Operation Veritable +65 years

Discussion in 'All Anniversaries' started by Owen, Feb 8, 2010.

  1. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    Filmreels re OPERATION VERITABLE to be found on British Pathe:

    1) The fall of Goch:

    Goch grabbed GOCH GRABBED! - British Pathe

    More pictures of Goch and the anti-tank ditches surrounding the place: INVASION SCENES GERMANY: BRITISH TROOPS - British Pathé

    2) Flooded communication lines:

    Views of the flooded communication lines along the northern fringes and the muddy condition of the roads within the Reichswald , demonstrating the difficulties the British experienced in keeping the offensive going:

    FLOODED AND MUD BOUND ROADS - British Pathé

    INVASION SCENES - EUROPE - British Pathe

    3) Veritable :

    Not sure where these films were taken, Reichswald, Cleve/Goch (?) the last sequence is 5th Black watch, of the 51st Highland Division in Gennep (from 00.01.48 onwards):

    THE PUSH IN THE RHINE - complete version - British Pathe

    More Veritable from 00.01.13 onwards:

    WEST FRONT WAR REPORT - British Pathe

    I like the umbrella at 00.02.27 marvellous shot.

    4) Attack on the Reichswald:

    Shots of the opening stages of Veritable; tanks and troops moving on to the Reichswald:

    MONTY'S NEW OFFENSIVE - British Pathe

    Finally, this filmreel contains many shots of the completely shot up Reichswald forest:

    ( INVASION SCENES - EUROPE ) - British Pathe

    Rocket Battery firing near Groesbeek:
    INVASION SCENES EUROPE - British Pathé

    5) Road to Cleve

    INVASION SCENES - British Pathé

    images of the destroyed town of Cleve
    INVASION SCENES - British Pathé

    6) German Documentary "Krieg am Niederrhein":

    Krieg am Niederrhein - Teil 1 - YouTube (part 1)
    Krieg am Niederrhein - Teil 2 - YouTube (part 2)
    Krieg am Niederrhein - Teil 3 - YouTube (part 3)

    Krieg am Niederrhein ( Gennep NL.) - YouTube

    7) Operation Veritable (general)

    This uploaded documentary on You Tube gives a good overview of the Rhineland battle

    23rd Field Regiment (S.P.) RCA-Episode 5, Part 2/4 Operation Veritable Part One - YouTube
    23rd Field Regiment (S.P.) RCA-Episode 5, Part 3/4, Operation Veritable Part Two - YouTube
     
  2. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    .................and at the sharp end!

    GUELPH — The war was nearly over when Stan Struthers had his left arm shot beyond repair.
    It was during the siege of Xanten on the morning of March 8, 1945, two months to the day before Germany surrendered to the Allies.
    “I should never have been there, I had dysentery so bad,” Struthers said Sunday from an easy chair in his country home in Aberfoyle.
    But Struthers had no way of knowing this would be his last engagement. For the 21-year-old stretcher bearer from Preston, Ont., it was just another “terrible, terrible battle,” his 30th since being deployed less than a year before, in a war that might drag on for years.
    He was knee-deep in muddy water trying to attend to a soldier who had been shot through the belly when a German sniper began trying to pick him off.
    He felt something graze his nose. “At first I didn’t know I was hit,” Struthers said Sunday. “My nose was still there.”
    The bullet grazed his nose on its way to his arm, where it exploded on impact, shattering bones and shredding arteries near the elbow.
    He tucked the limp, bloody limb into his tunic and returned to the task of fetching the wounded soldier.
    Being a medic, Struthers had morphine plus his rum rations to get him through the next few hours. He came to his senses a week later. A doctor informed him gangrene had set in, and they had been forced to amputate.
    “Nobody even asked me,” he said.
    Of course, Struthers was one of the lucky ones. Of the 1,200 Canadian soldiers at Xanten, “there wasn’t many left” after the battle, Struthers said. It was one of the last major offensives before the fall of Germany in May.
    Struthers returned to Canada to a hero’s welcome. He started with a pension of $60 a month, which he remembers as satisfactory, and started a farm he would operate for the next 50 years.
    Struthers will be honoured, and his sacrifice brought to mind for all to consider, at a Remembrance Day ceremony this Thursday in Aberfoyle, where he has lived since 1995.
    Over 50 members of his family will be there, his grandson Jason Struthers said.
    On Sunday, the cheery 87-year-old told stories from the war. He remembered finding a German farmhouse swollen with stores of fruit and poultry a mere 10 kilometres from the border with Holland, where the populace was starving, and conjured up the smell of piles of putrefying bodies left over after the invasion of Normandy.
    “The day I landed was the burial day. They had a big long trench, and they had carcasses lining it all the way down,” he said.
    “They would just roll them up in grey blankets and lay them in there. They were still getting them out of the water even.”
    As he spoke, what was left of his left arm jutted into the air, displaying a veiny nub ending about two inches above the elbow.
    Struthers lamented the loss of his friends from Preston. “There were seven of us, and I’m the only one who came back,” he said.
    That sense of loss has come back again in recent years. After serving 34 years with the Canadian War Amps charity, he said the national group has thinned from thousands to about 200.
    “There’s not many left, eh?” he said.
    Asked what message he would like to pass on about war, Struthers replied, “I think they should work it out. I think all countries should talk it out. It’s usually the poor people that have to go to war.”

