Germany - Reduction of the Ruhr Pocket and the Advance to the Elbe and Mulde Rivers - Operations 5-18 April 1945

1945-04-05/1945-04-18

The Ruhr Pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in April 1945, on the Western Front near the end of the second World War, in the 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 under General Omar Bradley advanced rapidly into German territory south of Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Walter Model's Army Group B. 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 linked up on 1 April 1945 east of the Ruhr to create a massive encirclement of 317,000 German troops to their west.

Wikipedia: Ruhr Pocket