Having mustered 50 tanks for the attack, Manteuffel ordered Wietersheim to capture Moyenvic and inflict as much damage as possible on CCA. North of Metz, Third Armys left flank lay exposed, and Knobelsdorff sent the 106th Panzer Brigade to attack the Americans in an effort to keep them off balance and slow their efforts to cross the Moselle. With the vise tightening on Nancy, Blaskowitz ordered the 553rd Volksgrenadier Division to pull out of the Nancy pocket before it was cut off. Bradley quickly exploited the opportunity and expanded the bridgehead into a full-scale crossing. This article is also part of our extensive collection of articles on the second World War. Campaigns: Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe. Panzergrenadier formations then swept forward to clear American antitank, machine-gun, and rifle positions. McLain issued orders for the nearest infantry regiments to converge on the enemy column. With their high-velocity guns, the Panthers easily knocked out the Yanks vehicles. In late March 1945, Gen. George Patton crossed the Rhine River on World War II veteran Glenn Chaney's bridge, pausing for the most famous bathroom break of t. This was because Third Army, and the other Allied armies racing to its north, had stretched their supply lines until they snapped. The 112th Panzer Brigade decimated by the clash at Dompaire, had only two dozen serviceable tanks. BATTLE OF THE BULGE is scrolled underneath. DEste begins with Pattons early life and family and moves through his decades at a pace that makes this long book seem far shorter. Although a bridge had been captured some weeks before at Remagen, and a bridge-head tenuously held, this was to be the first river assault crossing of this famous stream since . News of the crossing made it around the world. Fearing Hitlers ire, Blaskowitz berated Manteuffel for failing to make any noticeable gains and ordered him to continue the counterattack regardless of the losses incurred. We hope that visitor conversations at WW2DB will be constructive and thought-provoking. In addition, he ordered the creation of 10 new panzer brigades, numbered 101 to 110, each of which would boast a battalion of approximately 45 Panther tanks. . The fight that began that morning touched off an 11-day running tank battle that raged across the hills of southern Lorraine and tested the resourcefulness of two of World War IIs most gifted practitioners of the art of mobile warfare. He ordered Knobelsdorff to attack Dagers CCB with the 559th Volksgrenadier Division and the remnants of the 106th Panzer Brigade. ww2dbaseBetween Frankfort and the Ruhr River, the American First Army had breached the Rhine River barrier earlier in the month near Remagen. By August 30, Pattons army was receiving only about 32,000 of the 400,000 gallons of fuel it required to run all of its tanks and vehicles. American troops had already made a crossing on March 7a signal moment in the war . Objekt des Monats Mrz: Rhine River Crossing Memorial. Please use this data for any reference citations. A follow-on series of panzer brigades, numbered above 110, would contain a battalion of Panthers and a battalion of Mark IVs. The 37th Tank Battalion would get no rest on September 20. (Back in Berlin, Adolf Hitler urged the Wehrmacht to attack the Allied bridgehead at Oppenheim, only to be told that no reserve forces were available to embark on such an operation.) Patton told Wood to strike east the following day in the belief that it would keep the Germans off balance. Throughout the night of 23 Mar and the next day, 80,000 British and Canadian troops crossed the 20-mile stretch of the river. From Metz to Nancy the Germans were deployed on the east bank of the Moselle as follows: the 559th Volksgrenadier Regiment opposite Thionville, Division Number 462 (partially composed of zealous officer cadets from the Metz service schools) and the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division at Metz, the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division opposite Pont-a-Mousson, the 92nd Luftwaffe Training Regiment opposite Marbache, the 3rd Parachute Replacement Regiment in front of Nancy in a westward loop of the river, and the 553rd Volksgrenadier Regiment inside Nancy. Patton was chomping at the bit to get at the Germans as soon as he arrived in France, and Bradley received permission from Ike to activate Third Army on August 1. Two days earlier, Patton had told Maj. Gen. Manton Eddy that his XII Corps would lead the way. ww2dbaseSources: On September 2, Hitler issued orders for the creation of 25 new divisions, most of which were to be given the designation of Volksgrenadier. The historic city of Metz included an extensive system of man-made fortifications from previous wars. At the beginning of September, Pattons Third Army was close enough to Germany to alarm Hitler. The American tank crews also benefited from a hydraulic turret that allowed them to swing into firing position faster than the Germans slower hand-cranked traverse. Bradley, who found the report satisfactory, passed the news to Eisenhower that Third Army was indeed across the Moselle in strength. Unlike Patton, Churchill forbade photographs of the occasion. Second, it is to showcase March 22nd, 2020 - Palatinate Chapter member visits the commemorative site of Patton's historic crossing of the Rhine. Two days before, Bradley had called Patton and First Army Commander Maj. Gen. Courtney Hodge to his headquarters at Dreux and informed them that the supply situation was dire. As the troops of the French First