Operation blockbuster
| date | February 26 to March 3, 1945 |
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| place | Lower Rhine |
| output | allied victory |
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1944: Overlord · Dragoon · Mons · Market Garden · Scheldt estuary · Aachen · Hürtgenwald · Queen · Alsace-Lorraine · Ardennes
1945: Nordwind · Bodenplatte · Blackcock · Colmar · Veritable · Grenade · Blockbuster · Lumberjack · Undertone · Plunder · Würzburg · Ruhrkessel · Nuremberg
The operation blockbuster was at the end of the larger Operation Veritable - in Germany as Operation Veritable known - from the Canadian 1st Army , reinforced by the British XXX. Corps . It took place at the end of February / beginning of March 1945.
In February 1945 the Allies expected to be able to conquer the Reichswald near Kleve within three to four days. Before that, they had made rapid progress: after Operation Blackcock (conquest of the Rur triangle between Roermond, Heinsberg and Sittard) from January 14th to 26th, the German Wehrmacht had evacuated the Maas-Rur position between Heinsberg and Venlo without a fight in order to secure a grip to escape. Veritable continued - partly because of a bad weather period that prevented the Allies from taking full advantage of their utter air superiority. The Canadian commander, General Henry Crerar , decided to start Operation Blockbuster on February 26, 1945.
Three Anglo-Canadian divisions moved northwest. They met u. a. fierce resistance in two places: at the "Hochwald-Gap" (Gap = English for "Schneise"), a lane between the Uedemer Hochwald and the Tüschenwald , and north of Uedem on the Uedemer Totenhügel. There, Canadian tanks were involved in their heaviest tank battle to date. The train station in Marienbaum was of strategic importance in the winter of 1944/45, when the Lower Rhine was at the front. During the battle on Totenhügel near Uedem in February 1945, the tanks were always transported via the Marienbaum train station. 40% of Marienbaum was also destroyed in bombing raids on Marienbaum station on February 27 and 28, 1945 .
The attacks on the Hochwald-Gap began on February 27th and lasted until March 2nd, when the Lake Superior Regiment made a breakthrough with heavy losses and was able to secure the western edge of the forest.
After the end of the fighting, British and US troops met on March 3, 1945 near Geldern . The latter had advanced to Geldern from the south as part of Operation Grenade .
26 German soldiers are buried in the Uedemerbruch cemetery, the Allies - especially Canadians - suffered considerably more victims.
Canadian veterans erected a plaque on the embankment in Uedemerbruch to commemorate the deceased.
literature
- Charles Perry Stacey : Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War, Volume III. The Victory Campaign: The Operations in North-West Europe, 1944-1945. Ottawa, 1966. (online (PDF; 19 MB) , 'Chapter XIX' - set image size to 100%. See also the maps on p. 566f.)
- Ralph Trost: A completely destroyed city. National Socialism, War and End of War in Xanten . Dissertation (Flensburg 2001), Chapter 10.3 .