Ruhr pocket

Coordinates: 51°28′N 7°33′E / 51.467°N 7.550°E / 51.467; 7.550
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Ruhr pocket
Part of the Western Allied invasion of Germany in the Western Front of the European theatre of World War II

An American soldier at Rheinwiesenlager guards a massive crowd of German prisoners captured in the Ruhr pocket
Date1– 18 April 1945
(2 weeks and 6 days)
Location
Ruhr area, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
51°28′N 7°33′E / 51.467°N 7.550°E / 51.467; 7.550
Result Allied victory
Capitulation of the German 15th Army
Belligerents
United States United States
United Kingdom United Kingdom
(German resistance)		  Germany
Commanders and leaders
William H. Simpson
United States Leonard T. Gerow
 Nazi Germany Walter Model (Suicide)
Nazi Germany Gustav-Adolf von Zangen Surrendered
Nazi Germany Josef Harpe Surrendered
Units involved

United States 12th Army Group

United Kingdom 21st Army Group

  • 9th Army

Nazi Germany Army Group B

Casualties and losses
1,500 killed
8,000 wounded
500 missing
Total:
10,000[1]		 317,000 captured[2]
About 10,000 dead (including prisoners of war in German captivity, foreign forced laborers, Volkssturm militia and unarmed civilians)[3]

The Ruhr pocket was a

Ruhr Area
of Germany. Some 317,000 German troops were taken prisoner along with 24 generals. The Americans suffered 10,000 casualties including 2,000 killed or missing.

Exploiting the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen on 7 March 1945, the U.S. 12th Army Group (General Omar Bradley) advanced rapidly into German territory south of Army Group B (Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal) Walter Model). In the north, the Allied 21st Army Group (Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery) crossed the Rhine in Operation Plunder on 23 March. The lead elements of the two Allied army groups met on 1 April 1945, east of the Ruhr, to create the encirclement of 317,000 German troops to their west.

While the bulk of the U.S. forces advanced east towards the

U.S. First Army
joining on 4 April. For 13 days the Germans delayed or resisted the U.S. advance. On 14 April, the First and Ninth armies met, splitting the German pocket in half and German resistance began to crumble.

Having lost contact with its units, the German 15th Army capitulated the same day. Model dissolved his army group on 15 April and ordered the Volkssturm and non-combatant personnel to discard their uniforms and go home. On 16 April the bulk of the German forces surrendered en masse to the U.S. divisions. Organized resistance came to an end on 18 April. Unwilling to surrender with his rank of field marshal into Allied captivity, Model committed suicide on the afternoon of 21 April.

Background

After

U.S. First Army). Bradley and his subordinates quickly exploited the crossing made on 7 March 1945 and expanded the bridgehead
until the bridge collapsed 10 days later.

North of the Ruhr on 23 March 1945, the British Empire

US Ninth Army, launched Operation Plunder (with the airborne Operation Varsity in support) crossing the Rhine at Rees and Wesel
.

Battle

Encirclement

Having crossed the Rhine, both army groups fanned out into the German hinterland. In the south, while the

envelopment. In the north, the Ninth Army, which since the Battle of the Bulge had been assigned to the 21st Army Group, headed southeast, forming the northern pincer, while the rest of the 21st Army Group went east and northeast. Even before the encirclement was complete, Allied activity against the Ruhr had a critical impact on Germany's economy—on March 26 Joseph Goebbels noted in his diary that no more coal was coming from the Ruhr.[4]

Encirclement of the Ruhr area

Facing the Allied armies were the remnants of a shattered

First Parachute Army, altogether the remnants of 19 divisions, and millions of civilians were trapped in cities heavily damaged by Allied bombings.[6] Due to the presence of many rear area support units and Luftwaffe flak crewmembers, only 20% of Model's forces, or 75,000, had infantry weapons, with another 75,000 having pistols only and ammunition and fuel supplies were low. Model's requests for an airlift were dismissed out of hand by Hitler due to Allied air supremacy. All of Model's requests to withdraw or break out before or after the creation of the pocket were denied by Hitler, who expected "Fortress Ruhr" to hold out for months and tie down hundreds of thousands of Allied troops. The staff of Army Group B knew they only had food supplies for three weeks owing to the millions of civilians that also had to be fed.[7][5]

While the main operations were directed eastwards to central and northern Germany, elements of three U.S. armies concentrated on the pocket, taking it section by section. Model's troops put up a strong resistance along the

75th and 95th divisions near Dortmund. For every German city or town that capitulated, another fought on for every building. Bürgermeisters of some German cities presented white flags to the invading U.S. troops, such as at Duisburg and Essen, while German troops at Dortmund, Wuppertal and Hamm fought on. The presence of SS troops was a common element in most instances of all-out resistance.[8]

In the south, the attack of the

2 cm flak guns. At one point, the Germans covered a valley in a thick smokescreen, delaying the 7th Armored Division for some time.[9]

On 7 April the skies cleared and the

XXIX tactical air commands began to pound the remaining German defenders, strafing and bombing German troop concentrations and motorized and horse-drawn columns. The Allies were eager to get their hands on all German railway rolling stock and the U.S. pilots were banned from hitting this usual primary target, limiting the extent of Allied bombing operations. The rationing of U.S. artillery ammunition had been lifted and U.S. artillery in support of XVI Corps fired 259,061 rounds in 14 days.[9]