Army crossed the Rhine River near Speyer, Germany, they became the first French troops to attack across the river since Napoleon Bonaparte. Pattons Third Army found itself mired in a morass as it struggled against fuel shortages, flooded rivers, and fresh German panzer units in September 1944. The Germans, in an effort to regroup, turned southwest to escape the ambush. Some of the hardest fighting was done by the 704th Tank Destroyer (TD) Battalion. All of these units suffered serious armored and antitank deficiencies. Hitler, who reluctantly agreed to a far less ambitious counterattack than initially envisioned, issued orders for the German attack to begin on September 18. Most of CCA had shifted north to prepare for an advance east in the direction of the West Wall, leaving artillery and other support units at Arracourt. For its part, the 15th Panzergrenadier Division had three dozen Mark IV tanks. He announced that the Third Army would shortly capture its 230,000th prisoner of war. . events, and resources, Patton in Lorraine: Breaking the Moselle Line. You have made your Army a fighting force that is not excelled in effectiveness by any other of equal size in the world, and I am very proud of the fact that you, as one of the fighting commanders who has been with me from the beginning of the African campaign, have performed so brilliantly throughout. Patton began drafting plans for Third Armys advance east toward the Rhine as early as September 14. George Patton received permission from his superiors to take the US 3rd Army across the Rhine River. Still, the 137th Infantry Division that same day managed to establish several small bridgeheads on the eastern bank. Yet Abramss 35th Tank Battalion counterattacked in the afternoon and recaptured the town in a fight that inflicted substantial casualties on the Germans. I know that Third Army will be in at the finish in the same decisive way that it has performed in all the preliminary battles. Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks of XXX Corps commented later that, although they heard stories of German soldiers surrendering in their thousands at other places, the German troops encountered in XXX Corps' area were extremely fanatical in defence of their homeland. Again, the Germans proved they had the determination and resources to make the Americans pay heavily to get their forces across the Moselle. This time the engineers were able to construct a bridge under the cover of darkness, but the bridgehead was again subjected to concentrated shelling by long-range guns from the Metz defenses and also from counterattacks by various elements of all three of the German Panzergrenadier divisions defending the Moselle. He believed that it would leave too long of a left flank vulnerable to German counter offensives. But there are so few Krauts around there they dont know it yet. Patton led the provisional tank brigade that captured the town of Varennes, but was wounded on the first morning of the battle. Wietersheim ordered the battle group to break off its attack until the following day so that reinforcements could be sent to Bures. Seventh Army in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Instead, he commented, They brought up a row of trucks filled with assault boats. 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. Another 2,153 fighters supported the ground operations. Before more German tanks could ascend the hill, P-47s swooped in with bombs and rockets after the fog burned off, breaking up a counterattack. So he decided to imitate William the Conquerors entrance into England before leading Norman forces in their heroic conquest of the entire island in 1066. But by the time Eddy was ready to resume his advance, Manteuffels Fifth Army had materialized as if out of thin air. On the evening of March 22, 1945 General George S. Patton's forces were fronting the last major obstacle to the heart of Germany, the Rhine River. 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. After the completion of the Battle in The Ardennes, Patton and his Army turned to the south and east attacking toward the Rhine. 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. By the end of the day on September 22, the 111th Panzer Brigade had only seven tanks from an original strength of 90 when the offensive started a week before. 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. Eddy planned to isolate Nancy in a double envelopment. Frankfort was captured by Allied troops on 29 Mar. Scouts from the U.S. 42nd Cavalry Squadron detected a German column approachingfrom the south toward Lunville at 7 am on September 18. 20th Century Timeline Of World History: What Happened? The German armored column continued south, hoping to stampede the American soldiers into abandoning their positions. In little more than a months time, Patton, together with his archrival British General Bernard L. Montgomery, commanding the British Eighth Army, liberated the strategic island from Axis control. Abrams received orders from Wood to pivot south toward Arracourt, where he would be in a position to link up with CCB and complete the encirclement of Nancy. Crossing the Rhine. Patton might have been destined to oversee U.S. forces in the invasion of France the following year, but his inability to control his emotional outbursts and a personal sense of honor and duty that blocked him from sympathizing with the trials and tribulations of frontline troops caused him to stumble. Manteuffels attack for the following day involved a coordinated strike toward Arracourt using the 111th and 113th Panzer Brigades from Luttwitzs and Kruegers corps, respectively. The tank battle raged well into the afternoon as Company B arrived to help Abrams hold back the Germans. National Interest Newsletter. The Shermans, which went into action in the morning, knocked out eight enemy tanks in quick order. The bombing started on 21 Mar, and by 24 Mar the German air force were no longer able to put up much of a resistance against its Allied counterpart; 8,000 sorties were launched between 21 Mar and 24 Mar, and Allied airmen reported only about 100 enemy aircrafts sighted. 