March – April 1945
Closing of the Ruhr Pocket
In March 1945, as Allied forces swarmed across the Rhine at Remagen in the south and Wesel in the north, most of the German forces in the region fell back upon the Ruhr Valley. Rather than attempt an immediate head-on assault, the U.S. Ninth and First Armies moved around behind the enemy, so that by 1 April an entire army group was encircled. This meant, in effect, that a sizeable portion of the German army in the west was trapped, and as a result the Allies were able to sweep rapidly across northern Germany in the first half of April. Realizing the hopelessness of his position, the German commander committed suicide, and those remaining within the “Ruhr Pocket” surrendered—some 325,000 soldiers in all. While the Allies would continue to encounter pockets of resistance in their conquest of western Germany, the closing of the Ruhr Pocket effectively destroyed the German Army as an effective force in the West.

History:
Central Europe

Campaign Maps:
Encirclement of the Ruhr, 29 March – 4 April 1945
Reduction of Ruhr Pocket and Advance to Elbe and Mulde Rivers, 5-18 April 1945

Personal Accounts:
Rutgers Oral History Archive: Interview with William G. Van Allen
Rutgers Oral History Archive: Interview with Raymond Mortensen

Photographs:
Two anti-tank Infantrymen of the 101st Infantry Regiment, dash past a blazing German gasoline trailer in square of Kronach, Germany, April 14, 1945
Infantrymen of the 255th Infantry Regiment move down a street in Waldenburg to hunt out the Hun after a recent raid by 63rd Division, April 16, 1945