Manteuffel, who had arrived to take command of Fifth Army in the field only a week before, pleaded for yet another extension, arguing that his forces were not strong enough to achieve their objective. Crossing the Rhine. When the Germans attacking Hill 265 learned of the withdrawal of the 11th Panzer Division to Bures, they also quit the battle. US First Army attacked Paderborn, Germany. After the completion of the Battle in The Ardennes, Patton and his Army turned to the south and east attacking toward the Rhine. Meanwhile, Patton acknowledged that he might have to delay his advance east. 140 kilometers to the north, British Second Army captured Wesel, Germany. 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. 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. 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. Eddy planned to isolate Nancy in a double envelopment. This was because Third Army, and the other Allied armies racing to its north, had stretched their supply lines until they snapped. 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. 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. In preparation for his counterattack, Hitler made several key command changes. While the fighting raged, P-47s flew repeated sorties against Bures, through which the Germans were funneling fresh troops and ammunition into the battle. On September 6, he sacked First Army commander General der Infanterie Kurt Chevallerie in favor of General der Panzertruppen Otto Knobelsdorff, who would lead German forces covering the line from Sedan to Nancy. On the night of March 22, 1945, elements of the Third Army crossed the Rhine at the German town of Oppenheim. 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. Pattons notion that Third Army could cross the Moselle with ease and cover the 40 miles from the river to the West Wall in a matter of weeks had been shattered by Manteuffels determined, if futile, counterattack in September. Luttwitz and Krueger received their orders two days before the start date. To the right side of the center banner WORLD WAR II 75th ANNIVERSARY is Patton in a B-3 Bomber jacket and his name, GEN. GEORGE S. PATTON JR. Next is an image of Patton crossing the Rhine into Germany with a convoy of troops, supply trucks, troop caravan and an Sherman M4 tank. Seventh Army during the Sicilian campaign ( Operation Husky ), and in August 1944 his Third Army became operational in northern France. 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. Although Heckers division was at nearly full strength, Rodts had been depleted as a result of nearly a year of hard fighting. Having mustered 50 tanks for the attack, Manteuffel ordered Wietersheim to capture Moyenvic and inflict as much damage as possible on CCA. C. Peter Chen of Lava Development, LLC. To descend the ridge and maneuver against the Panthers would have exposed the Shermans to the Panthers highly effective guns. 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. From there, the vehicle fired an armor-piercing shell into the side of a Panther in a field 300 yards away. We were surprised the Navy was there, he commented, and the Navy was surprised they were so far away from the ocean. 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. 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. This operation to cross the northern Rhine River launched in the night of 23 Mar 1945. By dawn the Germans had seized the crest of Hill 318. Charging up the slope after nightfall, the Germans once again seized the crest, forcing the Americans to retreat to the northern slope. The 9th Armored Division quickly expanded the bridgehead into a full scale crossing. Had I not secured a good bridgehead by that time, I was to stop arguing and assume the mournful role of a defender, Patton said. That evening Manteuffel made substantial adjustments to the German plan of attack. Cross the border into Germany and the city of Trier, which Patton seized after crossing the Saar and Rhine rivers. The attack, which came as a complete surprise, was being orchestrated by one of the Third Reichs most talented panzer leaders, the diminutive General der Panzertruppen Hasso von Manteuffel, whom Hitler had plucked from the Eastern Front with his staff to drive Pattons forces back across the Moselle. The goal of this 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 Hellcats bought precious time for Companies A and B of the 37th Tank Battalion to rumble north from Lezey toward the battlefront. Near Moncourt, just east of Arracourt, a platoon of Mark IVs and towed anti-tank guns ambushed Abramss Company C, leaving a half-dozen M4 tanks mangled. 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. It controlled the majority of American forces on the Western Front in 1944 and 1945: the U.S. First Army under Gen. Courtney H. Hodges, the Third Army under Gen. George S. Patton, the Ninth Army under Gen. William H. Simpson, and the Fifteenth Army under Gen. Leonard T. Gerow. Unlike Manteuffels forces, Knobelsdorffs had artillery with which to support an attack. This paratrooper operation was not a typical one where troops were dropped a distance behind enemy lines before the operation to disrupt communications; this time, Bernard Montgomery chose to drop the paratroopers immediately behind the enemy lines after the conventional infantry had already crossed the Rhine River under the cover of darkness. "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. Unlike Patton, Churchill forbade photographs of the occasion. 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. 