The Ruhr Pocket was a battle that took place at the end of World War II in the Ruhr Area, Germany. Jump to: navigation, search World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th-century conflict that... Map of the Ruhr Area The Ruhr Area (German Ruhrgebiet or, colloquially, Ruhrpott) is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, consisting of a number of large industrial cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west, and Lippe to the north. ...

On 01. April 1945 US forces closed the pocket near Lippstadt. Britisch and canadian troops, coming from the north, and US troops from the south. Within the ruhr pocket about 430.000 german soldiers of 'Heeresgruppe B' (21 divisions) und millions of civil persons where trapped in cities heavily damaged by numerous bombings. Lippstadt is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... Picassos Guernica Terror bombing is a strategy of deliberately bombing civilian targets and strafing civilians in order to break the morale of the enemy and make the civilian population of the enemy panic. ...

While the main operations headed further towards middle- and northern germany, US-forces reduced the pocket. On 12. April 1945 US-troops (1. und 9. US-army) divided the area coming from the south. The smaller, eastern part surrendered the next day.

The western part continued to resist until 18. und 21. April. The commander Walther Model committed suicide in a forest south of the city of Duisburg. Walther Model (pronounced modal) (January 24, 1891–April 21, 1945) was a German general, and later a Field Marshal, during World War II. He was noted for his defensive skills, and was nicknamed Hitlers fireman. Model served as an infantry officer in World War I. During the Polish and... Location of Duisburg Duisburgs inner harbour Duisburg is a German city in the western part of the Ruhr Area (Ruhrgebiet) in North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

The surviving 325.000 german soldiers from the ruhr pocket and some civilians, where imprisioned in the Rheinwiesenlager. Many of them dying from starvation and exposure. The Rheinwiesenlager (Rhine meadow camps) were transit camps for millions of German POWs after World War II. There were some deaths, with a few thousand German POWs dying from starvation and exposure. ...

External links

• "North to the Ruhr Pocket and On East to Peace", 10th Infantry Regiment official history.