page_title: Rur
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Rur / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the Rur Basin — of the River Rur (Roer River) and the tributaries of the Rur. The Rur Basin is in western Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The Rur/Roer is a tributary Meuse River. Also showing the courses of the tributary Inde and Wurm rivers.
context_page_description: The Rur or Roer is a major river that flows through portions of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. It is a right tributary to the Meuse. About 90 percent of the river's course is in Germany.
  It is not to be confused with the rivers Ruhr and Röhr, which are tributaries of the Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia.
context_section_description: During the Middle Ages the valley of the Rur lay mostly within the Duchy of Jülich. In 1795,  until 1814, during which time the area was part of the French Republic and Empire, it gave its name to the French département of the Roer.
  The Rur represented an important front in the Allied push towards Germany at the end of the Second World War. A fortified area known as the Roer Triangle, formed by the towns of Roermond and Sittard,  in the Netherlands, and Heinsberg in Germany, was the scene of heavy fighting at the beginning of 1945.
  Operation Blackcock was the code name for the clearing of the Roer Triangle. It was conducted by the 2nd British Army between 14 and 26 January 1945. The objective was to drive the German 15th Army back across the Rivers Rur and Wurm and move the frontline further into Germany. The operation was carried out under command of the XII Corps by three divisions. The operation is relatively unknown despite the sometimes fierce battles that were fought for each and every village and hamlet within the "Roer Triangle".
  Between 16 December 1944 and 23 February 1945, the U.S. Ninth Army was unable to advance across the Rur during Operation Queen, because German forces controlled dams close to the river's source in the densely forested region of the Hohes Venn.  This meant Axis forces could potentially blow the dams, releasing enough water to wash out an Allied assault.  At the same time, the German  Ardennes Offensive meant any further westward push would leave Allied forces stretched and supply lines exposed. Eventually the counteroffensive was overwhelmed and German engineers, under pressure of aerial and artillery bombardment, released the dams.  As the flood waters began to subside, Allied forces crossed the Rur in rafts in the early hours of February 23, 1945, as part of Operation Grenade.
caption: Map of river Rur/Roer
  and its tributaries
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