March 7, 1945, American Infantry Capture a Bridge Over the Rhine
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The bridge from the eastern side: U.S. Army
In March of 1945, the collapse of Nazi Germany was imminent. American and British bombers were laying waste to nearly every German city. The German army was reaching its breaking point: Western armies were pushing from the west and in the south, they were driving the German’s inexorably back from Italy. Meanwhile, the Soviets were pushing from the east having reached Poland.
With the end approaching, the Nazi government pulled the very old and young into civilian militia units, the Volkssturm, to augment Wehrmacht units, but their military value was dubious at best. The end was a matter of time.
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In the early months of 1945, the war in Europe was coming to a conclusion.
In mid-to-late February, the Russians, driving from the east, were pushing the German army backward and had arrived less than 100 miles from Berlin. Poland, where the war had begun in 1939, was almost completely in the hands of the Soviets. After the bloody Battle of the Bulge, the American, British, French, and Canadian troops were pushing into Germany from the west and entering the Ruhr, where Germany’s industrial might was located.
It was during this time, on March 2, 1945, when General George Patton radioed one of the most brilliant and smart-assed messages to Allied Supreme Headquarters.
Title
NavWarMap No. 1 The Mediterranean. / NavWarMap No. 2 The South China Sea Area. / NavWarMap No. 3 World War 2 in the North Sea Area. / NavWarMap No. 4 The North Pacific Area. / NavWarMap No. 5. Southwest Pacific. / NavWarMap No. 6 We Fight a Global War.
1944 (dated)
Description
This is a full set of all six 1944 Navy Department pictorial maps of the worldwide battlefronts during World War II.
The NavWarMap SeriesThe NavWarMap series is a series of six maps created by the Bureau of Naval Personnel, part of the Navy Department, and distributed by the Educational Services Section of the Bureau of Naval Personnel. It is unclear exactly what the duties of the Educational Services Section entailed, but we believe these maps were created to educate and train naval and marine personnel. The Navy believed well educated men became more effective sailors and marines. These maps were printed in both single- and double-sided versions. We have been unable to ascertain why b
An American Infantry Division s Baptism of Fire in Nazi Germany
In their first combat experience, a handful of American soldiers accomplished its objective and held against powerful German counter-attacks.
Here s What You Need to Know: In November 1944, an American infantry division underwent its baptism of fire in the worst conditions imaginable and acquitted itself with honor beyond anyone’s expectation. The final outcome of the campaign, however, was determined by the heroic action of only 100 men who found themselves in a hopeless situation and simply would not give up.
The men of the 84th Division the Railsplitters were, to use the GIs’ own language, “green as grass,” fresh off the boat from the States, and they were not going to a quiet sector to get combat experience on the cheap. Their first combat mission was to assault and reduce the Geilenkirchen Salient, a chunk of the German Siegfried Line that featured dragon’s teeth, minefields, and layer after layer of c