Big Pigeon - Pottawattamie County, Iowa
  • Pigeon Home
    • Usage Hints
    • Acknowledgments
    • Resources >
      • Free Sites
      • Pay Sites
      • Print Resources
      • Search Engines
      • Land Records
      • Resources - Denmark >
        • Finding Danish Ancestors
    • Project Mgt - Public >
      • Website Overview
      • Website Log
      • Project Overview
      • Mac Computer Use
      • Weebly Use
      • Reunion Use
      • Project History
      • Image Provenance
    • Project Mgt - Private >
      • Site Management
      • Site Plan
      • Contact List
      • Backup Info & Log
      • System Info & Log
      • Image Storage
      • E-Mail Log
      • Asset Organization
      • History Index
      • Binders & Photos
      • Upon My Death
      • Donations & Dispersal
  • Family
    • Photos - Recent
    • Christiansen
    • Rasmussen
    • Christiansen/Rasmussen News
    • Larsen/Larson
    • Hansen
    • Larsen/Hansen News
    • Allied Families
    • Wall of Honor
  • St. Paul's
    • Early Families >
      • Early Families Help
      • Early Families More Lists
    • St. Paul's Roots
    • St. Paul's Timeline
    • St. Paul's Resources
  • PottCo
    • Early History >
      • Missouri River
      • Native Americans
      • Colonial Period
    • Pott. Co. History
    • Big Pigeon Area >
      • Area Towns >
        • Beebeetown
        • Crescent
        • Honey Creeek
        • Loveland
        • Neola
        • Persia
        • Underwood
        • Weston
        • Lost Locales
      • Danes from Dronninglund
      • Maps & Plats
      • Big Pigeon Galleries >
        • Gallery 1 - Area Historic Structures
        • Gallery 2 - Grange Sunday School
    • Avoca >
      • Gold Star Avoca
      • Cuppy's Grove
    • Pott. Co. Addendum
    • LDS History >
      • LDS Links
      • Gallery 1 - Mormon Maps
    • A House Divided >
      • Endnotes
      • Niels Peder Pedersen
      • Ane Katrine Pedersen
      • Kirsten Pedersen
      • Kirsten's Story >
        • Kirsten's LDS Daughters
        • Kirsten's Daughter, Karen Bondo
        • Kirsten's Son, Anders Johnson
        • Kirsten's Niece, Christine Mortensen
        • Kirsten's Niece, Anne Marie Larsen
    • More History >
      • Iowa History
      • American History
  • WWII Home
    • Big Pigeon and WWII
  • WWII Roster
    • The Roster >
      • Roster-A
      • Roster-B
      • Roster-C
      • Roster-D
      • Roster-EF
      • Roster-G
      • Roster-H
      • Roster-IJ
      • Roster-KL
      • Roster-M
      • Roster-NO
      • Roster-P
      • Roster-QR
      • Roster-S
      • Roster-TUV
      • Roster-WXYZ
    • Roster Appendices >
      • Other In-Service Deaths
      • Post-Separation Deaths
    • Roster Notes >
      • Roster Demographics
      • Awards for Valor
      • Iowa Casualties & Dead
    • Roster Homes >
      • Council Bluffs
      • Rural Pott. Co.
      • Cass Co.
      • Harrison Co.
      • Mills Co.
      • Montgomery Co.
      • Shelby Co.
      • Other SW Iowa Counties
      • Other Iowa Counties
      • Iowa Border States
      • Other States
    • Roster Deaths >
      • War with Japan
      • Battle of the Atlantic
      • Mediterranean Theater
      • European Theater
      • Stateside Deaths
      • The Air Dead
      • The Sea Dead
    • Roster Photos >
      • Roster Photos - Contents
      • Photos of Individuals
      • Land War with Japan
      • Air War with Japan
      • Sea War with Japan
      • Land War with Germany
      • Air War with Germany
      • Sea War with Germany
      • Stateside
      • Memorials
      • Cemeteries
    • Roster Outliers >
      • Pott. Co. Discrepancies
    • About the Roster >
      • Roster Planning
      • Members Not in St. Paul's
    • Roster Attic >
      • Recent Roster Additions
      • Roster Additions Log
  • WWII US
    • WWII Operations
    • WWII Overview
    • WWII Commanders
    • WWII Web Sources >
      • Web Sources - Personnel
      • Web Sources - Japan
      • Web Sources - Germany
    • WWII Personnel >
      • WWII Casualties
      • WWII Deaths
      • WWII Burials
      • Service Numbers
    • WWII Ground Forces >
      • High Level Organization
      • Infantry Organization >
        • Infantry Equipment
      • Ground Forces - Japan
      • Ground Forces - The MTO
    • WWII in The Air
    • WWII at Sea
    • WWII at Home
    • Civilian Victims
