Please refrain from using strong language. We are now fairly started on that phase of the campaign which I hope will be the final one. Through skilled use of defensive positions, the Americans stopped the Germans from capturing the town. Panzergrenadier formations then swept forward to clear American antitank, machine-gun, and rifle positions. From there, Third Army would advance along a northeast route of march toward the fortified West Wall. DEste begins with Pattons early life and family and moves through his decades at a pace that makes this long book seem far shorter. Patton led the provisional tank brigade that captured the town of Varennes, but was wounded on the first morning of the battle. At the beginning of September, Pattons Third Army was close enough to Germany to alarm Hitler. The crossing was led by a heavy artillery shelling and supplemented by an airborne operation (Operation Varsity) by the American 17th Airborne Division and the British 6th Airborne Division. ", ww2dbaseAdditional Contribution by Alan Chanter. Thank You, Patton was fatally injured in a road accident on December9, 1945, dying twelve days later. To their surprise, they were not opposed by enemy forces. ww2dbaseDwight Eisenhower expected the German troops, some elite including soldiers of the First Paratroop Army, would be prepared for such an invasion in the northern Ruhr area. Patton would be promoted to General (four stars) in April, 1945, after his troops liberated some of the worst concentration camps in Germany, and was fighting toward the Czech border by the time VE Day was declared on 8 May 1945. When word reached Clark that morning of another determined attack by the Germans, he ordered the entire combat command to turn back to Arracourt and sweep the area. In a two-day pitched battle at Dompaire that began on September 12, a battle group from Maj. Gen. Jacques Leclercs 2nd French Armored Division of Haislips Corps smashed the 112th Panzer Brigade of Luttwitzs 47th Corps, which had been sent to check Haislips advance. As the Americans prepared to resume their push east, the vanguard of CCA shifted north toward Chateau-Salins. C. Peter Chen of Lava Development, LLC. The new panzer brigades each had a battalion of Panzergrenadiers drawn from the three Panzergrenadier divisions already in Lorraine. 20th Century Timeline Of World History: What Happened? Einheiten des 3. Balck expanded the fight by committing units from Knobelsdorffs First Army to the battle on September 24. Hitler, who reluctantly agreed to a far less ambitious counterattack than initially envisioned, issued orders for the German attack to begin on September 18. The Shermans therefore attempted to use the ridge for cover and engage the Panthers head-on, with disappointing results. It was an unusually costly day for the Americans, who lost a dozen Shermans. Like his counterpart, Balck was loath to go on the defensive but found he had no choice. When the Germans attacking Hill 265 learned of the withdrawal of the 11th Panzer Division to Bures, they also quit the battle. It began with the crossing of the River Rhine in March 1945, with forces fanning out and overrunning all of Western Germany until their final surrender on May 8, 1945. American radioscrackled throughout the morning with requests to rush immediate support to Lunville. Left: Keeping a low profile, soldiers of the U.S. Third Armys 89th Infantry Division cross the Rhine in assault boats under intense German fire, March1945. Click here for our comprehensive information resource on the society, ideology, and key events in Nazi Germany. Patton's troops beat Montgomery across the Rhine by one day. HTML tags are not allowed. ww2dbasePrior to crossing the Rhine, the Allied forces were already bombing German airfields to reduce the capability for the Luftwaffe to interfere with the plans. This article is from the bookPatton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer2012by Michael Keane. The Germans, in an effort to regroup, turned southwest to escape the ambush. The Germans gained considerable ground on the morning of September 25, but the attack ground to a halt when the Germans were unable to dislodge CCA units from high ground northeast of Arracourt. A spearhead of the 317th Infantry Regiment crossed the river in boats, but the following morning they were bombarded by German artillery and mortars, which forced them into their foxholes. The plan called for a diversionary attack at daybreak by elements of the 11th Panzer Division against the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion atop Hill 265, another key position held by the Americans. Bradley quickly exploited the opportunity and expanded the bridgehead into a full-scale crossing. That