Not exactly a brand new release, #178 in the campaign series came out earlier last year, but spent most of it hidden under a pile of other books until 'discovered' a week or so ago.

The Rhine River was Germany's last real natural defense against the Allies in the West. The truth of WWII during February/March of 1945 is that the Western Allies could have sat down and waited things out. The Soviets were rapidly plowing their way through the remnants of the German Army and would have reached Berlin about the time they did anyway. Perhaps the war would have lasted a month longer, but perhaps not. It is for historians to speculate.

Anyway, there was a bit of a race between the Soviets and Western Allies to be the first to reach Berlin. For the West to get there they had to cross the Rhine. The Germans had already expended a large number of troops and equipment in an ill-planned stand on the western banks rather than an orderly retreat across the river. German divisions were at vastly reduced strength and had little time to build defenses.

As fits the ego of FM Montgomery, he had planned to use basically British troops to cross the Rhine and have the Americans and Canadians provide support and come later. This did not play well with the US and others, the result of which is that Montgomery condescended to allow others to participate in the initial assault.

This was the last large scale amphibious assault of the European war and the last time there was a mass air drop of troops. This time the drop (the largest of the war) was in daylight after the river assault. The plane was to protect the foothold of amphibious troops from German reinforcements. It worked, but at a high cost in troops and transports. Again, historians feel for the most part, that the air drop was not needed as the Allies managed to push forward at a rather rapid rate, and there were tons of reinforcements to help.

Anyway, the crossing was successful and less than 2 months later, the war in Europe was over

Author Ford follows the usual format for these books. We get a good look at the opposing commanders, their forces and their plans. Then the book goes into covering the British assault in the northern part of the front and the American assault a bit farther south. The Airborne landings are also fully described. Then there is the breakout and the results of this action.

All this is superbly illustrated by Howard Gerrard and period photographs, making for a most well rounded book on the subject. Not all that much has been written about the Rhine crossings, but it was a fascinating and well executed campaign that let to the end of WW2 in Europe. A superb read and one that I do recommend to you.

January 2008.

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