Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery), which incorporated the US Ninth Army, launched Operation Plunder (with the airborne Operation Varsity in support) crossing the Rhine at Rees and Wesel. Battle Encirclement Having crossed the Rhine, both army groups fanned out into the German hinterland. In the south, while the Third Army headed east, the First Army headed northeast and formed the southern pincer of the Ruhr envelopment. In the north, the Ninth Army, which since the Battle of the Bulge had been assigned to the 21st Army Group, headed southeast, forming the northern pincer, while the rest of the 21st Army Group went east and northeast. Even before the encirclement was complete, Allied activity against the Ruhr had a critical impact on Germany's economy—on March 26 Joseph Goebbels noted in his diary that no more coal was coming from the Ruhr. Facing the Allied armies were the remnants of a shattered Wehrmacht, a few SS training units and large numbers of Volkssturm (militia units for aging men, including some World War I veterans), Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) units, composed of boys as young as 12 as well as combat service support forces and Luftwaffe flak crews. Lead elements of the two Allied pincers met on 1 April 1945, near Lippstadt. By 4 April the encirclement was completed and the Ninth Army reverted to the command of the 12th Army Group. Within the Ruhr pocket some 370,000 German soldiers, 14 divisions of Army Group B and two corps from the First Parachute Army, altogether the remnants of 19 divisions, and millions of civilians were trapped in cities heavily damaged by Allied bombings. Only 20% of the German soldiers, or 75,000, had infantry weapons, with another 75,000 having pistols only and ammunition and fuel supplies were exiguous. Model's requests for an airlift were dismissed out of hand by Hitler due to Allied air supremacy. All of Model's requests to withdraw or break out before or after the creation of the pocket were denied by Hitler, who expected "Fortress Ruhr" to hold out for months and tie down hundreds of thousands of Allied troops. The staff of Army Group B knew they only had food supplies for three weeks owing to the millions of civilians that also had to be fed. Reduction While the main operations were directed eastwards to central and northern Germany, elements of three U.S. armies concentrated on the pocket, taking it section