    • Strategic Bombing
    • The Cold War
    • World War I >
      • Iowa In World War I
  • Japan
    • WWII - Japan Overview
    • Japan Ascendant
    • US Naval War w/ Japan >
      • US Submarine Force
      • Third & Fifth Fleets
    • US Air Force War w/ Japan >
      • Fifth Air Force
      • Seventh Air Force
      • Thirteenth Air Force
    • Japan Lashes Out >
      • Pearl Harbor
      • Guam & Wake Island
      • Malaya & Singapore Lost
      • The Dutch Indies Lost
      • The Philippines Lost
      • New Guinea & Solomons
    • Japan Overreaches >
      • Coral Sea
      • Midway
    • South & SW Pacific >
      • Solomons Naval War
      • Solomon Is., Guadalcanal
      • SE New Guinea, Papua
      • NE New Guinea, Lae to Madang
      • Solomon Is., New Georgia
      • Solomon Is., Bougainville
      • Bismarck Archipelago
      • Western New Guinea
    • North Pacific >
      • Alaska
      • Attu & Kiska
      • Pacific Lend-Lease Routes
    • Central Pacific >
      • Gilbert Islands
      • Marshall Islands
      • Mariana Islands
      • Palau Islands
    • Philippines Liberated >
      • Leyte
      • Battle of Leyte Gulf
      • Philippines Naval War
      • Luzon
      • Southern Philippines
    • Iwo Jima & Okinawa >
      • Iwo Jima
      • Land Battle of Okinawa
      • Naval Battle of Okinawa
    • China-Burma-India >
      • China - 1941-45
      • India - 1942-45
      • Burma - 1941-45
      • Crossing the Hump
    • Japan Overpowered >
      • Japan Under Attack
      • Strategic Air War - Japan
      • Japan Vanquished
    • The Pacific Base Areas
  • Germany
    • WWII-Germany Overview
    • Battle of the Atlantic
    • The MTO >
      • MTO Overview >
        • MTO Background
      • North Africa >
        • Operation Torch
        • The Race to Tunis
        • Tunisia
      • Italy >
        • Sicily
        • Italy Leaves the Axis
        • Salerno-Naples-Foggia
        • To the Gustav Line
        • Battle of Anzio
        • Cassino/the Gustav Line
        • Cassino to Rome
        • Rome To Florence
        • Northern Apennines
        • The Po Valley
      • MTO Air War
      • MTO Sea War
      • MTO Comm. Zone
    • The ETO >
      • ETO Overview >
        • ETO Background
      • ETO Orders of Battle >
        • ETO Unit Subordination
      • Normandy Campaign >
        • D-Day
        • ETO, 6 June 1944
        • Normandy, June 1944
        • ETO, 30 June 1944
        • Normandy, July 1944
        • After D-Day
      • Liberation >
        • Operation Cobra
        • ETO, 1 August 1944
        • Brittany
        • Normandy
        • Northern France & Belgium
        • ETO, 25 August 1944
        • Southern France
      • War of Attrition >
        • ETO, 15 September 1944
        • Netherlands 1944
        • Rhineland 1944 >
          • V Corps at the West Wall
          • Aachen
          • Hürtgen Forest
          • Operation Queen
          • Queen/Hürtgen
          • Last 1944 Offensives
        • Lorraine/Alsace 1944 >
          • Lorraine/Third Army
          • Lorraine/Seventh Army
          • Alsace/Seventh Army
        • ETO, 15 December 1944
      • Ardennes/The Bulge >
        • Before the Bulge
        • The Bulge Begins
        • The Bulge Grows
        • Ardennes, 25 December 1944
        • The Bulge Contained
        • The Bulge Eliminated
        • Ardennes/Bulge Details
        • Ardennes/Bulge Overview
      • Alsace 1945 >
        • Alsace, Nordwind
        • Alsace, Colmar Pocket
      • Siegfried Line 1945 >
        • ETO, 26 January 1945
        • Operation Blackcock
        • First US Effort
        • Roer River Dams
        • VIII Corps to Prüm
        • XII Corps to Bitburg
        • XX Corps to Trier
      • To the Rhine >
        • ETO, 1 March 1945
        • Ops. Veritable & Grenade
        • Operation Lumberjack
        • Operation Undertone
        • Patton's Probing Attacks
        • Ninth & First Armies
        • Third & Seventh Armies
      • Central Europe >
        • Crossing the Rhine
        • Beyond the Rhine
        • ETO, 4 April 1945
        • Central Germany
        • Southern Germany
        • Germany Surrenders
      • ETO Air War
      • ETO Sea War
      • ETO Comm. Zone
    • The Eastern Front
Picture
Picture
to the Rhine
bigpigeon.us webpage WWII - Germany > ETO > to the Rhine > Ninth & First Armies, updated by RAC 17 May 2022.

