| Original caption: “Men of the Fourth Battalion, Royal Welch Regiment, in Weeze.” 3 United Kingdom Royal Army soldiers of the 4th Battalion, Royal Welch Regiment, 160th Brigade, 53rd Welsh Division, advance in the fortified town of Weeze during Operation Blockbuster, part of Operation Veritable, to advance to the Rhine. The 53rd Welsh Division suffered heavy casualties during this campaign. They withstood a counterattack by Tiger tanks and broke through determined German resistance, hampered by the weather, anti-tank ditches, and ground cratered by their own bombs. After holding the Allied armies at Goch, the Nazi Germans fought a series of delaying actions on the Goch-Weeze Road. Fighting in Weeze lasted for 3 days, starting on February 28, 1945, and was marked by house-to-house fighting. Fighting occurred in the town, and in the Sandberg, a 2-hectare (5-acre) lightly wooded area belonging to the Löwe family. The area changed hands many times during the battle. 80 percent of Weeze was destroyed during the battle, including extensive damage to Hertefeld Castle and the nearby Renteigebäude (“Rent Office”). Civilians displaced by the fighting returned to Weeze in August 1945, and found hundreds of unburied corpses. The Löwe family donated the Sandberg as a war cemetery, and 2,016 Nazi German casualties are buried there. The site was dedicated in 1950. Hertefeld Castle and the Renteigebäude were rebuilt after World War II and are tourist attractions today. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0482.jpg |
| Image Size | 212.51 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1237 x 1170 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Number Five United Kingdom Royal Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | March 3, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Weeze |
| State or Province | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | Imperial War Museum |
| Record Number | B 15070 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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