22-23 March 1945: Lead elements of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army crossed the Rhine, beating Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery's 21st Army Grp. by a day.

Patton's XII Corps sent the 5th Inf. Div. across the Rhine at Oppenheim, south of Mainz, in assault boats to establish a bridgehead. Once across, LCMs, LCVPs, and DUKWs ferried troops across while engineers built a pontoon bridge to get trucks, tanks, half-tracks, and artillery pieces across.

Farther north of Oppenheim, XX Corps began sending its units across and began building a railroad bridge to capitalize on Mainz' rail network on 24 March.

Patton's VIII Corps received assault boats and landing craft used to the south on 24 March and began pushing across its divisions at St. Goar and Boppard on 25 March.

For details, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Front_(World_War_II)#Invasion_of_Germany

ILLUSTRATIONS: (1) 5th Inf. Div. soldiers wait to board assault boats for the Rhine River crossing. (2) These men of the 5th Inf. Div. were in the first wave to cross the Rhine at Oppenheim on the night of 22-23 March. (3) Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Third Army commander, stands on a pontoon bridge over the Rhine urinating in the river as XII Corps units cross over on 24 March. (4) Assault boats ferry VIII Corps' lead elements across the Rhine at St. Goar under the watchful eye of riflemen looking for snipers on the far shore on 25 March. (5) 89th Inf. Div. infantrymen board an LCVP to cross the Rhine at Boppard on 25 March. (6) 89th Inf. Div. GIs crouch low in a motorized assault boat crossing the Rhine under heavy fire. (7) Sailors in army uniforms operate landing craft ferrying 89th Inf. Div. GIs across the Rhine on 25 and 26 March.