'Bugle' (ii) was an Allied air offensive to interdict communications both within the Ruhr and between the Ruhr and the rest of Germany in preparation for the advance of the Allied 21^st Army Group (Canadian 1^st, British 2^nd and US 9^th Armies) under Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery from the line of the Maas river from 7 February 1945 (January/February 1945).

The implementation of 'Bugle' (ii) did much to ensure that most of General Hasso-Eccard Freiherr von Manteuffel’s (from 8 March Generaloberst Josef Harpe’s) 5^th Panzerarmee and General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen’s 15^th Army of Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model’s Heeresgruppe 'B' were trapped in the Ruhr when the leading echelons of Lieutenant General Courtney H. Hodges’s US 1^st Army of General Omar N. Bradley’s US 12^th Army Group and of Lieutenant General William H. Simpson’s US 9^th Army met at Lippstadt at the beginning of April 1945.