evening Manteuffel made substantial adjustments to the German plan of attack. Crossing the Rhine 24 -31 March 1945: C-47 transport planes release hundreds of paratroops and their supplies over the Rees-Wesel area to the east of the Rhine. The goal of this Scouts from the U.S. 42nd Cavalry Squadron detected a German column approachingfrom the south toward Lunville at 7 am on September 18. This was the first crossing of the Rhine River by boat by an invading army since Napoleon Bonaparte. While we were digging in for the night, the Jerries sent over a heavy artillery barrage. For Gods sake, send some gasoline.. Maj. Gen. Leroy Irvins 5th Infantry Division pushed across the swollen waters of the flooded Metz River the following day to gain a precarious bridgehead at Dornot, five miles south of Metz. Even $1 per month will go a long way! Whats more, his decision to advance on a broad front ran contrary to the general understanding that it was necessary to concentrate forces to create a sizable breach worthy of exploiting in the enemys main line. The men of the 317th Infantry Regiment managed to cross a bridge left intact and braced themselves for a counterattack. To Allied supreme commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower he wrote: I have just pissed into the Rhine River. To their surprise, they were not opposed by enemy forces. Pattons rapid advance across France came to an abrupt halt at Metz, due to fuel shortages, deteriorating weather conditions, and increased enemy resistance. Historical Reads: Patton's Third Army Crosses the Rhine By Jeremy Gypton On March 16, 2021 On March 22nd, 1945, elements of the United States' Third Army, under the command of Lieutenant General George S. Patton, crossed the Rhine River at Oppenheim, south of Mainz. This dramatic entrance to the battle by CCA caught the Germans off guard and paid large dividends. The initial counterattacks against Third Armys bridgeheads should have convinced him that the enemy was regaining strength. Having raced 400 miles from the hedgerows of Normandy to the forested banks of the Moselle River in less than one months time, Lt. Gen. George S. Pattons troops had fought desperately to secure bridgeheads in the Lorraine region from an enemy that had at last turned like a cornered animal and bared its fangs. With their high-velocity guns, the Panthers easily knocked out the Yanks vehicles. Units of the Canadian First Army, British Second Army, and the U.S. Eddy planned to isolate Nancy in a double envelopment. Instead, he commented, They brought up a row of trucks filled with assault boats. On the day of the deadline, Patton reported to Bradley that the southern wing of Third Army had broken out of its bridgeheads and was in position to continue pushing east. CROSSING THE RHINE. 2. Ive been looking forward to this for a long time, Patton said as he unzipped his fly and urinated into the river while an Army photographer recorded the moment for posterity. Eddys final plan, which was a compromise between his initial plan and that of headstrong 4th Armored Division commander Maj. Gen. John Wood, called for Brig. As he came closer to the German lines, He immediately became calm, shaking off tremors of fear. When a column of 11 panzers appeared out of the mist that morning, three were immediately knocked out at close range by Shermans belonging to 1st Platoon, Company C, of Abramss 37th Tank Battalion in concealed positions. The Germans did not intended to give up either without a fight. Hardcover. Click here for parts Two and Three. Because of the heavy losses the Germans had sustained after the Normandy breakout, the Allies enjoyed a substantial advantage over the Germans in equipment, which amounted to a 2-to-1 advantage in artillery and nearly a 20-to-1 advantage in tanks. Hitler also reappointed General Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, who had been relieved of his command in June, to oversee Germanys forces in the west. To the far left is scrolled, WARS MAY BE FOUGHT WITH . The German troops knew that the Allied forces were only taking a short time to gather up strength before the invasion into Germany would commence. The Germans attacked along the entire line on September 29, and Wietersheim committed his final reserve of 40 tanks to the fight for Hill 318. Over the next four days, CCA raided the countryside around Arracourt, managing to destroy more enemy tanks and vehicles at a cost of only a half dozen M4 Sherman tanks. After the completion of the Battle in The Ardennes, Patton and his Army turned to the south and east attacking toward the Rhine. Both sides employed heavy guns to shell enemy forces clinging to their respective slopes. CROSSING THE RHINE After several