The Sherman crews could do little to deter the advancing Panthers because of the excellent sloped and thick frontal armor the enemy tanks possessed. By September 10, Baades 35th Infantry Division was in force along the western bank of the Moselle south of Nancy. In addition, Eisenhower and Bradley had decided to transfer Haislips XV Corps to Lt. Gen. Jacob Devers Sixth Army leaving Patton once again with just two corps. Walkers corps consisted of the 5th and 90th Infantry Divisions and the 7th Armored Division, while Eddys corps, at that time, consisted of the 35th and 80th Infantry Divisions and the 4th and 6th Armored Divisions. Though Patton had hoped XII Corps would be ready to resume its advance on September 16, Eddy informed Patton that his troops would not be ready to resume their eastward advance until the 19th, after they had mopped up German forces behind their lines. As Third Army firmly established itself on the east bank of the Moselle at Nancy, capturing not only crossing points but also key crossroads on the east bank, the Germans had to postpone their counterattack several times and continually revise it to adjust to new events. You can read more about the day . Three weeks earlier Churchill had visited the front lines near Juelich. Although his unit was spearheading the attack toward the river, he assumed there would be a pause to get organized for the crossing. 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. 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. Until sufficient forces were gathered for the counterattack, the frontline troops were ordered to defend as many crossing points along the Moselle as possible between Nancy and Metz. 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. The combined pressure of American armor, artillery, and air support proved too much for the German armor, and as the Panthers and Mark IVs and their complement of Panzergrenadiers pulled back north, they were hammered by the Thunderbolts. We figured we had a perfectly good boat. Desperate to achieve their objective, the Germans toiled throughout the day to construct strongpoints and establish camouflaged positions on the southern slope to support their attack. In effort to ensure greater success, Manteuffel ordered a detailed reconnaissance of enemy positions. The fighting resulted in the final destruction of two panzer brigades. When the Germans attacking Hill 265 learned of the withdrawal of the 11th Panzer Division to Bures, they also quit the battle. The 134th Infantry Regiment was ordered to cross on the left below Nancy, and the 137th Infantry Regiment on the right. 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. 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. HTML tags are not allowed. For inquiries about military records for members of the World War II armed forces, please see our FAQ. The new panzer brigades each had a battalion of Panzergrenadiers drawn from the three Panzergrenadier divisions already in Lorraine. Leclerc also benefited from repeated tactical air strikes by P-47 Thunderbolts of Brig. Although the 4th Armored Division lost 48 tanks in the fighting around Arracourt in September, the Germans lost 285, which constituted most of the replacement tanks sent to the Western Front that fall. 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. Weeks ahead of his rival, British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, Patton fought his own higher command structure nearly as hard as he did the Germans, making impolitic comments in public, moving farther and more aggressively than ordered, and even having his troops pose as First Army soldiers in order to steal fuel from that units stores in order to maintain their own advance to the east. With the vise tightening on Nancy, Blaskowitz ordered the 553rd Volksgrenadier Division to pull out of the Nancy pocket before it was cut off. 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. 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. To the north, German infantry launched a determined attack to seize Hill 265, but they could not prevail against entrenched forces with a clear advantage in artillery support. To protect the fatherland, Hitler ordered all German forces on the Western Front to hold their positions on the Moselle to allow engineers to make much-needed improvements to the West Wall fortifications. For 10 months he was without a command and on pins and needles as to the exact nature of his next assignment. Campaigns: Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe. Total losses for the day were five Shermans and more than 40 Panther and Mark IV tanks. Anthony Read and David Fisher, The Fall of Berlin. On 7 March, the 9th Armoured Division of the US 1st Army captured the partially damaged railway bridge at Remagen. Some of the hardest fighting was done by the 704th Tank Destroyer (TD) Battalion. 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. The delay would prove a costly one. In 1943 he commanded the U.S. The final stage of World War II in the European Theatre commenced with the Western Allied invasion of Germany. 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. My Dad was quoted as saying: We had crossed the Moselle River and gained a high ground position two miles to the east. 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. 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. Patton would now report to Bradley. ww2dbaseSource: Indeed, the advance of Haislips XV Corps prevented German forces from assembling for their attack on the west bank of the Moselle, where they might cut off the forces on the east bank. Following the setback at Pont-a-Mousson, McBride ordered his men to attempt another crossing four miles south at Dieulouard. Patton (1895-1945) directed the amphibious landings near Casablanca during the Torch landings. 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. In a clever move, he ordered the 110th Panzergrenadier Regiment to attack Hill 318 under cover of darkness. 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. Your IP address will be tracked even if you remain anonymous. Distinguished Unit Citations: 11. 