In the recent history of Europe, both Germany and its predecessor, Prussia, were a destabilizing factor in Western Europe.
Germany inherited the belligerent style of Prussia, fought many wars with the surrounding powers, and was a Western European version of the "fighting nation". Germany's strength to challenge Europe in World War II was different from that of the traditional powers, it did not rely on the Gulf colonies, not on powerful allies, but on the small Ruhr industrial zone.
If the Nazi Germany of World War II is compared to a machine, then the Ruhr area is its "engine", this land accounts for only 1% of Germany's area, but it has 90% of Germany's coal resources, creating more than 40% of Germany's industrial output, especially hundreds of military factories, feeding tens of millions of German Wehrmacht.
Beginning in the spring of 1943, the Allies carried out a strategic bombing of the Ruhr area in Germany, dealing a heavy blow to Germany's industrial production capacity, but failing to completely paralyze it. In 1945, the Germans gathered heavy troops in the Ruhr area to guard the Rhine, but they were surrounded by the superior Allied forces, and 400,000 German troops were surrounded and annihilated in the Ruhr.
As we all know, the German army and the Soviet Red Army in World War II were the masters of encirclement and annihilation operations, and the "Battle of Ruhr" was the first and only "encirclement and annihilation operation" on the western front. At the Battle of the Ruhr, the Allies defeated the German Army Group B, forcing Marshal Modell to commit suicide, and the German defenses on the Western Front completely collapsed.
The Battle of the Ruhr was the last attempt of the German army on the Western Front, and could the Germans still fight in 1945? How brutal was the Battle of the Ruhr? Why did you force the "Lion of Defense" Modell to die?
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="48" > 1945: The Struggle of the Germans on the Western Front</h1>
From World War I to World War II, Germany has always been caught in the situation of two-front combat, in fact, this is not because the German leaders lack strategic thinking, but because Germany's geographical location is too embarrassing, in the "crossroads" of Europe, a little careless to be caught.
Germany settled France in World War II, but due to Britain's entrenchment, Nazi Germany had to face a hidden "two-front crisis" after 1943. The Nazi Fuehrer had Marshal Lundstedt supervise the construction of the "Atlantic Barrier" early on, in order to defend against a possible Anglo-American landing.
The "Atlantic Barrier" was the "needle of the sea god" on the western front of Nazi Germany, and Germany moved all the artillery of the "Ziffig Line" on the Rhine River to the Atlantic coast, hoping to keep the enemy out of the country. However, this huge project was later revealed in the war, because a large number of projects were not completed, and even the coastal defense guns were camouflaged by telephone poles, which eventually led to the easy breakthrough of the French coast by the Allies.
After the Allies landed in France, the Fuehrer was very angry, and he strictly ordered Rommel to drive the Allies into the sea within 24 hours, and Rommel was angry with him. The Allies liberated Paris all the way through the Battle of Normandy with crushing air superiority, by which time the Germans had run out of capital on the Western Front, and Rommel's Army Group B had to retreat to the border.
In October 1944, Rommel was forced to commit suicide because of his involvement in the "assassination incident", and after Rommel's death, Marshal Modell, the "Nazi firefighter", took over the position of commander of Army Group B.
The wehrmacht had loosened up in late 1944, as evidenced by the assassination of the Führer. But the Nazi Fuehrer escaped and instead strengthened control of the army through the SS and the Gestapo, and the Germans on the Western Front had to fill the mouths of allied tigers.
Then, in late 1944 and early 1945, the Germans launched the "Ardennes Campaign" of the counter-offensive on the Western Front, which Army Group B called the "Battle of the Defense of the Rhine". The Germans gained the upper hand in this battle, caught the Americans off guard, causing nearly 100,000 casualties. However, due to soviet pressure and lack of fuel, the Germans had to move their troops east, and the Ardennes Campaign was ultimately lost.