Capitulation

On 10 April the U.S. Ninth Army captured Essen. On 14 April the U.S. First and Ninth armies linked up on the

Ruhr river at Hattingen and split the pocket in two; the smaller, eastern part surrendered the next day. Model lost contact with most of his formations and commanders on 14 April. The German 15th Army under Gustav-Adolf von Zangen capitulated on 14 April, having lost all control over its subordinate formations. The Germans had continued the fight in the pocket despite no realistic hope of relief from the start, as they were tying down 18 U.S. divisions.[10][11]

Rather than surrender his command, Field Marshal Model dissolved Army Group B on 15 April. Already on 7 April the extent of the American advance to central Germany had made any breakout impossible. Model's chief of staff Carl Wagener urged him to save the lives of German soldiers and civilians by capitulating. Model refused, as he knew Hitler would not authorize it. In addition, he could not reconcile surrender with the demands he placed on his officers and men throughout the war and his career. But he also wanted to save as many lives as possible for the post-war rebuilding.[12] He decreed the discharging of all youths and older men from the army. By 17 April ammunition supplies would be exhausted, so the non-combatant troops would be allowed to surrender on that day. All combat troops were to either break out in organized formations or drop their weapons and go home, an implicit authority to surrender.[12]

Even before this order was fully transmitted, German resistance began to completely collapse on 16 April as the remnants of German divisions and corps surrendered en masse.

17th Airborne Division on 17 April while trying to cross the Rhine to German forces in the Netherlands.[13] The commander of the Allied XVIII Airborne Corps, Matthew Ridgway, sent an aide bearing a white flag to Army Group B's headquarters, calling on Model to surrender but the field marshal refused, citing his oath to Hitler. When asked for instructions by the squad leader of a German unit that was still armed, Model told them to go home as their fight was over. He then shook their hands and wished them luck.[11]

The western part of the pocket continued a weak resistance until 18 April. Model tried to get to the

Harz mountains through the American lines in a small column, but could not make it. Rather than surrender and face trial for war crimes, he committed suicide.[14]

German anti-Nazi resistance groups in Düsseldorf attempted to surrender the city to the Allied armies in the so-called "Aktion Rheinland" in order to spare Düsseldorf from further destruction. However, SS units were able to crush the resistance, and executed a number of those involved. Executions of foreign laborers and political prisoners by the Gestapo had already been occurring since February. The act of resistance did accomplish a cancellation of further bombings on the city by another 800 bombers, through contact with the Americans. Düsseldorf was captured by Americans on 18 April[15] without any notable fighting.

Aftermath

Casualties

The 317,000 German soldiers from the Ruhr pocket, and some civilians, were imprisoned in the Rheinwiesenlager (in English, "Rhine meadow camp") near Remagen, a temporary prison enclosure.

The Americans suffered c.10,000 casualties while reducing the pocket. The Ninth Army lost 341 killed, 121 missing and just under 2,000 wounded. The First Army lost three times more, which brought the U.S. casualties to 10,000. The divisions of III Corps lost 291 killed, 88 missing and 1,356 wounded, while the 8th Division of the XVIII Airborne Corps lost 198 killed, 101 missing and 1,238 wounded. Casualty totals for the Fifteenth United States Army units on the western edge of the pocket are not listed in the official U.S. history.[1]

The Americans liberated hundreds of thousands of hungry, diseased and weakened prisoners-of-war and slave laborers, the former consisting mainly of Red Army soldiers who were very happy at their liberation. The liberated slaves also had a tendency to loot and terrorize the German population once released and to clog up the roads in front of the U.S. columns.[16] The German civilians were incredulous at Germany's defeat.[13] The Americans also witnessed the destruction inflicted on Ruhr cities and towns by the Allied bombing campaigns; in many cities the U.S. troops wrested control of there was nothing but rubble, block after block. However, most of the German industrial machinery, situated in protected or decentralized locations, had survived the onslaught, unharmed, or required only minor repairs. Such equipment was quickly made operational after its capture.[16]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b MacDonald 1973, p. 372.
  2. ^ Zaloga & Dennis 2006, p. 87.
  3. ^ Wolf Stegemann, Der Ruhrkessel: Ende der Kämpfe im Westen – Verbrechen der Wehrmacht, der SS und Gestapo an der Bevölkerung bis zum letzten Tag
  4. ^ Trevor-Roper, Hugh (1978). Final Entries 1945 The Diaries of Joseph Goebbels
  5. ^ a b Zaloga 2016, p. 42.
  6. ^ MacDonald 1973, p. 359.
  7. ^ Forczyk 2011, p. 55.
  8. ^ MacDonald 1973, p. 364.
  9. ^ a b MacDonald 1973, p. 365.
  10. ^ MacDonald 1973, pp. 368–369.
  11. ^ a b Forczyk 2011, p. 56.
  12. ^ a b MacDonald 1973, p. 369.
  13. ^ a b MacDonald 1973, p. 370.
  14. ^ D'Este 1989, p. 329.
  15. ISBN 978-1-5267-4191-2
    .
  16. ^ a b MacDonald 1973, p. 366.

Bibliography

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