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. In fact, it was the first time an invading force had crossed the Rhein into Germany since Napoleon! Einheiten des 3. The strike destroyed five Panthers and 20 half-tracks. 9th AID M3 Half-tracks advancing through Engers, Germany, 27 March 1945. The day dawned with a thick blanket of fog shrouding the crest of the hill. Haislips arrival in early September disrupted a key element of Hitlers plan for a counterattack against Third Army by denying the Germans a staging area on the west side of the Moselle from which they might isolate American forces on the east side. When the Germans attempted to withdraw, they found their escape route blocked by the 359th Infantry Regiment moving east to cut them off. We are now fairly started on that phase of the campaign which I hope will be the final one. The Shermans, which went into action in the morning, knocked out eight enemy tanks in quick order. 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. ww2dbaseOn 24 Mar, Churchill crossed the Rhine River in an LCM (landing craft, mechanized), setting foot on the eastern bank of the river, symbolizing the crossing of the top British political leader over the traditional border of Germany that no foreign army had crossed in 140 years. 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. Once it captured the section of the West Wall protecting the Saar factories, Third Armys next objective would be to cross the Rhine and seize Frankfurt. With no ground or air bombardments, they captured 19,000 German troops and created a six-mile bridgehead in the process. 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. Activated: 15 July 1942. 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. Though beaten across the Rhine by Patton's Third Army, Montgomery's meticulous operation shone in its flawless execution. The next morning, elements of the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division overran the bridgehead, killing 300 Americans. Patton had served with competence and distinction with the U.S. forces throughout Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. Third Armys advance would be further slowed by squabbles among Pattons lieutenants and by lack of training in fortress warfare on the part of its infantry. The 37th Tank Battalion, led by the hard-charging Lt. Col. Creighton Abrams, brushed aside German resistance and turned north to gain the east-west road leading to Nomeny. Crossing the Rhine. You can also buy the book by clicking on the buttons to the left. The flames were transparent orange, rising with startling swiftness. Eddy planned to isolate Nancy in a double envelopment. The reversal of fortune gnawed at Patton from the outset of his service in France. Ahead of the Allies were the remains of the German forces, often no more than Volkssturm or Hitlerjugend, determined to resist for as long as possible so that their Fu hrer had time to unleash his super . Operation Plunder landed over 16,000 British and American troops across the Rhine River region, allowing link ups with advancing British 21st Army Group's 4 bridgeheads. 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. Brian Horrocks, Corps Commander (Magnum Books, 1977). The 111th and 113th Panzer Brigades boasted two tank battalions, one of 45 Panthers and the other of 45 Mark IVs. 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. The main attack would come from the town of Bures to the south, where Manteuffel had scraped together a battle group composed of 30 tanks and assault guns to capture the camelback. The Panthersknocked out three of the lightly armored HMCs in short order. This meant that CCA was now on the left flank of the Arracourt-Juvelize salient and CCB was on the right. In December he was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force and planned the July 1944 invasion of Europe (Operation Overlord). HistoryOnTheNet 2000-2019. If so, please consider supporting us on Patreon. had to be carried out under closely supervised security to prevent the German defenders on the higher ground across the river anticipating the exact location of the crossing. Luttwitz and Krueger received their orders two days before the start date. To Allied supreme commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower he wrote: I have just pissed into the Rhine River. After two days of hard fighting, the two sides braced for more of the same. Still, Walkers XX Corps remained stalled before Metz, even though Eddys XII Corps had advanced well beyond its Moselle bridgeheads. 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 pause that refreshes." The general told the troops around him. 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. By dawn the Germans had seized the crest of Hill 318. 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. 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. 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 following day Patton arrived at the pontoon bridge his engineers had constructed over the Rhine. He announced that the Third Army would shortly capture its 230,000th prisoner of war. Once again, Company C of the 704th TD Battalion rushed forward to delay the advance supported by P-47s firing rockets and machine guns. The men of the 317th Infantry Regiment managed to cross a bridge left intact and braced themselves for a counterattack. To order this book, please visit its online sales page atAmazonorBarnes & Noble. After the completion of the Battle in The Ardennes, Patton and his Army turned to the south and east attacking toward the Rhine. and useful information about WW2. Hitler, who had never liked Blaskowitz, sacked him on September 21. . 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. As the Americans prepared to resume their push east, the vanguard of CCA shifted north toward Chateau-Salins. Look for the Monument Patton and stop by the General Patton Memorial Museum. Throughout the night of 23 Mar and the next day, 80,000 British and Canadian troops crossed the 20-mile stretch of the river. 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