After the Battle of the Ardennes, the Allies launched the "Battle of the Rhine" that knocked on the door of Germany, and in a month's time eliminated the German army on the west bank of the Rhine and approached the Ruhr industrial area. Here, Mordyuan, nicknamed the "Lion of Defenses", led the highly motivated Army Group B to defend the Ruhr industrial area, and more than 400,000 German troops swore an oath to defend the country and wash away the shame of the Battle of Ardenne.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="48" > ii. Allied siege debut: The Ruhr Pocket</h1>
In February 1945, the Allies launched the "Battle of the Rhineland", and the 23rd Army Group, the 12th Army Group, and the 6th Army Group launched an attack on the German Army, with the goal of breaking through the Ziffig Line and establishing a landing field for a million troops to cross the river.
At this time, the German Army Groups H, G and B in the Ardennes Campaign all retreated and were stationed at the "Ziffig Line" on the Rhine.
But the Germans were in a dilemma at this time, the Soviets were approaching Berlin, and the Nazi Fuehrer had to move a large number of armored forces to the Eastern Front, where the Germans had fewer than 700,000 men and poorly armed. Army Group G and Army H were soon defeated, with 150,000 German casualties, leaving only Modell's Army Group B still holding out.
Modell's Army Group B was stationed in the Ruhr area, the engine that underpinned the German war machine, which would lose its weapons and energy supply if lost.
In March 1945, the US 12th Army successfully crossed the Rhine River and occupied the "Ludendorf Railway Bridge" in the south of the Ruhr area, and the only remaining elite of the German army, the "130th Panzer Instructor", fought with the American army for 10 days, with more than 4,000 casualties, and retreated to Berlin in the rear after defeat. Before the Americans could enter the Rhine, 80,000 German troops withdrew from the railway bridge to defend the Berlin defenses.
The U.S. army made a rare detour from the southern part of the Ruhr area, which was interspersed with air forces and tanks as the forward, and used artillery to solve sporadic battles, which was very similar to the Style of the Soviet Red Army. On 23 March, the river crossing point "Vissell" in the northern part of the Ruhr area was breached by the Allies, and Marshal Montgomery led the LinkedIn 21st Army across the Rhine and attacked the northern part of the Ruhr area.
The British and American armies did not directly attack the Ruhr area, but interspersed for a long time, and the Lipstadt Division behind the Ruhr area completed the famous "Ruhr Pocket". The 420,000 men of the German Army Group B were thus surrounded in the Ruhr area, and the entire B Army Group was stationed in the large and small towns of the Ruhr area, and they were forced to lose all their armored forces in the Battle of the Ardennes, and they were almost an infantry regiment.
At this time, the Allied air force bombed it day and night, and the Germans suffered heavy casualties before they could start fighting.
After the Ruhr area was surrounded, the Allied forces advanced into the Elbe River, about to meet the Soviet division. The end of Berlin came, the Nazi Fuehrer had lost his mind, and at The call of Goebbels, the infamous "German People's Commando" was born. Goebbels called on all German men to join the battle, and a large number of middle-aged and elderly people in the western part of the Ruhr area rushed to the battlefield with guns, who were completely reduced to cannon fodder on the front line and suffered heavy casualties in the Allied bombardment.
In the SS, the "Führer Youth Division", composed of teenagers aged 14 to 16, was sent to the front line to carry out the most dangerous "blocking" tasks, often carrying out suicide attacks with "iron fist" rockets. The Wehrmacht was shocked to see the children, and some officers refused to assign them combat tasks, believing that it was a "war crime" to let them fight.
However, 400,000 German troops were still surrounded by the Ruhr, and bombs were dropped on their heads every day, and the morale of the German army was on the verge of collapse. In the major cities, a large number of German troops disguised as refugees fled with them, and the field gendarmes could not catch them, and finally the German gendarmerie announced:
"Any German soldier who wandered uninjured in residential areas, in the wilderness, at stations, would be executed as deserters."