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. In the first day alone, CCAs vanguard had advanced nearly 20 miles and destroyed a dozen enemy tanks and 85 half-tracks and captured 350 prisoners. However, such a strong resistance was not encountered as elements of the 21st Army Group and Ninth Army crossed the river in the north in the Ruhr River region. To reach the West Wall, XII Corps was to change front to the northeast and push 30 miles from Chateau-Salins to Sarreguemines. U.S. Army personnel cross the Ludendorff Bridge "CROSS THE RHINE WITH DRY FEET COURTESY OF 9TH ARM'D DIV". Altogether, the 106th Panzer Brigade lost 30 tanks and 60 halftracks, which greatly reduced the role it would play in subsequent operations. Elements of the 4th and 6th Armored Divisions, the latter which had been serving as Third Armys rear guard, and other units began converging on the townin response. The Germans did not intended to give up either without a fight. 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. Following the disaster at the Falaise Gap in August, where the Germans suffered 300,000 casualties, resistance had been light as the surviving German units raced east toward better defensive ground in the Ardennes and Alsace-Lorraine regions. The Germans failed to reconnoiter enemy positions, and their replacement tank crews were no match for Leclercs veteran troops. The strike destroyed five Panthers and 20 half-tracks. His superior, General Omar Bradley, released news of this crossing to the press "at a time calculated to take some of the luster from the news of Montgomerys crossing." [5] The 111th and 113th Panzer Brigades boasted two tank battalions, one of 45 Panthers and the other of 45 Mark IVs. 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. In Berlin, Adolf Hitler wanted to counterattack at the Allied bridgehead at Oppenheim, but he was told that no reserve forces were available to embark on such an operation. 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. Gen. Holmes Dagers Combat Command B (CCB) to assist the 35th Infantry Division south of Nancy, and Colonel Bruce Clarks Combat Command A (CCA) to be held in reserve to exploit whichever crossing offered the most promise for a rapid breakout. But various factors were at work to derail those hopes. 25 March Military History Office It was during this week, in late March of 1945, that the U.S. Third Army under Gen. Patton, began its famous bridging and crossing operations of the Rhine. To their surprise, they were not opposed by enemy forces. The Sherman crews could do little to deter the advancing Panthers because of the excellent sloped and thick frontal armor the enemy tanks possessed. Click here for our comprehensive information resource on the society, ideology, and key events in Nazi Germany. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, Stay up to date with all of our latest news, March 22, 1945 On this date in 1945, one day before the British 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was due to launch Operation Plunder, the long-awaited northern offensive across the Rhine River at Rees and Wesel in North Rhine-Westphalia, Gen. George S. Patton sneaked a division of his U.S. Third Army across the Rhine at Oppenheim, lower on the river and south of Mainz. Meanwhile the construction of an even larger Class 40 bridge "London Bridge" continued and was completed by midnight. We are now fairly started on that phase of the campaign which I hope will be the final one. On 26 Mar 1945, these troops marched southward toward Patton's troops. This airborne operation was the largest of its kind during the entire war, utilizing 1,625 transports, 1,348 gliders, and 889 escort fighters to deliver over 22,000 airborne infantry into the contested territory. The following day Patton arrived at the pontoon bridge his engineers had constructed over the Rhine. 140 kilometers to the north, British Second Army captured Wesel, Germany. Nevertheless, the Germans established strong defensive positions in two dilapidated French fortresses that effectively blocked the western approaches to the city. Troops of the US Ninth Army finished clearing the Duisberg Pocket in Germany. He did not expect to encounter substantial resistance until he reached the West Wall. For Gods sake, send some gasoline.. Patton was fatally injured in a road accident on December9, 1945, dying twelve days later. Luttwitz and Krueger received their orders two days before the start date. His pleas fell on deaf ears, and he prepared to make do with the untrained and understrength units he had been given. Total losses for the day were five Shermans and more than 40 Panther and Mark IV tanks. The publicity was not for meGod knows Ive got enoughI could go to heaven and St. Peter would recognize me right awaybut it is for the officers and the men. Patton then complained that the Marines go to town by reporting the number [of their men] killed, I always try to fight without getting [our] people