Sunday, March 25, 1945. Crossing the Rhine.

The Battle of Remagen ended in a US victory.

The Red Army began the Bratislava–Brno Offensive.

Winston Churchill, accompanied by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, crossed the Rhine near Wesel in an Allied landing craft.

The trip was legitimately dangerous.

Allied forces began to cross or advance from the Rine nearly everywhere.

" Left to right: Pvt. Ray Pennington, Princetown, W.Va., Pfc. Emory Neill, Griffith, Ga., and Pfc. Howard J. Stringer, Columbia, Miss., set up their machine gun to watch and harass the Nazi movements on the other side of the Rhine near Oberwesel, Germany. All men are with 76th Infantry Division, 3rd U.S. Army. 25 March, 1945. 76th Infantry Division. Photographer: Tec 5 A.H. Herz, 166th Signal Photo Co."

"3rd U.S. Army infantrymen load onto tank destroyer in Konigstadien, Germany, as they drive deeper into Germany. 25 March, 1945. Company I, 3rd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division. Photographer: T/5 Schneider, 166th Signal Photo Co."

Today in World War II History—March 25, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—Mar. 25, 1945: US Seventh Army crosses the Rhine at Worms. US Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy flies its last strategic bombing mission of WWII.

Aachen's post Nazi mayor Franz Oppenhoff, age 42, was assassinated by the SS.

Task Force 58 conducted air raids on Okinawa.

Marine Corps Maj. Gen. William H. Rupertus, age 55, died of a heart attack.  He was the author of the Rifleman's Creed;

Rifleman's Creed

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.

Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will ...

My rifle and I know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, nor the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit ...

My rifle is human, even as I [am human], because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its sights and its barrel. I will keep my rifle clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will ...

Before God, I swear this creed. My rifle and I are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life.

So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy, but peace!

Last edition:

Saturday, March 24, 1945. Operation Varsity.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Bernard Law Montgomery, British Army, Burma, Canadian Army, Hungary, Nationalist Chinese Army, Okinawa, Operation Plunder, Operation Varsity, Red Army, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Monday, March 12, 1945. Santa Fe Riots.

Riots broke out at the internment camp at Santa Fe.

The Red Army took Küstrin.

The Germans made a determined counterattack at Remagen.

Friedrich Fromm, who had been a fence sitter in the July 20 plot, was executed.

Last edition:

Sunday, March 11, 1945. Essen destroyed.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Battle of Kiauneliškis, British Army, Burma, Lithuania, Lithuanian Partisans, Red Army, Royal Air Force, World War Two

Thursday, March 8, 1945. Operation Sunrise

In what was termed Operation Sunrise, Waffen SS General Karl Wolff met with OSS chief Allen Dulles in Lucerne, Switzerland, to discuss the surrender of German forces in northern Italy.   What Wulff, a dedicated Nazi, really hoped to do was to end the war with the Western Allies so that the Western Allies and the Germans could throw back the Soviets.

The Soviets learned of the secret meetings for their part, and suspected that this was the goal.

Wulff did end up surrendering German forces in northern Italy prior to the German surrender in the war, although not by much.

Wulff was implicated in war crimes, but was not prosecuted, and cooperated with the Allies isn the prosecution  of others.  He was tried by the Wester German government following the war and briefly imprisoned for being in hte SS.  He worked for an advertising agency after the war and died in 1984, being a questionable contributor to post war histories.

German forces on the channel islands raided Granville, sinking a small US warship and four merchant ships.

Pretty impressive for this late in the war.

Alfred Jodl informed Hitler that the Allies had captured the Ludendorff Bridge intact. Hitler was predictably outraged.

Goebbels wrotin in his dairy:

It is quite devastating that the Americans should have succeeded in capturing the Rhine bridge at Remagen intact and forming a bridgehead...

The Remagen bridgehead causes the Führer much anxiety. On the other hand he is of the opinion that it offers us certain advantages. Had the Americans not found a weak spot enabling them to cross the Rhine they probably would have swung forthwith against the Moselle. ... Nevertheless it must be assumed that the failure to blow the Remagen Bridge may well be due to sabotage, or at least serious negligence. The Fuhrer has ordered an inquiry and will impose a death sentence on anyone found guilty. The Fuhrer considers the bridgehead a definite thorn in the flesh of the Americans. He has now ringed the bridgehead with heavy weapons whose job it is to inflict the greatest possible casualties to American forces concentrated in the bridgehead. It may well be, therefore, that the bridgehead will not be all joy for the Americans.

In the evening comes the news that it has still not been possible to eliminate the Remagen bridgehead. On the contrary the Americans have reinforced it and are trying to extend it. The result is a very unpleasant situation for us. ... However we must succeed, for if the Americans continue to hold out on the right bank of the Rhine they have a base for a further advance and from the small beginning of a bridgehead such as we now see, a running sore will develop—as so often before—the poison from which will soon spread to the Reich's vitals.

The Luftwaffe began a concentrated effort to destroy the railroad bridge at Remagen.

U.S. troops were pouring across the bridge.  Knowing that it was structurally weakened by efforts to destroy it, the US began to construct a pontoon on the afternoon of this day.  Controlling both sides of the river, moreover, the US began to deploy amphibious vessels to cross the river, and the US Navy transported landing craft to the site.

Last edition:

Wednesday, March 7, 1945. The Bridge at Remagen taken.

Labels: 1910s, 1918, 1940s, 1945, Battle of Remagen, boats and ships, Canadian Navy, Japan, Remagen Germany, Romania, World War One, World War Two

Wednesday, March 7, 1945. The Bridge at Remagen taken.

The United States Army took the bridge over the Rhine at Remagen intact, and by surprise.

The Battle of Remagen commenced.

The failure of the Germans to have destroyed the heavy railroad bridge, last used by U.S. forces in 1918, was a major failure and the bridge's capture a major event in the advance of the U.S. Army into Germany.

Romania declared war on Japan.

The U-1302 was sunk in the St. George's Channel by the Canadian frigates Strathadam and Thefford Mines.

Related thread:

December 13, 1918. Crossing the Rhine

Labels: 1910s, 1918, 1940s, 1945, Army, Canadian Army, Germany, Occupation of Germany 1918-1919, World War Two

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 6, 1945. Soviet murders in Poland and Eagle 7.

Labels: 1940, 1940s, 1945, Burma, German Wehrmacht, Hungary, Nationalist Chinese Army, Operation Springi Awakening, Petroleum, Polish Government in Exile, Polish Home Army, Romania, USSR, War Crimes