Crossing the Rhine

The seventh and concluding set of Second World War stamps are being issued on March 20, 1995, just before the 50th anniversary of V-E Day, on the theme of peace. The Rhineland campaign necessitated frontal assaults against three successive fortified zones: the outposts at the edge of the Reichswald; the Siegfried Line which crossed the Reichswald; and the Hochwald strongpoints - the "Layback". The campaign was planned in stages. First Canadian Army would attack from the Nijmegen salient south-eastern and clear the area between Maas and the Rhine. In two phases, First Canadian Army fought through the Reichswald and the Siegfried Line to the German city of Goch and then pushed through the Hochwald to Wesel. By March 11, the remaining Nazi soldiers surrendered and resistance ceased west of the Rhine. The crossing of the Rhine by Canadian and British troops began on March 23. The airborne phase began the next morning. Two divisions, the British 6th (with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion) and the US 17th, combined for the largest single drop of the war.