The St. Goar Assault

Germany's army was beaten. The Rhine had been crossed at Remagen and elsewhere. As more and more of the Allies closed in on the Rhine, there was a growing tendency to simply take it "o n the run" rather than …

1945-03-24

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Germany's army was beaten. The Rhine had been crossed at Remagen and elsewhere. As more and more of the Allies closed in on the Rhine, there was a growing tendency to simply take it "o n the run" rather than shift to an existing bridgehead. Such a situation faced the U.S. 87th Division as it approached the St. Goar sector. Under cover of the early y morning mists, two battalions were shuttled across near the village of Rhens, outside St. Goar. The Germans, though totally disorganize zed, formed a semblance of defense based on a local Headquarters unit. The Americans made good use of a heavy morning mist to get across the river undetected, but there was a shortage of boats and the units had to be shuttled over.

St Goar, Germany

The Western Allied invasion of Germany was coordinated by the Western Allies during the final months of hostilities in the European theatre of World War II. In preparation for the Allied invasion of Germany, a series of offensive operations were designed to seize and capture the east and west bank of the Rhine River: Operation Veritable and Operation Grenade in February 1945, and Operation Lumberjack and Operation Undertone in March 1945. The Allied invasion of Germany started with the Western Allies crossing the Rhine on 22 March 1945 before fanning out and overrunning all of western Germany from the Baltic in the north to the Alpine passes in the south, where they linked up with troops of the U.S. Fifth Army in Italy. Combined with the capture of Berchtesgaden, any hope of Nazi leadership continuing to wage war from a so-called "National redoubt" or escape through the Alps was crushed, shortly followed by unconditional German surrender on 8 May 1945. This is known as the "Central Europe campaign" in United States military histories.

Wikipedia: Western Allied invasion of Germany

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