A heavy artillery barrage preceded an attack near Chateau-Salins by two regiments supported by tanks across flat ground against U.S. forces in defensive positions on a long ridge. Even $1 per month will go a long way! Einheiten des 3. This had elements of the 6th and 7th Parachute Divisions on their flanks and, to their rear in reserve, the 15th and 116th Panzer Divisions. Irwins 5th Infantry Division made another effort to secure a bridgehead across the Moselle at Arnaville, a short march south of Dornot, on September 10. For the Allied high command, the all-out assault across the Rhine was hugely important because crossing the river, the historic boundary of German power in the west, rang the death knell on the lunacy and bestiality of Hitlers Thousand Year Reich. Not content to wait for the infantry, the vanguard of Dagers CCB managed to ford the Moselle at Bayon, where the rivers height was substantially lower because water was diverted to fill canals on each side. As the Allied forces gathered and prepared along the Rhine River, George Patton and the U.S. 5 th Division were quietly carrying . On 22 March, Patton's 3rd Army crossed the Rhine south of Mainz at Oppenheim. 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. The Shermans therefore attempted to use the ridge for cover and engage the Panthers head-on, with disappointing results. All comment submissions will become the property of WW2DB. Meanwhile, British 2nd Army began an offensive towards the Elbe River. Having reached the Moselle as early as September 5, the 80th Division attempted to gain a foothold on the eastern bank at Pont-a-Mousson. ww2dbaseBetween Frankfort and the Ruhr River, the American First Army had breached the Rhine River barrier earlier in the month near Remagen. The Germans, in an effort to regroup, turned southwest to escape the ambush. Company A, advancing on the left, gained high ground west of Juvelize, and with substantial artillery support, it checked the momentum of the enemy armor pushing south. Eisenhower (18901969) was chosen in July 1942 to head Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa in November 1943. He later went as far as the railway bridge at Wesel by Montgomery's staff car, a bridge that was still under enemy fire. Manteuffels plans for September 27 called for Wietersheims 11th Panzer Division to seize the camelback and Arracourt, opening the road to Nancy. On the banks of the Rhine River the British Royal Corps of Engineers completed the construction of a Class 9 bridge "Waterloo Bridge" at 0100 hours and a Class 15 bridge "Lambeth Bridge" at 0830 hours. The Sherman crews could do little to deter the advancing Panthers because of the excellent sloped and thick frontal armor the enemy tanks possessed. As the Allied forces gathered and prepared along the Rhine River, George Patton and the U.S. 5 th Division were quietly carrying . Distinguished Unit Citations: 11. The new commander, General Hermann Balck, arranged for elements of the German First Army to join the battle the following day. In addition, the Royal Navy provided a team to construct an anti-mine boom upriver to prevent the Germans from floating demolitions down to destroy the bridges after they had been constructed. Nevertheless, Knobelsdorff secured permission from Hitler to use the brigade for a quick strike provided he return it to First Army reserve within 48 hours. That evening German artillery brought down the bridge, and the 104th Panzergrenadier Regiment attacked with armor support in the dark of night, overrunning the bridgehead. The type of close-range fighting that day is exemplified by an encounter between an M18 Hellcat of the 704th against a pair of Panther tanks. This operation to cross the northern Rhine River launched in the night of 23 Mar 1945. Having previously been denied permission to photograph the face of the 200,000th prisoner (the Geneva Convention required that a prisoner be protected against acts of public curiosity), Patton announced that this time we will take a picture of his ass. (A week later their POW capture would top 300,000. Constant shelling from German long-range guns stationed at Fort Driant, an elevated outpost on the west bank of the Moselle, made it impossible for U.S. engineers to lay a bridge at that crossing. Brad, dont tell anyone, but Im across. A surprised Bradley responded, Well, Ill be damned. National Interest Newsletter. The new panzer brigades each had a battalion of Panzergrenadiers drawn from the three Panzergrenadier divisions already in Lorraine. You mean across the Rhine? Sure am, Patton replied, I sneaked a division over last night. They rose through the branches of the trees to a height of 60 feet. Manteuffels goal, as head of the 5th Panzer Army on the Western Front, was to transform Lunville into a base from which to roll up Third Armys flank on the east bank of the river. Subsequently VIII Corps made two additional crossings downstream, to the south of Koblenz. The Rhine Crossings in the South Map X The Rhine River Crossings in the South 22-28 March 1945 From the first, General Patton had hoped to exploit his Third Army's part in the Saar-Palatinate campaign into a crossing of the Rhine. ww2dbaseAs the Allied forces gathered on the west banks of the Rhine River, it was no longer a matter of surprise. Meanwhile, US Third Army reached Siegen, Germany. First Armys center, which was anchored at Metz, was the responsibility of SS General-Lieutenant Herman Priess, commanding the 13th SS Corps, while First Armys left wing at Nancy was entrusted to General der Panzertruppen Heinrich Freiherr von Luttwitz, commanding the 47th Panzer Corps. The Hellcats bought precious time for Companies A and B of the 37th Tank Battalion to rumble north from Lezey toward the battlefront. After the completion of the Battle in The Ardennes, Patton and his Army turned to the south and east attacking toward the Rhine. By September 10, Baades 35th Infantry Division was in force along the western bank of the Moselle south of Nancy. To their credit, the RAF despatched fifty specialist within twelve hours and promised that a further 300 volunteers good be made available if required. Overseas: 26 August 1944. We hope that visitor conversations at WW2DB will be constructive and thought-provoking. Troops of the US Ninth Army finished clearing the Duisberg Pocket in Germany. Anthony Read and David Fisher, The Fall of Berlin. For Gods sake send some gasoline. Neither a patient nor defensive-minded commander, Patton seems not to have hindered his promotion to the temporary rank of four-star general in April by acting or remarking as he did. Rather than give command of the U.S. First Army in the D-Day invasion to Old Blood and Guts, Ike gave it to Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley, a commander who had served directly under Patton in North Africa and Sicily. Although Heckers division was at nearly full