In World War II, the Rhine-Ruhr area was one of the primary targets for air raids.
This industrial region was regarded as the "Armory of the Third Reich". In numerous plants of Krupp, Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG, Kloeckner, Rheinmetall, Hoesch and Ruhrstahl produced the arms, which enabled Hitler to wage war.
The rolling mills and steel works manufactured the components of tanks, aircrafts, submarines, cannons and many other weapons. The city of Essen and the Krupp works were synonyms for 'weapons from the Ruhr'.
A large number of hard coal bills and coking plants supplied the vital raw material for the wartime economy, chemical industries, railway traffic, and power supply. Several synthetic oil plants produced aviation petrol, fuel oil, and motor car fuel. The IG Farben plant in Hüls (near Marl) was one of the most important manufacturers of synthetic rubber (Buna) in Germany.
Since 1850 the entire Ruhr district was an important railway junction. Numerous marshalling yards completed the railway traffic and were 'coal gates', in order to transport the hard coal into other regions of Germany.
The large railway station in Hamm was the turntable for the goods traffic from West and East Germany towards the Rhine and France. The railway traffic between North and South Germany ran particularly over the stations in Hagen.
Already before outbreak of World War II the Ruhr district was one of the largest population centers in Europe In 1939 more than 4 million humans lived at Rhine and Ruhr.
Because of the numerous municipalities the Ruhr district can be compared with a only one enormous city The actual Ruhr district extends between the Rhine with Duisburg in the west into the Hamm-Hellweg area in the east. In the north the region is limited by the Lippe river and in the south by the Ruhr and the industrial district around Hagen.
In addition, for the Allied air forces in World War II the Rhineland and those areas bordering the Ruhr area in north, east, and south (Sauerland, Siegerland, Münsterland, Ostwestfalen) were also parts of the 'Ruhr'.
Cities such as Aachen, Krefeld, Münster, Bielefeld, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Siegen, Bonn, and Wuppertal were bombed in connection with the Allied Air offensive against the Ruhr district.
Battle of The Ruhr Books
 |
Battle for the Ruhr: The German Army's Final Defeat in the West (Modern War Studies) List Price: Sale Price: $6.00 You save: $28.95 (83%)  |
DescriptionWith Allied armies poised on the banks of the Rhine, Nazi Germany tottered on the brink of collapse. The ensuing battles on German soil--especially those in the so-called Ruhr Pocket--were as fierce and hard-fought as any in the European theater... |
 |
Ike's Last Battle: The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket April 1945 List Price: Sale Price: $4.75 You save: $25.20 (84%) |
 |
From Normandy to the Ruhr: With the 116th Panzer Division in WWII Sale Price: $344.02 |
DescriptionNormandy . . . Arnhem . . . Aachen . . . the Hürtgen Forest . . . the Ardennes Offensive . . . the Reichswald . . . the Ruhr Pocket . . . Only the men of one unit on either side fought in them all--the 116th Panzer Division! Organized in France in March, 1944 from elements of the 16th Panzer-Grenadier Division and the 179th Reserve Panzer Division, the 116th Panzer Division was one of the relatively rare German armored formations that fought exclusively on the Western Front... |
 |
Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth List Price: Sale Price: $15.58 You save: $11.42 (42%) |
DescriptionGitta Sereny's biography meticulously re-creates for the reader the professional, emotional, and psychological life of Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and later his Minister of Armaments. Throughout the 12-year history of the Third Reich, Speer remained one of Hitler's most trusted confidants and one of the most powerful political leaders of the Nazi party... |
.
. Incoming Search:
No related posts.