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WWII On This Day: March 23

What happened on March 23 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
Horsa gliders on the ground near Hamminkeln after the airborne landing east of the Rhine, March 1945.
Horsa gliders near Hamminkeln, 25 March 1945 · Imperial War Museums BU 2287 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence · Source
The Rhine Crossings

Wesel is destroyed

Bomber Command attacked Wesel with around 200 Lancasters shortly before the commandos went in, and the town was reported afterwards as about 97 per cent destroyed. The commando brigade crossed a few minutes later and moved into the rubble while it was still burning. The bombing was extremely effective militarily and it removed a town.

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British 5.5 inch guns firing at the Rhine crossing. About 5,000 guns supported Plunder.
British 5.5 inch guns firing at the Rhine crossing. About 5,000 guns supported Plunder. Imperial War Museums B 15772 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence Source
The Rhine Crossings

Five thousand guns

The barrage opened along a twenty-mile front and ran for most of the night. Highland Division battalions crossed at Rees in Buffalo amphibious carriers behind it, and Wesel was taken by 1 Commando Brigade. Rees itself was held by German parachute troops and took three days of house fighting. It is the one place on the northern crossing where the defence was what the planning had assumed it would be everywhere.

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