this was carried out by 44th (lowland) brigade of 15th (scottish) division during the night of 23/24 march 1945. the first wave of infantry crossed at 02.00 aboard buffalo tracked landing vehicles manned by 11th royal tank regiment of 79th armoured division. storm boats manned by the kent re field companies were held back until it was known that the buffalo crossings had been successful. word to start crossing with 6th battalion king's own scottish borderers was received at 02.45 and from then on the storm boats kept up a continuous ferrying operation, despite breakdowns of the unreliable engines. the 6th kosb crossed without a casualty. at 03.30, rafting equipment was moved down to the river bank on sledges and by 06.30 the kent re had two of these in operation (two others were destroyed by shellfire before they could be completed and had to be replaced later from reserves). these rafts took over surfacing material for the exits on the far bank, which was laid under re supervision by german prisoners. the rafts worked continuously for two and a half days, transporting across 611 vehicles among other loads. the "re history" records that the rafting troops received an unsolicited testimonial for their watermanship from a captured german officer who was being ferried back.