days of what passed for R&R (Rest & Recreation) in Koblenz, we loaded up and climbed on trucks in the late afternoon of March 24 and moved upstream on the west side of the Rhine to the small town of Boppard. Lying astride Third Armys route of advance were the key cities of Metz and Nancy, both of which are located on the east bank of the Moselle. Patton spent so much time cajoling Bradley for permission to continue his advance east and additional reinforcements that he was seemingly oblivious to the stiffening enemy resistance and to evidence that the Germans were amassing substantial reinforcements in the Nancy sector. Out of the fog on September 22, the remaining tanks of the 111th Panzer Brigade punched like a steel fist through CCAs cavalry screen around Juvelize. This adventurous expedition, however, was later criticized by Eisenhower as far too daring, and noted that had Eisenhower been there he would never have permitted Churchill to cross the river at that time, just as Eisenhower had fought to stop Churchill from observing the Normandy landings in France. Pattons triumph of the summer in which Third Army raced across France against light opposition had given way to the hard reality of bitter fighting along the Moselle line. But the Americans stood their ground. Bradley told General George S. Pattonwhose U.S. Third Army had been fighting through the Palatinateto "take the Rhine on the run". Finally, head to Hamm American Cemetery to visit Patton's grave. Behind the lines, Dwight Eisenhower transferred US 9th Army from Bernard Montgomery's army group to Omar Bradley's army group as Anglo-American objective shifted toward southern Germany and Czechoslovakia. It is thought that the accompanying photo of General George Patton documents Patton urinating into the Rhine River. Once Third Army reached the West Wall, Patton intended to concentrate his forces to achieve a breach. Manteuffels plans for September 27 called for Wietersheims 11th Panzer Division to seize the camelback and Arracourt, opening the road to Nancy. Join historians and history buffs alike with our Unlimited Digital Access pass to every military history article ever published (over 3,000 articles) in Sovereigns military history magazines. Patton celebrated the victory by stopping on a treadway bridge his men had built and relieving himself into the river. So Patton called Bradley again. German scouts reported to the Fifth Army commander that the crossroads of Moyenvic, four miles northeast of Arracourt and three miles west of Juvelize, was unguarded and could readily serve as the gateway for an attack. A follow-on series of panzer brigades, numbered above 110, would contain a battalion of Panthers and a battalion of Mark IVs. Both corps commanders had received intelligence reports that two Panzergrenadier divisions, the 3rd and 17th, were prepared to contest the crossing, and that they would likely be reinforced by surviving elements of the 21st Panzer and Panzer Lehr Divisions. This kind of came as a surprise, but everything was so well prepared for us, recalled Tucker. His high hopes for a rapid advance to the West Wall would be dashed as heavy rains over the next two months restricted Third Armys tank columns to primary roads and sharply curtailed tactical air support. With that measure of skill, the 704th managed that day to destroy eight Panthers without losing a single tank destroyer. The delay would prove a costly one. The Rhine is no ordinary river. You mean across the Rhine? Sure am, Patton replied, I sneaked a division over last night. Occupied Zone in Germany. Bradley (18931981) took part in the buildup to the July 1944 Normandy landings (Operation Overlord) and was given charge of the U.S. First Army. The Shermans popped over the crest of the ridge and opened fire on the enemy tank column at a range of 900 yards, destroying five enemy tanks by striking them in the side. Two days earlier, Patton had told Maj. Gen. Manton Eddy that his XII Corps would lead the way. British sappers built another Rhine bridge, "Westminster". Unfortunately for the Germans, the 111th Panzer Brigade became lost in unfamiliar countryside and didnt reach the staging area at Bures until late afternoon on the 19th. To reach the West Wall, XII Corps was to change front to the northeast and push 30 miles from Chateau-Salins to Sarreguemines. When the Germans attempted to withdraw, they found their escape route blocked by the 359th Infantry Regiment moving east to cut them off. Still, Walkers XX Corps remained stalled before Metz, even though Eddys XII Corps had advanced well beyond its Moselle bridgeheads. Dwight Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe
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