The failure of Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein marked the end of Model's special relationship with Hitler, who on 21 January 1945 issued an order that all the divisions of Army Group B would thenceforth be personally responsible to him to limit Model's operational freedom of decision.
Any suggestion of its withdrawal back to the river Rhine to obtain a better fighting position—given the Third Reich's weakening strength against the Allied torrent of men and material—was forbidden, and it was ordered to conduct its actions from now on upon the strategic basis of not yielding an inch of ground and an abandonment of tactical manoeuvre.

By mid-March Model and Army Group B had been forced back in fighting of attrition with the Americans across the Rhine river into Germany itself after the stunning failure to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge during the Battle of Remagen.

On April 1 Army Group B found itself completely surrounded in the Ruhr by the U.S. First and Ninth Armies.
Hitler's response was to declare the Ruhr a fortress, from which he commanded that there was to be no surrender or attempt to break out, in an order similar to that which he had issued at Stalingrad.
He further ordered that its physical economic infrastructure—the heart of Germany's industrial power—be destroyed by Army Group B to prevent it falling into Allied hands.
Model ignored these instructions.

On April 15, after the Allies had split the pocket into two, Major-General Matthew Ridgway commanding the U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps called upon Model to surrender rather than throw the lives of the soldiers under his command away in an impossible tactical situation for Army Group B. Model's reply was that he still considered himself bound by his oath to Adolf Hitler and his sense of honour as a German field marshal, and in consequence a formal surrender was out of the question and he ordered Army Group B's dissolution.
The oldest and youngest soldiers were discharged from military service and the remaining men were granted leave by order, to surrender or attempt to break out at their discretion.
The Fifth Panzer Army had already laid down its arms before this order was given and Model's command communications in the pocket were disintegrating.
On 20 April, Joseph Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry in Berlin publicly denounced Army Group B as traitors to the Reich, marking the final act between Model and the Nazi regime he had served.
The failure of Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein marked the end of Model's special relationship with Hitler, who on 21 January 1945 issued an order that all the divisions of Army Group B would thenceforth be personally responsible to him to limit Model's operational freedom of decision. Any suggestion of its withdrawal back to the river Rhine to obtain a better fighting position—given the Third Reich's weakening strength against the Allied torrent of men and material—was forbidden, and it was ordered to conduct its actions from now on upon the strategic basis of not yielding an inch of ground and an abandonment of tactical manoeuvre.
By mid-March Model and Army Group B had been forced back in fighting of attrition with the Americans across the Rhine river into Germany itself after the stunning failure to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge during the Battle of Remagen.
On April 1 Army Group B found itself completely surrounded in the Ruhr by the U.S. First and Ninth Armies. Hitler's response was to declare the Ruhr a fortress, from which he commanded that there was to be no surrender or attempt to break out, in an order similar to that which he had issued at Stalingrad. He further ordered that its physical economic infrastructure—the heart of Germany's industrial power—be destroyed by Army Group B to prevent it falling into Allied hands. Model ignored these instructions.
On April 15, after the Allies had split the pocket into two, Major-General Matthew Ridgway commanding the U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps called upon Model to surrender rather than throw the lives of the soldiers under his command away in an impossible tactical situation for Army Group B. Model's reply was that he still considered himself bound by his oath to Adolf Hitler and his sense of honour as a German field marshal, and in consequence a formal surrender was out of the question and he ordered Army Group B's dissolution. The oldest and youngest soldiers were discharged from military service and the remaining men were granted leave by order, to surrender or attempt to break out at their discretion. The Fifth Panzer Army had already laid down its arms before this order was given and Model's command communications in the pocket were disintegrating. On 20 April, Joseph Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry in Berlin publicly denounced Army Group B as traitors to the Reich, marking the final act between Model and the Nazi regime he had served.
Walter Model