17/02/2026
By 17 February 1945, three British divisions were closing in on Goch in Germany during operation Veritable. The 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division and the 43rd (Wessex) Division from the north and northeast, and the 51st (Highland) Division from the north-west. General Horrocks planned a full corps operation to take the town of Goch. Using crossings over the outer ditch seized by the Wessex Division's 214th Brigade, the 44th Lowland Brigade (15th Division), moving up from Cleve by Kangeroo tanks, was to assault on 18 February 1945 between the Goch-Cleve railway and the Calcar road, while the 51st Division cleared that part of Goch lying south of the Niers.
West of the railway the 53rd Division would mark time on the high ground, ready to commit one or more brigades at short notice. The operation went on as planned. During the night of 17-18 February 1945 the 214th Brigade established nine crossings over the outer ditch, about 2500 yards from the heart of the town. They met heavy machine-gun fire, but by midnight both had consolidated bridgeheads over the inner ditch. On the other side of the Niers the Highland Division's 153rd Brigade, attacking as planned and had entered the southern part of the town. Rubble from bombing having stopped the tanks, the infantry had close street-fighting all next day and the following night. The German garrison commander surrendered on the 19th, but confused fighting was to continue south of the Niers for another 48 hours. By the evening of 21 February 1945 the battered town of Goch was free of German troops.
📸 Picture: German prisoners being escorted by British soldiers through the streets of Goch, 20 February 1945. © IWM B 14759
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