strength, Rodts had been depleted as a result of nearly a year of hard fighting. Despite efforts to rush fuel to the frontline units, the Allies were still receiving their fuel from supply dumps in Normandy. Along the way the Third Army liberated some of the most ghastly killing and concentration camps in the Reich: Ohrdruf (a subcamp of Buchenwald), Flossenbuerg, Dachau, and Mauthausen-Gusen. Patton, not wanting to compromise his armys success with publicity, telephoned Omar Bradley the following morning and uncharacteristically told him to keep it a secret. We began to cautiously filter down through the moonlit streets toward the shingled beach. "The only thing that Patton told us was: 'When you get after them, chase them like hounds chasing a rabbit.' Then he said: 'Go to the Rhine and capture a bridge.' We did everything but capture. Activated: 15 July 1942. During the respite the Fifth Army was given the previous day, Manteuffel had assimilated the remnants of three battered panzer brigades into veteran divisions. HistoryOnTheNet 2000-2019. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, Stay up to date with all of our latest news, Taken together, the losses seriously compromised the impending large-scale counterattack that Manteuffel was charged with executing. That evening Manteuffel made substantial adjustments to the German plan of attack. 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. When the Germans attempted to withdraw, they found their escape route blocked by the 359th Infantry Regiment moving east to cut them off. Still, the 137th Infantry Division that same day managed to establish several small bridgeheads on the eastern bank. Manteuffel, who knew the attacks were hopeless but was under orders from Balck to continue regardless of the cost, threw the remnants of the 111th and 113th against CCA again the following day, only to suffer further tank losses. A week before the Rhine crossing, Patton had held a press conference in which he delivered a classic performance, mixing the humorous, provocative, and the profane. Finally, head to Hamm American Cemetery to visit Patton's grave. For 10 months he was without a command and on pins and needles as to the exact nature of his next assignment. Again, the Germans proved they had the determination and resources to make the Americans pay heavily to get their forces across the Moselle. XXX Corps. 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. Unlike Manteuffels forces, Knobelsdorffs had artillery with which to support an attack. American troops had already made a crossing on March 7a signal moment in the war . 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. The purpose of this note is to express to you personally my deep appreciation of the splendid way in which you have conducted Third Army operations from the moment it entered battle last August 1. DEste begins with Pattons early life and family and moves through his decades at a pace that makes this long book seem far shorter. In other words, they had no depth, Patton said. You can read more about the day . That remained the case in the first months of 1945. 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. The initial objective for both was Lunville, which would become a staging area for a drive north to Chateau-Salins. This I felt was particularly true against the Germans, because as long as you attack them, they cannot find the time to plan how to attack you, Patton said. 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. ww2dbaseAll this, plus the assembly of vast amounts of troops, assault boats, Buffaloes, guns etc. von Florian Weber; Verffentlicht am 1. 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. Patton knew his entrance into German-occupied territory was of monumental historical importance. His plan called for a narrowing of the front, with two corps abreast and one in reserve. As the Americans prepared to resume their push east, the vanguard of CCA shifted north toward Chateau-Salins. 140 kilometers to the north, British Second Army captured Wesel, Germany. The 112th Panzer Brigade decimated by the clash at Dompaire, had only two dozen serviceable tanks. Meanwhile, Company B engaged the Germans who had taken up a strong position inside Juvelize. 2nd Lt. Richard Buss, commanding a platoon of M18s, ordered one of his vehicles to take up a well-protected position behind a railroad embankment with only its barrel visible. This post is part of our collection of resources on Nazi Germany. Germany. I think, everybody here know the photo as Patton urinated into the Rhine. It might be impossible to complete the mission which we started out on, but we could kill a lot of Germans trying, he told Eddy. Lava's technical capabilities. His commanding general Omar Bradley, who issued the order for him not to cross to avoid interfering with Bernard Montgomery's operations, did not know of the crossing until the next morning. As blue skies gave way to rainy spells signaling autumns approach, the U.S. Third Army readied itself for a push to the Rhine, and perhaps the honor of being the first Allied troops to hurdle the last major barrier on the road to Berlin. Meanwhile, the main attack that morning by the Germans against the 51st Armored Infantry Battalion of Dagers CCB occupying the camelback was broken up by the concentrated fire of six artillery battalions. But there were simply too many crossing points for the Germans to contest every one with such promptness as they had shown at Dornot, Arnaville, and Pont-a-Mousson. Total losses for the day were five Shermans and more than 40 Panther and Mark IV tanks. He believed that it would leave too long of a left flank vulnerable to German counter offensives. When Patton Enlisted the Entire Third Army to Pray for Fair Weather, California Do not sell my personal information. Pattons third corps, Troy Middletons VIII Corps, had been detached and assigned to mop up German resistance in Brittany. This was the greatest airborne operation of the war. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, Against All Odds: A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II, Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, at Home and at War, A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II, The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz: A True Story of Family and Survival, Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 19411942 (The Pacific War Trilogy, 1), Facing the Mountain: An Inspiring Story of Japanese American Patriots in World War II, Sons and Soldiers: The Untold Story of the Jews Who Escaped the Nazis and Returned with the U.S. Army to Fight Hitler, Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germanys March to Global War, The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-day Sacrifice, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe. 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