They swooped in at extremely low level, catching the German tank crews by surprise. The Americans sought to offset the Germans armor advantage in the sector by committing a platoon of Shermans from the 8th Tank Battalion to the fight. The goal of this 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. US First Army finally broke out of Remagen bridgehead in Germany. US First Army captured Paderborn and Hamm, Germany. Occupied Zone in Germany. Still, the 137th Infantry Division that same day managed to establish several small bridgeheads on the eastern bank. This article is part of our larger selection of postsabout the George S. Patton. 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. 140 kilometers to the north, British Second Army captured Wesel, Germany. Please use this data for any reference citations. (To be fair to the British 21st Army Group, their Rhine crossings were marshy (Wesel) and twice as wide, with the river carrying a far higher volume of water than the crossings consigned to the U.S. Third and Seventh Armies and the French First Army, meaning that Montgomery could not possibly cross the Rhine on the run.) The next day Patton, showing his contempt for the enemy, made good on his pledge to piss in the Rhine in a week, which he did from a pontoon bridge in full view of his men and news cameras. Meanwhile, US Third Army captured Aschaffenburg, Germany, 40 kilometers to the southeast. Right: Patton famously relieved himself in the Rhine on March24, 1945and made sure he was photographed doing so. Brian Horrocks, Corps Commander (Magnum Books, 1977). ww2dbaseThe river on XXX Corps' front was 500 yards across and defended on its eastern bank by the German 8th Parachute Division, in and around the town of Rees. The Americans captured the northern fort almost immediately, but German paratroopers held out in the southern fort for five days. events, and resources, Patton in Lorraine: Breaking the Moselle Line. ", ww2dbaseAdditional Contribution by Alan Chanter. 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. Major General Clarence Huebner's V Corps made rapid advances with relative ease. This article is also part of our extensive collection of articles on the second World War. Patton knew his entrance into German-occupied territory was of monumental historical importance. You mean across the Rhine? Sure am, Patton replied, I sneaked a division over last night. 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. 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. His training and experience in cavalry operations and his experience serving with the U.S. tank forces in World War I served as solid preparation for the challenges he would face as a commander when the United States declared war on Japan and Germany in December 1941. The task before Third Army was to establish bridgeheads across the Moselle that would enable it to capture the two strategic towns. Meanwhile the construction of an even larger Class 40 bridge "London Bridge" continued and was completed by midnight. Bradley quickly exploited the opportunity and expanded the bridgehead into a full-scale crossing. To cover CCBs former position in the line, Baades 35th Infantry Division advanced to a new position west of Chateau-Salins. Day 6. Although his unit was spearheading the attack toward the river, he assumed there would be a pause to get organized for the crossing. 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. 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. Balck requested that Rundstedt provide Army Group G with three fresh divisions and 80 additional tanks and assault guns to continue the fight. Under extremely tough and experienced Parachute and Panzer officers and NCOs new replacements (many dedicated Nazis) had been moulded into a formidable fighting force. Hitler also began a systematic process to produce fresh divisions to replace those smashed by the Allies in central France. The reversal of fortune gnawed at Patton from the outset of his service in France. 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. The German high command also reinforced the Fifth Panzer Army with Gen. Lt. Wend von Wietersheims 11th Panzer Division. The men of the 317th Infantry Regiment managed to cross a bridge left intact and braced themselves for a counterattack. The bulk of men and supplies would be detailed for the primary thrust toward the Ruhr in the north, but a secondary thrust through Lorraine was considered worth undertaking to stretch German forces along the Western Front. The flames were transparent orange, rising with startling swiftness. Most of the forces opposite Pattons Third Army belonged to the German First Army, which was part of General-Colonel Johannes Blaskowitzs Army Group G. Hitler planned to increase the forces opposite Patton to the point that they would be capable of launching a strong counterattack that would rock Third Army back on its heels. site is two fold. Patton had seriously underestimated the Germans ability to recover from setbacks and mount a tenacious defense as the Western Allies neared the German border. 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. Having failed to reconnoiter the American lines, the Germans blundered into a hornets nest. 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. Lloyd Clark. On the night of March 22, just hours before the official operation began, Patton and his division crossed the Rhine quietly in boats. All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB. 