The last rites were administered to the Third Reich from the west by a massive concentration of Allied forces and firepower. With France secured, Hitler's vain counterattack in the Ardennes held and the Channel and North Sea ports cleared, little stood in the way of the Allies other than the dominant geographical feature of western Europe: the mighty Rhine River stretching from the North Sea almost to Switzerland. In the north, the 21st Army Group executed one of the largest operations of the war: a huge airdrop backed up by an amphibious crossing that made full use of 79th Armoured Division's specialized armour including the Alligators of 4th Royal Tank Regiment. Further south, until it collapsed under the pressure, the Ludendorff Bridge, captured intact at Remagen allowed US First Army to create a bridgehead. They would use it to good effect, wheeling north to surround the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland. Further south, where the river was narrower, Patton's Third Army vaulted the Rhine with its customary elan, as did Devers' Sixth Army Group.

Ahead of the Allies were the remains of the German forces, often no more than Volkssturm or Hitlerjugend, determined to resist for as long as possible so that their Fu hrer had time to unleash his super weapons. In the end, these proved figments of Hitler's imagination and the defenders crumbled in the face of units that, after nine months of training, had become deadly proponents of the art of aggressive warfare with modern, new equipment - such as the M26 Pershing and Comet - being rushed to the front in the hope it could see action before the war finished.

About the Author
Simon Forty was educated in Dorset and the north of England before reading history at London University's School of Slavonic and East European Studies. He has been involved in publishing since the mid-1970s, first as editor and latterly as author. Son of author and RAC Tank Museum curator, George Forty, he has continued in the family tradition writing mainly on historical and military subjects. Amongst other books, he is the author of The German Infantryman on the Eastern Front (with Richard Charlton Taylor, 2023) and Red Army into the Reich (with Nik Cornish, 2021), both published by Casemate, and has co-authored a range of highly illustrated books on the Normandy battlefields, the Atlantic Wall and the liberation of the Low Countries. Tom Timmermans lives and works in the south of the Netherlands. An enthusiastic historian of WW2 subjects, he is the brains behind battledetective.com.

Reviews
This book is good value and recommended for those seeking a very well-illustrated, broad overview of the campaign in North West Europe in the closing months of the War. * Military Historical Society Bulletin *
This is very much a complete look at the crossing of the Rhine, and the end game in Germany on 1945. * Britmodeller.com *



Book Information
ISBN 9781612008509
Author Simon Forty
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint Casemate Publishers
Publisher Casemate Publishers