Background
Operation Veritable was part of the Allied strategy to close up to the Rhine along its entire length before crossing into Germany. It was paired with the American Operation Grenade (Ninth US Army) to form a pincer movement against Army Group H.
Opening Phase — 8–14 February 1945
First Canadian Army launched Veritable on 8 February 1945 following one of the heaviest artillery bombardments of the Northwest Europe campaign — over 1,000 guns firing for five hours.
The II Canadian Corps and XXX British Corps attacked into the Reichswald, a dense state forest straddling the Dutch-German border south of Nijmegen. German resistance was fierce; the flooded Rhine and Maas floodplains channelled the advance onto a narrow front.
The Rhineland Battle
The Reichswald was cleared by 13 February, but German reinforcements — including elements of the 1st Fallschirmjäger Army — stiffened resistance through Goch, Calcar, and the Hochwald Forest. Not until mid-March, with the Rhine bridgehead established at Remagen, did German resistance in the Rhineland finally collapse.
Significance
Veritable cost First Canadian Army over 15,000 casualties but destroyed the cohesion of German forces west of the Rhine and set the conditions for Operation Plunder — the Rhine crossing of 23–24 March 1945.