GERMAN V-BOMB found by the U. S. troops as they overran Germany (top). An enemy jetpropelled fighter plane (bottom).] [Illustration] [Illustration: GERMANY CIVILIANS WATCHING U. S. TROOPS as they advance through Duesseldorf (top). A transportation corps train moving over a bridge which was constructed across the Rhine at Wesel by the engineers (bottom). With all three Allied army groups established on the east bank of the Rhine plans were made to encircle the Ruhr. By 1 April 1945 a trap was closed which formed a 4,000-mile square pocket and included the Ruhr industrial area.] [Illustration] [Illustration: GERMANY SEVENTH ARMY TROOPS ADVANCING after capturing the town of Mergentheim (top). Engineers operating an assault ferry across the Neckar River in Heilbronn (bottom). On 28 March the Seventh Army launched its attack out of the Worms bridgehead. The assault was halted on 4 April when strong resistance was encountered at Heilbronn. On 31 March the French First Army crossed the Rhine at Speyer and Germersheim and on 4 April captured Karlsruhe.] [Illustration] [Illustration: GERMANY 4.5-INCH MULTIPLE ROCKET LAUNCHER T34 mounted on a medium tank. The Germans stubbornly defended the industrial area of the Ruhr even though an army group was caught in the trap with little hope of escape. On the Allied flanks, advances were made as the enemy began to disintegrate.] [Illustration: GERMANY C-47 TRANSPORT, carrying gasoline, lands on an airstrip in Germany (top). Ten-ton semitrailers in Germany with four 750-gallon skid tanks loaded with gasoline (bottom). The versatility of these tanks made it possible to use them on a number of different types of vehicles. During the last months of the war the rapid advances of all the Allied troops made fuel supply a difficult problem. Fuel was transported by every available means to assure the troops an adequate supply.] [Illustration] [Illustration: GERMANY LINEMAN of a Signal Corps construction battalion fastening wire to an insulator on the top of a telephone pole at Bingen on the Rhine (top). Liberated slave laborers help themselves to food and supplies in a store in Hannover (bottom). With the liberation of the slave laborers who had worked in German factories many problems arose, and Allied Military Government offices were established as quickly as possible to cope with them.] [Illustration] [Illustration: GERMANY INFANTRYMEN AND TANKERS take time out for a short rest during their rapid advance. On 4 April the Ninth Army was to start an attack southward and the First U. S. Army was to drive to the north. While these two armies were eliminating the Ruhr pocket, the Fifteenth Army was to hold the line on the Rhine.] [Illustration: GERMANY