instance_of 272nd volksgrenadier division 
___MASK86___ " Bagration " ( Operatsiya " Bagration ") was the codename for the Soviet 1944 Belorussian Strategic Offensive ___MASK86___ ( Belorusskaya nastupatelnaya Operatsiya " Bagration ") during ___MASK30___ II , which cleared German forces from eastern Poland between 22 ___MASK12___ and 19 August 1944 . The operation was named after 18th  19th century Georgian Prince Pyotr Bagration , general of the Imperial Russian Army who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Borodino . Germany , officially the Federal ___MASK11___ of Germany , is a federal parliamentary ___MASK11___ in central - western Europe . It includes 16 constituent states , covers an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal ___MASK19___ . With about 82 million inhabitants , Germany is the most populous member ___MASK97___ of the European Union . After the United States , it is the second most popular immigration ___MASK27___ in the world . Germany ' s capital and largest metropolis is Berlin . Other major cities include Hamburg , Munich , Cologne , Frankfurt , Stuttgart and Düsseldorf . The Ruhr Pocket was a ___MASK67___ of encirclement that took place in late March and early April 1945 , near the end of ___MASK30___ II , in the Ruhr Area of Germany . It marked the end of major organized resistance on Nazi Germany ' s Western ___MASK57___ , as more than 300 , 000 troops were taken prisoner . The Volkssturm (" ___MASK31___ ' s ___MASK99___ ") was a German national ___MASK64___ established during the last months of ___MASK30___ II . It was not set up by the " Wehrmacht Heer ", the ground component of the combined German Wehrmacht ___MASK100___ , but by the Nazi Party on the orders of Adolf Hitler and its official existence was not announced until October 18 , 1944 . It was staffed by conscripting males between the ages of 16 and 60 years who were not already serving in some ___MASK81___ as part of a German Home Guard . The " Volkssturm " comprised one of the final components of the Total War promulgated by Propaganda ___MASK75___ Joseph Goebbels , part of a Nazi endeavor to overcome their enemies ' military strength through force of ___MASK44___ . Volksgrenadier was the ___MASK61___ given to a type of German Army division formed in the Autumn of 1944 after the double loss of Army Group Center to the Soviets in ___MASK86___ Bagration and the Fifth Panzer Army to the Allies in Normandy . The ___MASK61___ itself was intended to build morale , appealing at once to nationalism (" Volk ") and Germany ' s older ___MASK33___ traditions (" Grenadier "). Germany formed 78 VGDs during the war . " Volksgrenadiers " and " Volksgrenadier " divisions should not be confused with the " Volkssturm ", which is an entirely different entity . ___MASK30___ II ( often abbreviated to WWII or WW2 ), also known as the Second ___MASK30___ , was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945 , although related conflicts began earlier . It involved the vast majority of the world ' s nations  including all of the great powers  eventually forming two opposing military alliances : the Allies and the Axis . It was the most widespread war in ___MASK78___ , and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries . In a state of " total war ", the major participants threw their entire economic , industrial , and scientific capabilities behind the war effort , erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources . Marked by ___MASK24___ deaths of civilians , including the Holocaust ( in which approximately 11 million people were killed ) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres ( in which approximately one million were killed , and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities . These made ___MASK30___ II the deadliest conflict in human ___MASK78___ . Encirclement is a ___MASK33___ term for the situation when a force or target is isolated and surrounded by enemy forces . The 272nd Volksgrenadier ___MASK18___ ( more accurately Volks - Grenadier ___MASK18___ ) , was a German ___MASK8___ volksgrenadier division formed following the defeats of the Normandy Campaign in 1944 . Composed of men taken from existing Heer units and airmen and sailors retasked to infantry duties , the division fought on the retreating Western ___MASK57___ until it was largely encircled in the Ruhr Pocket in April 1945 .