大象传媒

I came across this story during my research following my fathers footsteps of my fathers military record, It was during the time of the Rhine Crossing when he was with the 1st Gordons,the 153rd Brigade of the 51st Highland Division.
The Rhine crossing would involve Twenty-Nine Divisions,a total of one million men.The objective was to cross into the North of the Rhur, the center for the German war economy and heavly garrisoned, a breakout here combined with the American breakout from Remagen in the South would encircle the garrison and lead to its elimination. The crossing was started on the 23rd March 1945 at 2100 Hours, The artillery started at 1500 Hours with a smokescreen to conceal any troop movements, this operation was overlooked by Sir Alan Brooke and the Prime Minister,The 153rd Brigade crossed either side of the town of Rees to capture the village of Esserden, then block and defend the approach to Rees. The Crossing started with The 7th Black Watch,who lost one 'Buffalo' (troop Carrier amphibious)on a Teller mine and some leading troops on Schu Mines,this information was sent back and the following 7th Argyle's called up two 'wasps' to assist their landing and meet their objectives, and set up a platoon of Middlesex Machine Gunners,The 1st Gordons crossed without a single casuality,took their objectives, By 0700 24th March The Brigade had regrouped and had started to advance to Rees,snipers had become a big problem in this area. but the problem was solved by a Captain Mc Nair of the 454 Mountain Battery (3.7 Howitzers) These are the guns you see at the Militaty Tattoo assembled and reassembled. He came up with the idea to carry them and use them in the street to street fighting pulling the round corners or assembling them in houses to suprise the enemy who was only expecting small arms fire,by the end of the day Captain Mc Nair had reached legend status and within 48 Hours the Division had captured all their objectives under continuous fighting not seen since 'D' Day.
J Duke

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.