In the late winter of 1945, the Allies' Rhineland Campaign passed through the remaining Siegfried Line and cleared the left bank of the Rhine River, preliminary to crossing the Rhine and advancing eastward into central Germany. For this campaign:
  • The US Ninth Army, part of General Bernard Montgomery's 21st Army Group, had responsibilty for crossing the Roer River and advancing to the Rhine between the Wesel and Dusseldorf areas.
  • Montgomery's Canadian First and British Second Armies were responsible for the lower Rhine on the Ninth Army's left.
  • The US First Army, part of General Omar Bradley's 12th Army Group, was responsible for advancing to the Rhine between Dusseldorf and the Remagen area, while protecting the Ninth Army's right flank.
The Lower Rhineland, 8 February - 10 March 1945
​

Operation Veritable and Operation Grenade of Montgomery's 21st Army Group had as their mutual objective the clearing of the Rhine's west bank downstream from Dusseldorf. The accompanying map gives 5 March as the termination date, 10 March is generally used.
  • The Canadian First Army's Operation Veritable, began in the Nijmegen area and moved southeast. British forces had occupied Nijmegen in September 1944 as part of the failed Market Garden operation.
  • The US Ninth Army's Operation Grenade began by crossing the Roer River, and then proceeded northeast. US forces had occupied the left bank of the Roer in December 1944  just before Germany's Ardennes counteroffensive.
After Operation Veritable began, German engineers sabotaged the upstream Roer River dams, flooding the Roer Valley. Although Operation Grenade officially began on 9 February, the Ninth Army couldn't  begin crossing the Roer until 23 February, thus increasing the burden on the Canadian First Army.

​On 26 February, Montgomery added the British XXX Corps to Canadian forces, renaming Operation Veritable as Operation Blockbuster.

The first two days of the Ninth's Army's Operation Grenade were difficult, both because the Roer River was still in flood stage and Wehrmacht resistance from the east bank of the Roer. Bridges were soon built and soon the Ninth Army was able to exploit the use of armor to great advantage. Canadian and American forces linked up at Geldern on 3 March after a nine-day campaign.

During Operation Grenade, Hodge's First Army was charged with protecting the Ninth Army's right flank, and thus had advanced to the outskirts of Cologne by 5 March. Much of the Siegfried Line in the First Army's sector had been overrun during the Fall of 1944.

Operations Veritable and Grenadde
Operations Veritable and Grenade
Sources for the Rhineland Campaign > Ninth & First Armies webpage:
  • The webpage header photo Crossing the Roer is courtesy of the Warfare History Network.
  • The Rhineland Campaign Overview map is courtesy of the Canadian website tothosewhoserved.org.
  • The Sixteen German Federal States index map is courtesy of the Nations Online Project.
  • The North Rhine - Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland maps are courtesy of freeworldmaps.net.
  • The Operations Veritable and Grenade map is courtesy of wikipedia.org.
  • The Siegfried Line Smashed, Eifel Plateau Overrun, and Palatine Cleared maps are courtesy of the United States Military Academy.
  • The Third Army's advance through the Siegfried Line in the western Palatinate is outlined in Chapters V, VI and VII of United States Army in World War II, European Theater of Operations, The Last Offensive at https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Last/index.html#index. Each chapter contains a detailed map.
  • The End of the Official Rhineland Campaign map is courtesy of the United States Military Academy.

Pottawattamie
  • Taken from the bigpigeon.us WWII Roster module.
Area WW II Dead - Rhineland Campaign > Ninth & First Armies:
  • Taken from the bigpigeon.us WWII Roster module.
03-07 - Rhineland Campaign 1945 > Ninth & First Armies: (five dead, updated 29 Oct 2020)
† Decker, Charles Earl, SN 37-750-378, US Army, Harrison & Mills Cos.
  • HQ Co., 1st Bn., 39th Inf. Regt., 9th Inf. Div., III Corps, First Army; DNB 28 Feb 1945 Udingen, S of Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany;  Rhineland 1945 > Ninth & First Armies.
​† Guyett, Homer Max, SN 37-734-948, US Army, Harrison Co.
  • Co. G, 16th Inf. Regt., 1st Inf. Div., III Corps, First Army; KIA 1 Mar 1945 bet. Düren and Bonn, Germany, artillery burst; Rhineland 1945 > Ninth & First Armies.
† Lutz, Wilbur Leroy, SN 37-485-626, US Army, Harrison Co.
  • 67th Armored Regt., 2nd Armored Div., XIX Corps, Ninth Army; KIA 3 Mar 1945 near Krefeld, W of Rhine River & NW of Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; Rhineland 1945 > Ninth & First Armies.
† Patton, John A., SN 37-463-856, US Army, Page Co. & Los Angeles Co., CA
  • Co. F, 504th Parachute Inf. Regt., 82nd Airborne Div., attached to First Army; KIA 2 Feb 1945, Siegfried Line, near Udenbreth SE of Monshau, North Rhineland-Westphalia, Germany; Rhineland 1945 > Ninth & First Armies.
† Rohrberg, Robert George, SN 37-490-420, US Army, Pott Co.
  • Co. F, 13th Inf. Regt., 8th Inf. Div., VII Corps, First Army; KIA 23 Feb 1945 near Düren, North Rhine–Westphalia, Germany; Rhineland 1945 > Ninth & First Armies.
Proudly powered by Weebly