Operation Blockbuster

Operation Blockbuster Part of Western Front, World War II Operation Blockbuster (yellow) Date 26 February – 3 March 1945 Location Lower Rhine region Germany Result Allied victory Belligerents  Canada  United Kingdom  Germany Commanders and leaders Harry Crerar Brian Horrocks Alfred Schlemm

Western Allied invasion of Germany Blackcock Veritable Grenade Lumberjack Remagen Undertone Amherst Plunder Varsity Ruhr TF Baum Frankfurt South Germany Kassel Heilbronn Nuremberg Archway Hamburg West European Campaign (1944–45) Overlord Dragoon Paris Paris to the Rhine Channel Coast Market Garden Aachen Hürtgen Forest Scheldt Queen Bulge Nordwind Blackcock Colmar Pocket Reichswald Invasion of Germany End of World War II in Europe

Operation Blockbuster was the completion of the larger Operation Veritable by the First Canadian Army, reinforced by the XXX Corps from the British Second Army from late February to early March, 1945. Veritable had been slower and more costly than expected and the Canadian commander, General Harry Crerar, had decided on a fresh start for the operation. Three British and Canadian divisions advanced north-westwards, capturing unprepared German positions in the Hochwald forested ridge, before advancing on Xanten. They linked up with the Ninth US Army at Berendonk, near Geldern on 3 March.

Further reading

• Ellis, Major L. F. & with Warhurst, Lieutenant-Colonel A. E. (2004) [1st. pub. HMSO 1968]. Butler, J. R. M., ed. Victory in the West: The Defeat of Germany. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. II. Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-84574-059-9. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Operation Blockbuster.

• "The Hochwald Gap" at Canadianheroes.org