of the river the day before the much anticipated Rhine crossings by the 21st Army Group (First Canadian Army and the British Second Army) under Field Marshal Montgomery in the third week of March 1945. Operation Varsity was a massive airborne operation in conjunction with Operation Plunder, the amphibious crossings. By early April, the Rhine had been crossed by all the Allied armies operating west of the river, and the battles for the Rhineland were over. In the official histories of the British and Canadian armies, the term Rhineland refers only to fighting west of the river in February and March 1945, with subsequent operations on the river and to the east known as "Rhine Crossing". Both terms are official Battle Honours in the Commonwealth forces. End of the province Following the unconditional surrender of Germany in 1945, the Rhineland was split between the French and British Occupation Zones. The Rhineland and the other Prussian provinces were abolished in 1946 and the Abolition of Prussia in 1947 formally ended Prussia's existence as a state. The territory of the former province was incorporated into three different states of the new Federal Republic of Germany. The northern part of the province, under British administration, was merged with the former province of Westphalia to form North Rhine-Westphalia. Most of the southern portion, which was under French administration, was merged with the Palatinate (previously an exclave of Bavaria) and various other territories to form Rhineland-Palatinate. The French organised the Saarland as a separate protectorate on 16 February 1946 and it eventually joined the Federal Republic as a separate state in 1957. Within North Rhine-Westphalia, the (LVR), which was established in 1953 as regional council, still holds considerable administrative power and can be regarded as a direct successor of the Rhine Province administration. There is no equivalent successor in Rhineland-Palatinate or Saarland. Notes References Further reading Brophy, James M. Popular Culture and the Public Sphere in the Rhineland, 1800–1850 (2010) excerpt and text search Collar, Peter. The Propaganda War in the Rhineland: Weimar Germany, Race and Occupation after World War I (2013) excerpt and text search Diefendorf, Jeffry M. Businessmen and Politics in the Rhineland, 1789–1834 (1980) Emmerson, J.T. Rhineland Crisis, 7 March 1936 (1977) Rowe, Michael, From Reich to State: The Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, 1780–1830 (2007) excerpt and text search Sperber, Jonathan. Rhineland Radicals: The Democratic Movement and the Revolution of 1848–1849