| Conflict: | Battle of Paderborn |
| Partof: | the Western Allied invasion of Germany in the Western Front of the European theatre of World War II |
| Date: | 30–31 March 1945 |
| Place: | Paderborn, Germany |
| Result: | American victory |
| Combatant1: |  United States |
| Commander1: | Maurice Rose Doyle Hickey Terry de la Mesa Allen Sr. |
| Commander2: | Hans Stern Wolf Koltermann |
| Units1: | 3rd Armored Division 104th Infantry Division |
| Units2: | Heavy Tank Battalion 507th Heavy Panzer Battalion |
| Strength1: | 3 Combat Commands |
| Strength2: | 60 tanks |
| Casualties1: | 17 M4 tanks destroyed 1 M-36 destroyed 17 half-tracks destroyed |
| Casualties2: | 3 Tiger II tanks destroyed |
The Battle of Paderborn occurred during the Western Allied invasion of Germany. Most notably the commander of the 3rd Armored Division Major General Maurice Rose was killed in an ambush outside of Paderborn on March 30. He was the highest ranking US General to be killed in action on the Western Front of World War II.[1]
During the final weeks of March, American forces were racing into Germany, with George Patton's 3rd Army crossing the Rhine river and the 1st Army fighting for the Remagen bridgehead. Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery's 21st Army Group was also crossing the last natural barrier into the Ruhr Area.