killed.. I want the world to know Third Army made it before Monty starts across, he shouted. On the night of March 22, 1945, with no artillery preparation or air cover, assault boats of the 5th Infantry began their quiet crossing near Oppenheim. Though beaten across the Rhine by Patton's Third Army, Montgomery's meticulous operation shone in its flawless execution. As blue skies gave way to rainy spells signaling autumn's 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. In Germany, US Third Army captured Darmstadt and reached Main, allowing the linking up with US Seventh Army near Worms. He received the Bronze Star and was shot on or about 28 September, 1944. At this location, on March 22 & 23, 1945, the 249th Engineer Combat Battalion, after supporting the U.S. Army 5th Infantry Division at Oppenheim, in the first successful Rhine river assault crossing since Napoleon, completed the construction of a 366 meter floating bridge to carry elements of General George S. Patton's 3rd Army across the Rhine. Site created in November 2000. To the far left is scrolled, WARS MAY BE FOUGHT WITH . The final stage of World War II in the European Theatre commenced with the Western Allied invasion of Germany. Beyond the German front lines, US aircraft harassed retreating German columns, destroying 246 trucks and 241 railway wagons. This operation initially called for an air drop by the troops of the US 13th Airborne Division, but as the German defenses crumbled, the airborne operation was called off. It is thought that the accompanying photo of General George Patton documents Patton urinating into the Rhine River. On September 12, engineers had laid a 168-foot pontoon bridge across the Moselle that enabled the rest of the 35th Infantry Division and the remaining tanks of CCB to cross to the east bank, Two days later, CCB had pushed through light enemy resistance to reach the Marne-Rhine Canal seven miles beyond the Moselle. Patton celebrated the victory by stopping on a treadway bridge his men had built and relieving himself into the river. 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. Unlike Manteuffels forces, Knobelsdorffs had artillery with which to support an attack. 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. This operation to cross the northern Rhine River launched in the night of 23 Mar 1945. Pattons troops beat Montgomery across the Rhine by one day. Geplant war eine Flussberquerung, die nach dem Willen des Oberkommandierenden berraschend, schnell und spektakulr werden sollte. 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. Click here to see our comprehensive article on World War 2. The reversal of fortune gnawed at Patton from the outset of his service in France. I think, everybody here know the photo as Patton urinated into the Rhine. As a result, Eisenhower ordered him to make a personal apology to the soldier and also to everyone present at the time of the incident. 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. Until now, I cant find a webpage, book or other source for an . The flames were transparent orange, rising with startling swiftness. In addition, Wood ordered CCB to shift to CCAs right flank to cover the ground between Rechicourt and the Marne-Rhine Canal. As US Third Army made another Rhine River crossing near Worms, Germany, British Second Army and Canadian First Army launched their assaults across the Rhine River north of the Ruhr River. Equally devastating was the loss of both panzer brigade commanders during the two-day assault on CCAs left flank. To Allied supreme commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower he wrote: I have just pissed into the Rhine River. But Pattons dash ground to a halt shortly after it crossed the Meuse. Meanwhile, US Third Army captured Ludwigshafen and Speyer, Germany. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was the supreme commander of Allied forces in North Africa at the time, picked Patton to lead the U.S. As the Americans prepared to resume their push east, the vanguard of CCA shifted north toward Chateau-Salins. In Germany, US Third Army captured Frankfurt and Wiesbaden and US Seventh Army captured Mannheim. Meanwhile, the western thrust of the 113th Panzer Brigade that morning ran headlong into a platoon of four Hellcats from the 704th TD Battalion, which had been informed of an attack that morning and taken a defensive position in a depression in the landscape. It was during this week, in late March of 1945, that the U.S. Third Army under Gen. Patton, began its famous bridging and crossing operations of the Rhine. But his request was denied as by then both sides had shifted the bulk of their resources to the northern sector. By mid-September 1944, the U.S. Third Army was poised to strike at the soft underbelly of Adolf Hitlers Third Reich along a fabled corridor in northeastern France used for centuries by armies tramping across Europe. Opposition was negligible and within 24 hours the entire US 5th Division had crossed the river. We figured we had a perfectly good boat. The initial counterattacks against Third Armys bridgeheads should have convinced him that the enemy was regaining strength. As Pattons Third Army approached the Meuse River in late August, it paused before pushing into the Lorraine region. 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. Although Heckers division was at nearly full strength, Rodts had been depleted as a result of nearly a year of hard fighting. 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. 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