Cemetery when we started the day.
This is a rural area dotted with farmhouses, and each of these were fortified by the German’s so had to be cleared one by one. One of these farmhouses, Mooshof was being attacked by the Queens Own Rifles of Canada. On the night of 25–26 February 1945 they led a series of attacks on German strongholds. During the battle the Platoon Commander was killed-in-action, and the platoon took heavy casualties. Sergeant Cosens assumed command of the four survivors of his platoon whom he placed in position to give him covering fire. Running forward alone to a tank, he took up an exposed position in front of the turret and directed its fire. When a further counterattack had been repulsed, he ordered the tank to ram the farm buildings into which the Germans attackers had retreated. He went in alone, killing 22 of the defenders and taking the rest prisoners. He then dealt similarly with the occupants of two more buildings but was shot by a sniper when he went to report back to superior officers. Aubrey Cosens was awarded the VC posthumously.
As the allies started to join together (Canadian, British and American), the last German soldiers slipped over the railway bridge at Wesen and blew it up. The Allies has secured the left-hand bank of the Rhine, but at a heavy cost. Over 15,000 casualties on the Canadian/British side. This operation had started on the 8th February and was estimated to last week. It ended on the 11th March 1945. The weather had played it part, very cold, very muddy and engagements resembled those of the WWI.