Читать книгу The American Operations in WW2: Central Europe - U.S. Army Center of Military History - Страница 4

On 19 March Eisenhower told Bradley to prepare the First Army for a breakout from the Remagen bridgehead anytime after 22 March. The same day, in response to the Third Army's robust showing in the Saar-Palatinate region, and in order to have another strong force on the Rhine's east bank guarding the First Army's flank, Bradley gave Patton the go-ahead for an assault crossing of the Rhine as soon as possible.

These were exactly the orders for which Patton had hoped. The aggressive American general felt that if a sufficiently strong force could be thrown across the river and significant gains made, then

Eisenhower might transfer responsibility for the main drive through Germany from Montgomery's 21 Army Group to Bradley's 12th. Patton also appreciated the opportunity he now had to beat Montgomery across the river and win for the Third Army the coveted distinction of making the first assault crossing of the Rhine in modern history. To accomplish this, he had to move quickly.

On 21 March Patton ordered his XII Corps to prepare for an assault over the Rhine on the following night, one day before Montgomery's scheduled crossing. While this was certainly short notice, it did not catch the XII Corps completely unaware. As soon as Patton had received the orders on the 19th to make a crossing, he had begun sending assault boats, bridging equipment, and other supplies forward from depots in Lorraine where they had been stockpiled since autumn in the expectation of just such an opportunity. Seeing this equipment moving up, his frontline soldiers needed no orders from higher headquarters to tell them what it meant.

The location of the river-crossing assault was critical. Patton knew that the most obvious place to jump the river was at Mainz or just downstream, north of the city. The choice was obvious because the Main River, flowing northward 30 miles east of and parallel to the Rhine, turns west and empties into the Rhine at Mainz and an advance south of the city would involve crossing two rivers rather than one. However, Patton also realized that the Germans were aware of this difficulty and would expect his attack north of Mainz. Thus, he decided to feint at Mainz while making his real effort at Nierstein and Oppenheim, 9 to 10 miles south of the city. Following this primary assault, which the XII Corps would undertake, the VIII Corps would execute supporting crossings at Boppard and St. Goar, 25 to 30 miles northwest of Mainz.

The terrain in the vicinity of Nierstein and Oppenheim was conducive to artillery support, with high ground on the west bank overlooking relatively flat land to the east. However, the same flat east bank meant that the bridgehead would have to be rapidly and powerfully reinforced and expanded beyond the river since there was no high ground on which to set up a bridgehead defense. The importance of quickly obtaining a deep bridgehead was increased by the fact that the first access to a decent road network was over 6 miles inland at the town of Grossgerau.

On 22 March, with a bright moon lighting the late-night sky, elements of the XII Corps' 5th Infantry Division began the Third Army's Rhine crossing. At Nierstein assault troops met no resistance. As the first boats reached the east bank, seven startled Germans surrendered and then paddled themselves unescorted to the west bank to be placed in custody. Upstream at Oppenheim, however, the effort did not proceed so casually. The first wave of boats was halfway across when the Germans began pouring machine-gun fire into their midst. An intense exchange of fire lasted for about thirty minutes as assault boats kept pushing across the river and those men who had already made it across mounted attacks against the scattered defensive strongpoints. Finally the Germans surrendered, and by midnight units moved out laterally to consolidate the crossing sites and to attack the first villages beyond the river. German resistance everywhere was sporadic, and the hastily mounted counterattacks invariably burned out quickly, causing few casualties. The Germans lacked both the manpower and the heavy equipment to make a more determined defense.

Infantrymen of the 6th Armored Division dash across an open street in a battle-torn German town. (National Archives)

By midafternoon on 23 March all three regiments of the 5th Infantry Division were in the bridgehead, and an attached regiment from the 90th Infantry Division was crossing. Tanks and tank destroyers had been ferried across all morning, and by evening a treadway bridge was open to traffic. By midnight, infantry units had pushed the boundary of the bridgehead more than S miles inland, ensuring the unqualified success of the first modern assault crossing of the Rhine.