The Ruhr pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in April 1945, on the Western Front near the end of World War II in Europe, in the Ruhr Area of Germany. Some 317,000 German troops were taken prisoner along with 24 generals.

The Battle of the Ruhr (5 March – 31 July 1943) was a strategic bombing campaign against the Ruhr Area in Nazi Germany carried out by RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War. The Ruhr was the main centre of German heavy industry with coke plants, steelworks, armaments factories and ten synthetic oil plants.

Before the Second World War, the British Air Ministry had identified the industrialised Ruhr Valley, especially its dams, as important strategic targets. [3] The dams provided hydroelectric power and pure water for steel-making, drinking water and water for the canal transport system.

The Ruhr was the moment when the German army died, when German dreams of world conquest evaporated, and when Germany became what it was destined to be all along: an important regional power rather than a global one.

Apr 15, 2024 · The Battle of the Ruhr or the Ruhr Air Offensive (March-July 1943) was a sustained bombing campaign by the British and the United States air forces against the industrial heartland of Germany during the Second World War (1939-45).

Apr 4, 2011 · With the natural obstacle of the Rhine River breached, instead of marching for the German capital of Berlin, Dwight Eisenhower instead chose to secure the industrious Ruhr region to eliminate threats on the British and Canadian armies' right flank.

The Moselle Valley was a significant obstacle, if strongly defended, with steep ridges covered with open vineyards heading down to a wide, deep, meandering channel. But the Germans lacked the firepower to interdict the approach or to defend every one of the various switchbacks and meanders, and Patton’s infantry crossed with relative ease ...

Jun 22, 2019 · A powerful coalition defeated the Wehrmacht in World War II, particularly on the Western Front. Occasionally, however, the fighting boiled down to a one-on-one affair—and so it was in the Ruhr in 1945. Let us begin by comparing the character arc of the two adversaries.

Apr 14, 2024 · Thus the lead elements of two U.S. armies, First and Ninth, stood ready on March 28, 1945, to begin a massive envelop­ment of upwards of 400,000 German troops in the so-called Ruhr Pocket. The reduction of the encircled enemy by the U.S.

The battle of the Ruhr included the famous “Dambuster” raid on the night of 16/17 May 1943 against three dams in the Ruhr valley. The Möhne and Eider dams were breached flooding the Ruhr Valley and causing temporary disruption to industry.