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. ww2dbaseAll this, plus the assembly of vast amounts of troops, assault boats, Buffaloes, guns etc. In response to the changing circumstances, Patton issued orders on September 24 for CCA to pull back from Juvelize to Arracourt to lessen its exposure to any subsequent enemy attacks. 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. "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. Equally devastating was the loss of both panzer brigade commanders during the two-day assault on CCAs left flank. Wietersheim ordered the battle group to break off its attack until the following day so that reinforcements could be sent to Bures. 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. 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. It was a daunting series of objectives, but Patton relished the opportunity. 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. 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. As a result, the 112th Panzer Brigade lost 69 of its 90 tanks. This meant that CCA was now on the left flank of the Arracourt-Juvelize salient and CCB was on the right. The initial counterattacks against Third Armys bridgeheads should have convinced him that the enemy was regaining strength. 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. C. Peter Chen of Lava Development, LLC. Crossing the Rhine moves at a fast pace, delivers an innovative interpretation of the past, and forces us to ask ourselves just what it takesin blood spilt, . Control of the crest of Hill 318 shifted back and forth on September 28. Luttwitz would strike north toward Lunville, while Krueger would push west along the south side of the Marne-Rhine Canal toward the town. Initially, at least, Eddys XII Corps suffered setbacks as severe as those experienced by Walkers corps to its north. If so, please consider supporting us on Patreon. 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. 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. It was an unusually costly day for the Americans, who lost a dozen Shermans. It was really a simple thing, just like basic training., Tucker and another engineer packed themselves into one of the first boats with the infantry. 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. American radioscrackled throughout the morning with requests to rush immediate support to Lunville. 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. The main column found itself in the midst of the 90th Division headquarters at 3 am, and several Panthers engaged an M4 Sherman guarding McLains command post situated on a knoll. Although the U.S. First Army had already captured an intact bridge over the river at Remagen, there was still a rivalry between Patton and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to cross next. First, it is aiming to offer interesting At Nierstein assault troops did not meet any resistance. The comparatively light casualty rate experienced by the first troops across (153rd and 154th Brigades of 51st Highland Division) clearly demonstrated how thorough the preparations had been made. 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. 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. 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. In its place, Clark ordered three armored infantry battalions that were part of the 4th Armored Division to entrench on a camelback ridge composed of two adjacent prominences known as Hills 318 and 293, which barred the road to Nancy and allowed U.S. guns to sweep German positions to the east and south. From the standpoint of losses in men and equipment, the Arracourt battles were a resounding victory for the Americans. It is thought that the accompanying photo of General George Patton documents Patton urinating into the Rhine River. A severe shortage of fuel in the early days of September slowed Third Armys advance to a crawl, giving the Germans time to rush reinforcements from as far away as Italy to cover thinly defended sectors. Patton told Wood to strike east the following day in the belief that it would keep the Germans off balance. Eisenhower issued orders in late August to all of his top commanders outlining a two-pronged offensive against western Germany in which the principal targets were the Ruhr and Saar industrial areas. Patton, who actually did not have the orders to cross the river, did so under an extremely low profile: quietly, his troops crossed the river in boats without artillery barrage nor aerial bombardment. But by the time Eddy was ready to resume his advance, Manteuffels Fifth Army had materialized as if out of thin air. Campaigns: Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe. Unlike Patton, Churchill forbade photographs of the occasion. Objekt des Monats Mrz: Rhine River Crossing Memorial. Patton drove to the XII Corps front on September 19, where he met first with Eddy and later with Wood. Opposition was negligible and within 24 hours the entire US 5th Division had crossed the river. While the fighting raged, P-47s flew repeated sorties against Bures, through which the Germans were funneling fresh troops and ammunition into the battle. By the time the Third Army had gained a firm foothold on the east bank of the Moselle in mid-September, the masterminds of the German high command had hatched plans for a bold strike to regain the initiative. 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. 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