Operation Plunder & Varsity: The British and Canadian Operations

by Tim Saunders

By late March 1945, Second British Army and Ninth US Army were poised to carry out an assault crossing of the Rhine. In the British part of the operations, Montgomery’s best assault divisions were assembled to carry out the British and Canadian part of the attack between Emmerich and Wesel.

A commando brigade and two Scottish divisions carried out the initial assault under cover of darkness and a tremendous bombardment on the evening of 23rd March. Despite the best efforts of the German first Parachute Army they had established a bridgehead by dawn. During the following morning 6th British Airborne Division dropped around Hamminkeln, in the immediate rear of the Germans, in an operation codenamed VARSITY.

By 27 March, after some heavy combat, the Allies were prepared to launch their final drive to the Baltic. The Rhine crossing, though by no means the final battle, sealed the fate of Nazi Germany.

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Tim Saunders MBE MA (1956 - ????) served in the British Army as an officer in the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment and The Rifles for over 30 years before leaving to become a full time military historian. In his second career he brings together the overlapping spheres of writing, battlefield guiding and military history film making. His intuitive knowledge of warfare and soldiers that is abundantly clear from his insightful and entertaining writing is a result, of his military training, service across the world and his operational experience.
Tim's portfolio of work is wide, with videos from Vikings to WW2 being made with Battlefield History TV and Pen & Sword Digital, variously as presenter, director and editor, His books, now totalling more than twenty title, however, are mainly focused on the Napoleonic Wars and the battles of the Second World War
Tim lives on the edge of the Army's Salisbury Plain Training area and often finds himself writing to the accompaniment of the sound of real tanks and gunfire.

Reviews

[Ed Wijninga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hhhhmmmm….. not particularly impressed. Many place names spelled incorrectly, very crude maps and lots of errors in construction of sentences.