Operation Plunder was a military operation to cross the Rhine on the night of 23 March 1945, launched by the 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. The crossing of the river was at Rees, Wesel, and south of the river Lippe by the British Second Army under Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey, and the United States Ninth Army under Lieutenant General William H. Simpson. The battle of the Rhine was crucial for the advancement of Allied forces.
U.S. 89th Division crossing the Rhine under fire
The city of Wesel in ruins after Allied bombardment, March 1945.
British Commandos on the outskirts of Wesel
3-inch mortar of the 8th Royal Scots under enemy fire during the Rhine crossing, 24 March 1945
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein,, nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the Second World War.
Montgomery in 1943
Captain Bernard Montgomery (right) with Brigadier-General J. W. Sandilands, commander of the 104th Brigade, 35th Division. Montgomery served as brigade major with the 104th Brigade from January 1915 until early 1917.
The Minister of Munitions, Winston Churchill, watching the march past of the 47th (2nd London) Division in the Grande Place, Lille, France, October 1918. In front of him is the 47th Division's chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Bernard Montgomery.
Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke, GOC II Corps, with Major-General Bernard Montgomery, GOC 3rd Division, and Major-General Dudley Johnson, GOC 4th Infantry Division, pictured here in either 1939 or 1940
