AN M4 MEDIUM TANK-DOZER cleaning a street in Colmar (top). German pillboxes along a road leading to the Colmar plain (bottom).] [Illustration] [Illustration: GERMANY THE TOWN OF BREISACH, Germany, during a heavy artillery shelling.] [Illustration: GERMANY VAUBAN CANAL WIDENSOHLEN CANAL RHONE-RHINE CANAL NEUF BRISACH, FRANCE. On 20 January 1945 U. S. and French troops of the 6th Army Group began an offensive converging in the direction of Breisach, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. This operation was aimed at the total reduction of the Colmar pocket west of the Rhine. On 1 February the U. S. forces had advanced to within three miles of Neuf Brisach while on the same day the French troops closed up to the Rhine. By 9 February the Colmar pocket had been eliminated.] [Illustration: GERMANY CITADEL ROER RIVER THE ROER RIVER AT JUELICH, GERMANY. The U. S. Ninth Army’s assault northeast from Juelich was to be the first of a series of U. S. drives to the Rhine. This attack was to begin on 10 February 1945. On 9 February the Germans blew open the discharge valves of the dams in the Schmidt area and although the area was cleared of enemy troops by the evening of 10 February, it was too late to stop the flooding of the area. The Roer River attained a width of 400-1,200 yards, a high water condition which was to last for two weeks, and prevented the scheduled U. S. attack.] [Illustration: FRANCE LOADING .50-CALIBER AMMUNITION into the wing of a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane. On 22 February one of the greatest aerial operations of the war was carried out by nearly 9,000 aircraft taking off from bases in England, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy. The targets, the German transportation facilities, covered an area of over a quarter of a million square miles.] [Illustration: GERMANY DESTROYED RAILYARD AT RHEINE, Germany, on the main line leading from Berlin and Hannover into the Netherlands. One of the most important targets of this attack was the German railway system. The enemy’s attempts at defense were completely ineffective as the bombs hit control points, railroad yards, roundhouses, and bridges. The attack so seriously crippled traffic that the railroad system did not recover during the war.] [Illustration: GERMANY ROER RIVER TREADWAY PONTON BRIDGES. Early on the morning of 23 February the Ninth Army jumped off after a heavy artillery preparation. Covering the right flank was a corps of the First Army. Because the enemy was surprised by this attack only moderate opposition was encountered and by the end of the first day bridgeheads two to four miles deep were held, infantry troops were east of the Roer River, and seven bridges were being completed under a heavy screen of smoke.] [Illustration] [Illustration: GERMANY