Bank control on Rhine March 1945

Thanks Mike! Universal Carriers it shall be from now on...
Also my thanks for your thoughts on the role of those vehicles in that situation.

BTW - I also detected a US-built Weasle vehicle in the background - left of the motorbike.

 

I gave up the idea that the photos of this series are shown in the right order on Flickr. Apparently they did not come from an album but they had captions on the back - that may explain the somewhat confusing order in the Flickr upload. I think my theory is backed by the fact that halfway through the series we see a pic of an LVT in what seems to be a misty morning light - and the caption says "Major Balfour about to cross". I suppose he was not the last one to cross ...

Original caption:
"Major Balfour About To Cross
The commander of D squadron, 1st the Royal Dragoons about to cross the Rhine. D squadron was tasked with setting up assembly areas on the far bank."

Balfour is riding on an LVT numbered with a 4 - and in the photo below we see Buffallos numbered 5 and 9 - difficult to tell whether this was taken after the crossing or before. Any opinions on that?

 

The above LVT are empty but below we have a fully loaded one arriving on the east bank. Loaded with what?

 

Some more thoughts.

The leading Carrier in the photo in Post 17 does seem to have a diamond on the side in which case it is probably from the headquarters company of a motor battalion.

Mike

Edited to remove misleading information (see post below).

 

Mike - this series of photos was taken in the 30th Corps sector just downstram of Rees. It was 8th Armoured Brigade that was being "fed" into this bridgehead, starting with 4th/7th Dragoon Guards on the evening of March 24th, crossing on rafts which only became operational by 2030 hrs that evening.

You mention Vissel, but this area is quite a bit upstream from Rees and was in the 12th Corps sector.
Regards
Alex

 

Alberk - do you have any idea of the location of these pictures? The farm buildings in the background of the second picture are quite distinctive, but I'm still at a loss where they were taken. I know the pictures for some time but always thought they were a mixture of 30 & 12 Corps areas.

Picture below: is this the river at Honnepel? I always assumed it was 12 Corps sector, given the irregular composition of the river bank. I cannot make out th ecargo - could be a small vehicle (bulldozer) or trailer. Vehicles sometimes were stowed a bit diagonally up, see last picture below of the Jeep ambulances.

 

This is Tilbury Class 50/60 ferry in the process of rafting a Sherman across the river. The winch is operarated in (or from) an LVT. The church spire of Hoennepel is in the background to the left and directly behind the raft we see a building. This would be probably be on March 25th and the tank belongs to RHQ or A Sq of 4th/7th Dragoon Guards. The previous night B Sq of that unit had been ferried over - one tank at time, two per hour as stated in the war diary of 4/7 Dragoons. The pic could also have been taken on March 26th, when C Sq started taking over their tanks.


Church and building circled in green below:

 

Is the unusual load in Post 23 a Weasel? As Stolpi says some slightly overlong vehicles could be carried by having ramps to lift the rear over the LVT cab. I think I see the two rudders of a Weasel and the distinctive rear curves.

Why carry an amphibious jeep in an amphibian? Low confidence in the Weasels ability in a fast flowing river?

Mike.

 

stolpi - I was busy answering you in the thread. But we`ll stick to this one and come to the burning "Stuart" later. As to the LVT crossing area - I would say it is the left LVT circling route - you see that there is an inlet on the east bank, hence the impression they are crossing a river or lake.

 

stolpi - I was busy answering you in the other thread. But we`ll stick to this one and come to the burning "Stuart" later. As to the LVT crossing area - I would say it is the left LVT circling route - you see that there is an inlet on the east bank, hence the impression they are crossing a river or lake:
View attachment 327505

 

Mike - I would willingly cross the Rhine in Buffalo but a Weasle would stretch my confidence. But the broead tracks of a Weasle sound ideal for a muddy river bank...

 

stolpi - I would suggest the buildings are Pottdeckel farm and that this pic below was taken on the east bank. No such distinctive buildings on the west bank in the immediate area of the LVT circling route...


I am off now for a little while - doing a bike tout while on holiday in Jutland/Denmark...

 

Ah ... the Danewerke at Schleswig and Dybbol? Have a nice stay! I cycled along the former three years ago. But nowadays its inside Germany ... as is the Viking town of Haitabu

 

Trux - indeed looks like a Weasel - these tiny crafts most likely would have great difficulty crossing the swirling river water of the Rhine on their own, hence they are moved across by LVTs.

