Duisburg Canal in U.S. hands.

Duisburg Canal in U.S. hands. Overturned boats in the Duisburg Canal form a picture of desolation and chaos at the largest inland port in Europe and the center of the Ruhr heavy industry. Troops of the Ninth U.S. Army reached Duisburg March 27, 1945, during a drive eastward from the Rhine River. Two of the Reich's principal east-west land routes go through the war industry center, which is also a key point in a network of thousands of miles of waterways leading to the North Sea.