After the encirclement was completed, the British and American armies began to shrink the Ruhr pockets. The Allies accepted the surrender of the city of Essen on 10 April, and 30,000 Germans laid down their arms; the British and Americans marched north and south, capturing Mülheim, Dortmund and other cities, annihilating 50,000 enemies, and meeting the division at Hagen on 14 April.
The Germans in the Ruhr pocket were split in half by the Allies, and sporadic resistance continued, but it was a matter of time before the Ruhr fell. German armored units had caused trouble for the Allies, and the appearance of tiger tanks of the 15th Panzer Corps often caused panic among the Allies.
But the Allies had absolute numerical superiority at this time, a Tiger appeared, dozens of Sherman tanks surrounded, and after several raids, the Germans also stopped this worthless attack.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="48" > third, the end of the "lion of defense"</h1>
As a loyal believer in the Nazi Fuehrer, Marshal Modell had always been reluctant to take advantage of the battle, but with the surrender of a large number of soldiers, Army Group B was unable to protect the Ruhr area.
Marshal Modell had already sensed in mid-April that the tide had turned, with soviet troops in the east already under Berlin and American troops in the west entering the country. Nazi Germany had perished from fact, and the field marshal had lost the determination to fight.
On 16 April, the Nazi Fuehrer sent a telegram to Modell telling him: "Lead the army to the end and break through to Berlin to join me." Modell could only reply: "There is nothing I can do." ”
After the collapse of the Ruhr Line, the Allies sent a letter of surrender to Marshal Modell, a Nazi die-hard who refused to accept surrender. He issued a famous order: "Army Group B is disbanded in situ, soldiers of any age can take off their uniforms and go home, soldiers who insist on fighting can choose to fight, and all the consequences are borne by me Modell." ”
On 18 April, Army Group B surrendered in the Ruhr area, with more than 300,000 German troops, including the Wehrmacht, SS, People's Commandos, civilians, and local police forces. Although the Germans had nearly a thousand armored vehicles and tanks, most of them could not be operated normally due to the lack of fuel.
The Allies were a little overwhelmed by the 300,000 prisoners of war, so they simply set up a fence on the banks of the Rhine river and locked 300,000 German troops in the open air, which was the famous "Rhine Camp" of World War II.
On the day of the German surrender, Modell disappeared into the Ruhr area with an armored convoy, claiming to be on a tour of the German troops along the route. On April 19, Nazi radio praised the "sacrificial" spirit of Army Group B and called on the soldiers to continue fighting, but Modell scoffed, saying: "It is the fatherland that betrays the soldiers." ”
Over a three-day period from 18 to 21 April, Modell's men persuaded him several times to surrender, but Modell insisted that "the honor of the German marshal cannot be humiliated, and I cannot be Paulus."
Modell's convoy was repeatedly attacked by American troops on the roads of the Ruhr area, and the convoy was eventually defeated, and he had to hide in the forests of Duisburg with his personal staff. On the morning of 21 April, after repeatedly refusing to be persuaded to surrender, Modell committed suicide with a pistol. The marshal died accompanied only by two majors, who were buried under an oak tree, and the two majors subsequently surrendered to the Americans.
The "Battle of the Ruhr" was the only major encirclement war of the British and American Allies, and strategically speaking, this battle completely solved the German army on the German western front, allowing the American and British troops to occupy half of Germany, so that the United States could break the wrist with the Soviet Union after the war. Purely tactically, the British and American armies fought unpretentiously, and in many places they almost ran forward, and the Germans fell in the wind.
An army with tight materials, low morale, and insufficient equipment will never be able to win a war. Even Modell, the "lion of defenses," was powerless against the German situation in 1945. At the end of the war, the "decency" left to the soldiers is only death.
Text/Shogakuno
Resources:
1. "The Battle of the 'End' that Rings the Death Knell of Dekou - Remembering the Battle of the Rhine and the Ruhr", Liu Xuedao; Xue Wenli
2. The Fall of Army Group B/ Modell's Last Battle, Peng Zhiwen