The Big River

General Eisenhower had hoped to crush Nazi resistance in the west in front of the Rhine. Field Marshal von Rundstedt, however, observing the Allied power arrayed against him, ordered a withdrawal behind the big river. It was a choice of two evils. Rundstedt's decision meant that the vital industries of the Ruhr would be brought into the front lines--the forward areas exposed to immediate shellfire, and the whole valley to eventual cross-river attack.

Feint & Wheel. Lieut. General William Simpson's Ninth Army feinted at Cologne, which lies on the Rhine's west bank and around which the Nazis had organized their strongest perimeter defense. Then, instead of crossing the Erft, the Ninth (six infantry and three armored divisions) wheeled north. The move appeared to achieve some tactical surprise. Big industrial towns fell like ripe fruit: Muenchen-Gladbach, Krefeld, Rheydt (birthplace of Propagandist Paul Joseph Goebbels). Krefeld, with a peacetime population of 170,000, surpassed Aachen as the biggest prize yet in the west.

The Germans' foothold on the Maas River was torn violently loose. They scuttled out of the Maas strongholds of Venlo and Roermond. When the Ninth and the Canadian First Army (which includes some English, Scottish and Welsh units) joined forces near Geldern (see map), the pocket was empty except for a few stragglers. Berlin said that the British Second Army had moved forward into the vacuum.

Ten or eleven good German divisions had been fighting the Canadians tooth & nail. On the Roer, only six bottom-of-the-barrel divisions, backed up by two armored outfits, had faced the U.S. armies. These hapless rearguards provided most of the 50,000 prisoners which the Allies took in little more than a week.

Battle of Bridges. First to reach the Rhine, the Ninth Army's 83rd Division seized Neuss, opposite Duesseldorf. The 2nd Armored Division took Urdingen, four miles from Krefeld, and the 84th Division grabbed Homberg, across from Duisburg. Soon the Yanks had a 20-mile stretch of the river's west bank.

Three bridges were still standing at Duesseldorf. When the Yanks captured their western ends, the Germans promptly set off the long-prepared demolition charges -- huge quantities of dynamite --and blew them up. At Duisburg they blew up the three bridges still standing. Under cover of darkness at Uerdingen, 19 U.S. volunteers ventured out on the Adolf Hitler Autobahn bridge -- fully aware that the Germans might blow it at any moment -- to find and cut the demolition wires. They were silhouetted in the light of burning tar and chased back off the bridge by enemy gunfire; minutes later the bridge was blown.

After these demolitions, the Nazis had only two bridges at Wesel and one or two ferries or temporary bridges near by. The Germans still west of the river were getting across as fast as possible. The enemy was certain to blow any bridge the Allies threatened to cross. A possible Allied countermove was a series of air borne operations launched at the eastern bridgeheads -- but it seemed unlikely "that Allied paratroopers, in that thickly set tled territory, could achieve sufficient sur prise to stay the Nazi hand.

Thus for the immediate future the attackers faced the prospect of crossing a bridgeless river. The deep, swift-running Rhine was 380 yards wide at Cologne, 450 at Duisburg. Months ago Eisenhower had said that for the Germans to retreat across a bridgeless Rhine would be almost a "naval operation." It would be no less so for the Allies to advance across it. Time would be needed to bring up huge quantities of assault boats, pontoons, bridging materials -- not to mention the artillery necessary to cover a crossing in real force. In the midst of ebullient talk about crossing immediately while the Germans were still disorganized, sober-headed correspondents at SHAEF advised their readers to expect a considerable period of preparation.

Blood, History. Lieut. General Courtney Hodges' First Army, which aimed its main attack at Cologne, had slower going than the Ninth. The terrain was rougher and the resistance tougher. The First's men ran into counterattacks by two enemy armored divisions. Nevertheless they reached the Rhine two miles north of Cologne, and several divisions took up positions around the city, while heavy shellfire crashed into it. The 10th Infantry and 3rd Armored Divisions were the first outfits to break into the city limits.

The Germans seemed ready to write off Cologne. They blew up the one remaining bridge, marooning the city and its small knot of defenders on the Rhine's west bank.

Southwest of Cologne, Rundstedt still had a salient with its tip in the Roerdam area, where presumably a few Germans still lingered. But the Roer, which had caused the Allies so much trouble, had passed into bloody history. The Rhine was ahead.

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