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WWII On This Day: April 2

What happened on April 2 during World War II? This date brings together 2 events from 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1945
Soldiers of the U.S. 95th Infantry Division patrol Soest after its capture during the reduction of the Ruhr Pocket, 7 April 1945.
Men of the 95th Infantry Division patrol Soest, 7 April 1945 · Photographer Pick · U.S. Army Signal Corps / NARA · Public domain
The Ruhr Pocket

The renewed Winterberg breakout fails

Before dawn on 2 April, the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division renewed the effort to break through the Winterberg–Medebach sector and reopen routes behind the 3rd Armored Division. U.S. infantry held the road network while the 9th Infantry Division pressed into Winterberg, leaving the German thrust without a corridor to exploit. The attack followed a first failure before daylight on 1 April, when about 150 panzergrenadiers with four tanks struck Medebach. A 57 mm antitank gun and a bazooka each destroyed a tank, and the 415th Infantry held the town. The…

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Soviet prisoners at Stalag 326 on 6 April 1945, four days after U.S. troops liberated the camp. Signal Corps photographer Harry E. Boll recorded the prisoners under the 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division; the archive caption describes Russian prisoner administration and food distribution.
Soviet prisoners at Stalag 326 on 6 April 1945, four days after U.S. troops liberated the camp. Signal Corps photographer Harry E. Boll recorded the prisoners under the 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division; the archive caption describes Russian prisoner administration and food distribution. T/5 Harry E. Boll, 168th Signal Photo Company / U.S. Army Signal Corps SC 405028 · Public domain (U.S. Government) Source
Soviet Prisoners of War in German Captivity

U.S. troops liberate Stalag 326

American troops reached and liberated Stalag 326 on 2 April 1945. Its surviving Soviet prisoners included men who had been passed through the camp as labourers, those retained within the enclosure and those left ill or exhausted at the approach of Allied forces. The German camp apparatus was breaking down across the Reich. Liberation made possible emergency care and eventual repatriation, while records of the dead remained scattered among camp lists, work-detail files and cemetery registers. The liberation took place on 2 April. A U.S. Signal Corps photograph from 6…

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