Operation Grenade

During World War II, Operation Grenade was the crossing of the Roer (Rur) river between Roermond and Düren by the U.S. Ninth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General William Hood Simpson, in February 1945.

On 9 February, the U.S. Ninth Army—operating under Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group since the Battle of the Bulge—was to cross the Roer and link up with the Canadian First Army, under Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar, coming from the Nijmegen area of the Netherlands in Operation Veritable, which had started at 05:00 on 8 February. However, once the Canadians had advanced, the Germans destroyed the dams upstream. This stopped the Americans from crossing as planned. It had been anticipated that the Germans would try to do this, and that General Omar Bradley′s U.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 allow Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt to withdraw behind the Rhine, arguing that it would only delay the inevitable fight. He ordered him to fight where his forces stood.

The Ninth Army was finally able to cross the river on 23 February. By then, other Allied forces were also close to the Rhine. Rundstedt′s divisions—which had remained on the west bank of the Rhine—were cut to pieces in the Battle for the Rhineland, and 290,000 men were taken as prisoners of war (POW).