German Crossing of the River Rhine

The German 23rd Army, using inflatable rafts to cross the Rhine

## Quote

"The strongest army in the world, is using inflatable rafts to get across the Rhine..." - General Walter Ernst, 2052

## Context

After German success in the Battle of Emmen, which was is described to the Democratic Council as a moderate German victory despite being an intentional retreat by Coalition forces, General Walter Ernst, commander of the Northern-Western Front, ordered a general crossing of the Rhine to pursue allied forces. The Allied High Command decided that the situation in Netherlands was too tenuous to hold after a months long disagreement between the Netherlands and Coalition being settled by the events of the lesser known but more important Battle of Almelo, which was a more decisive German victory and more directly threatened to cut off Coalition forces in the North. The Netherlands government finally caved, retreating the bulk of their forces to Flanders for a more grounded stand, while Coalition forces sufficiently covered the retreat with the key flooding of certain points. Although the flooding shouldn't have been a large issue, it ended up being extremely decisive due to the fact that the Germans did not actually prepare proper rafts to cross the Rhine, delaying them heavily.

## Overview

In what has been described as the most comically overlooked strategic blunder during the Third Great War, the German 23rd, 25th and 26th Army found themselves caught off guard when the Netherlands shockingly flooded their entire country using a series of their reasonably well known dams, dikes, and floodgates. The German Army had initially planned to cross the River Rhine over the course of a couple to several days to maintain their momentum, but after finding out that most of their Amphibious crafts had been delayed in priority for more Tanks over the course of the months leading up to the war, the German High Command became infuriated, realizing that they had very little means of effectively crossing the Rhine, which had now been completely overflown for thousands of square acres. The German Army was forced to use what means they had, including Inflatable Rafts bought from local Aldis and Sports Stores, causing their crossings to become extremely sparse and delayed. Amphibious Craft were consequently put on the highest priority, but it was well known that regardless they would not be ready for many weeks. The Allied High Command, after realizing this fact, used their own sufficient landing crafts and small naval crafts to harass the Germans and set up defenses at key points, delaying the Germans even more so, causing immense casualties and drownings during practically every attempt the Germans made at crossing. Allied soldiers joked that a single bullet could kill four Germans, since one bullet causes an inflatable raft to sink and drowns the approximately 40% of the population that cannot swim. After mounting a few thousand casualties from their failed attempts the German Army simply ceased all operations in the Netherlands, choosing instead to focus on a proper Naval crossing when possible.

This delay proved to be extremely important, as allied forces from the United Nations, Britain, UK, and countries around the world continued to pour into the defenses of France, bolstering it substantially. Stronger defenses were also set up in the Netherlands to make even a proper naval crossing difficuilt. By Mid February the first Naval Crafts was ready for combat, and the first proper crossing took place on the 14th, with five hundred fifty naval craft carrying some twelve thousand infantry stormed Friesland, only to be driven back by the now substantial defenses of Coalition forces. A few more similar invasions were launched during this time, to Zwolle, Heerenveen, and Leeuwarden, all similarly to no avail. The German High Command, after losing a third of their naval craft and approximately another six thousand casualties, delayed the assault once again to build up a massive number of naval craft over the next months. In April 20, after allocating thousands of naval craft carrying some fifty thousand soldiers, a massive naval crossing was finally successful to take the Netherlands, albeit at an immense loss of life regardless. Large groups of Naval Craft proved easy targets for the now well positioned and fortified artillery, and infantry was ready to repel any landings with their sufficient cover and high morale. In addition, having recently developed and produced shallow water combat ships, many German invasions found themselves unable to have an effective response to these mobile and skirmishing boats, who were responsible for immense casualties due to their mini cannons. Allied withdrawal from their defenses were effective, rarely being captured by the inexperienced Germans who barely could man their landing craft. The only saving grace for the Germans was the relative amount of Air Superiority they enjoyed which allowed for some bombardments, due to the fact that the Coalition concentrated their air power in France. It was only in the 15th of May that the first German forces would step foot in Belgium, after having secured the Netherlands to their control through extensive naval landings and urban warfare. The Netherlands throughout the entire invasion contended that the Netherlands never needed to fall if the Allied just simply dedicated more resources to its defense, to which fell upon deaf ears for the most part.

## Consequences

In all considerations the Germans suffered forty thousand casualties in attempting to cross the Rhine, approximately nine thousand in their first attempts and another thirty one thousand in their final push, not counting the thousands more loss to Urban Warfare after the crossings. The Netherlands and Coalition were able to inflict these massive casualties despite only fielding about thirty thousand to defenses themselves, and throughout the crossings they lost approximately one thousand casualties. This would be the first major event to demoralize the German Army, beginning the compounding of morale loss that would prove substantial by 2053. Besides this, extensive propaganda was necessary to manipulate the German populace into believing this event was not a complete failure, citing Allied use of Mustard Gas, which became gradually less and less effective over the months. In addition, due to the fact that the River Crossing was able to buy the Allies four months of time, France and Belgium had become so heavily fortified that any attempt to win a decisive battle would be near zero, as Coalition forces could simply keep reinforcing. Some consider The "failed" Crossing of the Rhine to be one of the most important events in the Third Great War.