 

stolpi - in post #29 I initially wrote: ...there is an inlet on the west bank, hence the impression they are crossing a river or a lake...

It should of course be: on the east bank!

I already corrected that in the posts above...

 

I m coming back to post #27 - Shermans of 4th/7th Dragoon Guards being brought across the Rhine by a Tilbury Class 50/60 raft on the evening of March 24th and on March 25th

This unit of 8th Armoured Brigade was to support the attacks by the Canadian batallions. One attack on March 25th went in the direction of the village of Bienen. The day before some DD-tanks of the Staffordshire Yeomanry had been called to help out at Bienen. Our photographer also took a photo of the DD-tanks of the Staffordshire Yeomanry - I am not sure whether this is still in the build-up phase on the west bank or already after crossing:

The caption on Flickr says:
"Sherman DD tanks
About to cross the Rhine, March 24th 1945."
Well - they are certainly not about to cross because their canvas swimming frame is not inflated. And the Staffordshire Yeomanry crossed in the very early hours of March 24th - what we see in the photo is not an early morning light. So, I'd say: This is after the crossing - as is the case with most of the phtotos we discussed so far.

According to the War Diary of the unit two DD-tanks of the Staffordshire Yeomanry hit mines on March 24th and were destroyed. This is one of them, with a destroyed Universal Carrier by its side:


Below is a picture of a lone field grave - I believe the helmet is a tanker's helmet:

 

For the War Diary of the Staffordshires see: RHINE CROSSING 1945: The Rees bridgehead (30 Corps in operation 'Turnscrew')

 

On the CWGC website I checked the fatalities for RAC tank crews - and in particular for the Staffordshire Yeomanry for the relevant days. The result shows that the Staffordshire Yeomanry were the only RAC unit that suffered fatalities between March 23rd and March 26th in the 30th Corps bridgehead. Of these only two were buried in isolated graves - both were KIA on the 24th. Captain G H Thompson (buried grid reference 043532) and Sjt C A Carr (buried grid reference 037528). So the photo above may very likely show the grave of one of the two.

 

These are the CWGC concentration forms showing the isolated graves of the two tankers KIA. Sjt Carr is the only RAC victim on this first list.

The same goes for Captain Thompson:

 

Talking about tank losses: Below a series of photos showing a blazing "Honey" light tank. The caption on Flickr says:
"On the Way - British soldiers pass a burning tank on their way to the Rhine." As we have seen in previous posts here, not all captions are 100 % reliable. Assuming it is reliable: This would suggest that the tank struck a mine prior to the crossing, on the "friendly" west bank. That's conceivable - they went over the battlefield of the previous fighting (Operation Veritable). One should assume, though, that the approach route to the Rhine should have been thoroughly cleared of mines in the fortnight leading up to Operation Plunder. Alternatively, this could be an extremly lucky strike by German artillery fire...

In the background we see two halftacks parked... what's the pupose of the barrier tape?

In other pictures of this series it is apparently used to mark cleared and uncleared areas:

Original caption: "Sappers at work: Mine clearance near the Rhine, March 1945

Back to the blazing "Honey": In the picture below we also see a "Sherdozer" on the road...


Finally, a closer picture, with a Canadian truck going by:

So, what do you make of this? Were these pics taken on the west bank of the Rhine, before crossing? Or on the east bank, in the bridgehead?

If you say it is inside the bridgehead, on the "Berlin bank", as they used to say, here are some thoughts on that: The HQ squadron of a tank bataillon had 11 "Honeys" in their reccon troop. But the Staffordshire Yeoamanry - which was the first tank unit in the bridgehead - was equipped with DD tanks and would very likely not field any "Honeys". Rather, this could be a "Honey" of the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards. Their RHQ had crossed into the bridgehead by 1500 hrs on March 25th. Alternatively, it could be a a light tank of the 13th/18th Hussars, They had started to cross on the evening of the 25th and continued to cross on March 26th. Both units had to get across the Rhine by rafts as the first Class 40 bridge (London Bridge) did not open before the early hours of March 27th. However, a Class 15 bridge (Lambeth Bridge) was ready for traffic on the 26th. Would this bridge carry a "Honey"?