Reichswald - Operation Veritable
February 1945

5/7th Gordons on the move

Men of the 5/7th Gordons on the move

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After the defeat of the German Ardennes offensive the 51st Highland Division returned to Holland to recommence offensive operations. Operation Veritable was the code name for the operation which would clear the Germans from the ground between the parallel rivers of the Maas and the Rhine and drive them back over the latter.

The 51st Highland Division formed part of the 1st Canadian Army offensive. The attack was faced with three lines of defence, the first a line of anti tank ditches, defended farms and villages a mile or more deep; the second was an area of open ground in the north of the Siegfried Line which itself ran south through the Reichswaldf forest to Goch; and six miles further back was a second line named by Montgomery as the Hochwald "lay-back".

Area of Operations - Reichswald

Area of Operations - Reichswald

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