    Drew Halfnight, Guelph Mercury
     
    Buteman likes this.
  3. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

  4. Buteman

    Buteman 336/102 LAA Regiment (7 Lincolns), RA

    Why have a seperate thread. The title of this one is Operation Veritable.:confused:
     
  5. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

  6. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    The Third British was put in total control of the Rhine crossing including the preparation
     
  7. Rob Dickers

    Rob Dickers 10th MEDIUM REGT RA

    The Third British was put in total control of the Rhine crossing including the preparation

    "Veritable" the clearing of the West bank of the Rhine, Reichswald Forest, Hochwald Forest & breaking the Siegfried Line ("Blockbuster").
    was commanded by 1st Canadian Army.
    with XXX corps , 2 Cdn Corps and 5 AG's RA under control.

    The actual Rhine (water) Crossing "Plunder" was under command 51st & 15th Scottish Divs

    Rob
     
  8. Jonathan Ball

    Jonathan Ball It's a way of life.

    Rob

    A couple of pages from the 15th Scottish Division History. I think the second page is what Brian is alluding to which came at the end of Veritable. I think the quote from the 46th Brigade History is worth noting. However, the Divisional History does confirm your point on Operation Plunder. I'll scan them if anyone would like to see.

    Jonathan.
     

    Attached Files:

  9. Jonathan Ball

    Jonathan Ball It's a way of life.

    Operation Plunder
     

    Attached Files:

    CL1 likes this.
  10. Urfin Jus

    Urfin Jus MG42 Gunner

    Map from History of the 15th (Scottish) Division:

    [​IMG]

    One of the best map of those I've seen before, thanks :salut:
     
  11. Sonnema

    Sonnema Junior Member

    Regarding this Pathe filmreel:
    Rocket Battery firing near Groesbeek:
    INVASION SCENES EUROPE - British Pathé

    It must have been on the border of Heumensoord, next to the Scheidingsweg in Nijmegen. My father stayed there with his family at his aunts' house, as they couldn't live so close to the town centre of Nijmegen anymore, due to the fighting. This is on the border of Nijmegen.

    He told me the allied fired into the Reichswald the entire night and the next day the field behind the houses was filled with empty shell cases. He was only 5 at the time, but it made such an impact, he never forgot it.
     
  12. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

  13. Sonnema

    Sonnema Junior Member

    Thanks so much for the update! I will study the map later. It's so interesting to read all of this. Especially since I am from Nijmegen (lived there until I was 27, then moved to Sweden) so I know the area really well.

    Just think what an impact it must have made on a little boy. When he told us about it, he could see and hear it all happening again.
     
  14. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

  15. Rob Dickers

    Rob Dickers 10th MEDIUM REGT RA

    deleted
    see posts 59,60.
     
  16. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

  17. Buteman

    Buteman 336/102 LAA Regiment (7 Lincolns), RA

    This was the exact location of the Land Mattress Battery on 8 Feb 1944

    [​IMG]

    This is a photo of one of them with the ammunition alongside. They each fired a salvo of 32 Rockets. There were 12 of them and on the 8th February between 05-00 and 13-00 hours they fired 13 times. 4996 Rockets in total.

    [​IMG]
     
  18. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

  19. Rob Dickers

    Rob Dickers 10th MEDIUM REGT RA

    Sorry chaps, just checked the file again
    was right in the first place
    4AGRA & 8AGRA missing from the map.

    4AGRA in sp 30 Corps - location - Beers
    8AGRA in sp US 75th Inf Div & 30 Corps - Location - Beringe 754059

    [​IMG]
     
  20. Rob Dickers

    Rob Dickers 10th MEDIUM REGT RA

    8AGRA (8 Corps) Orbat "Veritable"

    [​IMG]
     

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