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WWII On This Day: March 10

What happened on March 10 during World War II? This date brings together 2 events from 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1945
Churchill tanks of 34th Tank Brigade at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945.
Churchill tanks of 34th Tank Brigade at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945 · Imperial War Museums B 14422 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence · Source
The Rhineland Battles

An army destroyed on the wrong side of a river

Around 280,000 German prisoners were taken west of the Rhine between February and March, together with the equipment they could not get across. Rundstedt had asked repeatedly to withdraw behind the river and had been refused every time. Behind the Rhine those divisions would have been worth something. West of it they were destroyed piecemeal in flooded polder and forest. The crossings three weeks later were cheap because this month had already been expensive.

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The Rhineland Battles

What the fortnight cost

Veritable cost 15,634 Allied casualties. German losses in the sector are put at around 44,239, a First Canadian Army estimate rather than a German return, and it should be read as one. The honest reading is that the plan was sound and one component of it failed for a reason the Allies had had five months to prevent. Had the Roer dams been taken in the autumn, Grenade would have opened on 10 February, Schlemm would have had two battles to fight, and the Reichswald would not have needed a…

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