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Operation Grenade (Battle of the Roer)
Part of theWestern Allied invasion of Germany in theWestern Front of theEuropean theatre of World War II
Operations Veritable and Blockbuster (yellow) and Grenade (green)
Date 23 February – 10 March 1945 (2 weeks and 1 day) Location Rhineland,Germany Result American victory
Belligerents
United States	Germany
Commanders and leaders
William H. Simpson	Gustav-Adolf von Zangen Alfred Schlemm
Strength
380,000 1,400 tanks 2,070 guns 375 aircraft[1]	54,000 180 tanks
Casualties and losses
1,330 killed Total: 7,478[1]	29,739 captured 16,000 other casualties (US estimate) Total: 45,739[a]

DuringWorld War II,Operation Grenade was the crossing of theRoer river betweenRoermond andDüren by theU.S. Ninth Army, commanded byLieutenant GeneralWilliam Hood Simpson, in February 1945, which marked the beginning of theAllied invasion of Germany.

On 9 February, the U.S. Ninth Army—operating underField MarshalBernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian21st Army Group since theBattle of the Bulge—was to cross the Roer and link up with theCanadian First Army, underLieutenant-GeneralHarry Crerar, coming from theNijmegen area of theNetherlands inOperation Veritable, which had started at 05:00 on 8 February. However, once the Canadians had advanced, the Germans opened the sluice gates of upstreamRoer dams. This stopped the Americans from crossing as planned. It had been anticipated that the Germans would try to do this, and thatGeneralOmar Bradley'sU.S. 12th Army Group could capture them in time to stop the flooding.

During the two weeks that the river was flooded,Hitler would not allowGeneralfeldmarschallGerd von Rundstedt to withdraw behind theRhine, arguing that it would only delay the inevitable fight. He ordered him to fight where his forces stood. Those forces comprised the15th Army, commanded byGustav-Adolf von Zangen, and the1st Parachute Army, commanded byAlfred Schlemm.

The Ninth Army was finally able to cross the river on 23 February. By then, other Allied forces were also close to the Rhine. German forces west of the Rhine during operations Veritable,Blockbuster and Grenade lost 90,000 men, of which more than 50,000 becameprisoners of war (POW). Allied casualties amounted to some 23,000 men.

Footnotes

Citations

• https://web.archive.org/web/20101119074119/http://104infdiv.org/grenade.htm
• From the Rur to the Elbe (pdf, 92 pages)
• https://web.archive.org/web/20060629050112/http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/download/csipubs/fromroer/from_cii.pdf (PDF)

• Western Allied invasion of Germany
• Rhine Province
• February 1945 in Europe
• 1945 in military history
• 1945 in Germany
• Military operations involving dams
• Battles of World War II involving the United States

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