at low altitude and then quickly retreat to avoid Allied fighters. The Luftwaffe also mustered a large number of planes for Operation Bodenplatte that took place on New Year's Day 1945. On March 7, 1945 when the U.S. Army discovered the Ludendorff Bridge intact across the Rhine, M45-armed U.S. half-tracks defended the American troops crossing the bridge on March 9, 1945 to great effect. At Oppenheim, when the Allies were gathering to make a massive push after crossing the river Rhine (March 1945), 248 German warplanes were used in an effort to destroy the bridge first. U.S. Army anti-aircraft artillery battalions massed, shot down 30% of the attacking force mainly with M45 Quadmounts and prevented the bridge from being touched before the U.S. Third Army went into Germany. It was also tested by the US Navy as a solution for the Kamikaze attacks that started in late 1944. Two Essex class aircraft carriers received six mounts each for operational testing starting with CV-16 Lexington in May 1945. Her gunnery department in general was positive towards the powered mounts but felt that the guns were too light and ineffective against the high speeds that the diving Kamikaze aircraft possessed. The M45 Quadmount was ineffective against the new, fast-flying planes of the Jet Age. However, it was used against infantry targets in US post-war service. In Vietnam they were pressed into service to defend bases and to ride escort convoys along Viet Cong roads. The French Army also used M45s in combat. M45 Quad Mounts were placed in trucks to deal with ambushes and four M45s were used during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. TCM-20 The TCM-20 was a postwar Israeli development of the M45 mount, equipped with two 20mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannons in lieu of machine guns. In frontline Israeli service, it was replaced by the M163 Vulcan Air Defense System in the 1970s, but some reserve units still used TCM-20s into the 1980s. The weapon was also exported to several third-world countries. Mountings During World War II, the M45 turret was mounted on two specific systems; the M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage and the M51 Multiple Machine Gun Carriage. When mounted on the M20 trailer, it was known as the M55 Machine Gun Trailer Mount, but this system had not finished testing before the cessation of hostilities. M51s were withdrawn from service by the end of World War II