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. Meanwhile, US Third Army captured Ludwigshafen and Speyer, Germany. Eisenhower (18901969) was chosen in July 1942 to head Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa in November 1943. McLain issued orders for the nearest infantry regiments to converge on the enemy column. Copyright 2004-2023 Lava Development, LLC., all rights reserved, See all 47 photographs of Crossing the Rhine, Message from George Patton to US 5th Infantry Division. Meanwhile the construction of an even larger Class 40 bridge "London Bridge" continued and was completed by midnight. click here for our comprehensive guide to General Patton. Patton had served with competence and distinction with the U.S. forces throughout Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. Patton was relieved of command in the wake of the incident but was not dismissed from war service. 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. Opposition was negligible and within 24 hours the entire US 5th Division had crossed the river. 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. 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. CROSSING THE RHINE. 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. By that evening, the Germans had discovered Pattons forces, and perhaps more important, Pattons British rival, Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, was preparing to cross the Rhine as well. The Commanders: The Leadership Journeys of George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel. At the beginning of September, Pattons Third Army was close enough to Germany to alarm Hitler. But Pattons dash ground to a halt shortly after it crossed the Meuse. 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. The pause that refreshes. The general told the troops around him. Patton's troops beat Montgomery across the Rhine by one day. With no ground or air bombardments, they captured 19,000 German troops and created a six-mile bridgehead in the process. 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. As the Americans prepared to resume their push east, the vanguard of CCA shifted north toward Chateau-Salins. 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. As Pattons Third Army approached the Meuse River in late August, it paused before pushing into the Lorraine region. Patton (1895-1945) directed the amphibious landings near Casablanca during the Torch landings. . The Germans attacking toward Hill 265 captured several key towns, one of which was Xanrey, a few miles northwest of Arracourt. The Germans failed to reconnoiter enemy positions, and their replacement tank crews were no match for Leclercs veteran troops. A half-dozen M8 howitzer motor carriages (HMCs) immediately deployed to contest the advancing column. On 26 Mar 1945, these troops marched southward toward Patton's troops. Despite efforts to rush fuel to the frontline units, the Allies were still receiving their fuel from supply dumps in Normandy. Look for the Monument Patton and stop by the General Patton Memorial Museum. The Panthersknocked out three of the lightly armored HMCs in short order. By the end of 24 Mar 1945, the German airfields were so damaged that the Luftwaffe practically ceased to exist on this front. 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. Although ordered to avoid German forces concentrated at Chateau-Salins, Abrams nevertheless overtook an armored column from the 15th Panzergrenadier Division and, in another stunning attack, captured or destroyed 26 armored vehicles and took 400 prisoners. The Germans attacked again in the vicinity of Rechicourt in the afternoon, but after losing another nine tanks they broke off the action. News of the crossing made it around the world. Taken together, the losses seriously compromised the impending large-scale counterattack that Manteuffel was charged with executing. The US 3rd Army crossed the Rhine River west of Mainz and near Oppenheim just before midnight; the Americans had beaten the British in crossing the river. 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. 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. 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. If Third Army was unable to cross the Moselle by September 14, Bradley told Patton, it would have to go over to the defensive. 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. . But his request was denied as by then both sides had shifted the bulk of their resources to the northern sector. 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. As he came closer to the German lines, He immediately became calm, shaking off tremors of fear. 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. Both sides employed heavy guns to shell enemy forces clinging to their respective slopes. TeachingAmericanHistory.org is a project of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, 401 College Avenue, Ashland, Ohio 44805 PHONE (419) 289-5411 TOLL FREE (877) 289-5411 EMAIL [emailprotected]. US-Armee unter General George S. Patton (1885-1945) die Stadt Nierstein am Rhein. The events on the French front in World War II during September 1944, specifically Patton's inability to progress beyond the Metz fortress complex and, most importantly, the failure of British General Bernard Montgomery's attempted Rhine crossing in Operation Market Garden, would appear as evidence that such hopes of lightning victories . It was an unusually costly day for the Americans, who lost a dozen Shermans. Einheiten des 3. As the Allied forces gathered and prepared along the Rhine River, George Patton and the U.S. 5 th Division were quietly carrying . The strike destroyed five Panthers and 20 half-tracks. 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. Your IP address will be tracked even if you remain anonymous. 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. The reconstituted Fifth Panzer Army was inserted into Blaskowitzs Army Group G between First Army to the north and the Nineteenth Army to the south. Frankfort was captured by Allied troops on 29 Mar. It is thought that the accompanying photo of General George Patton documents Patton urinating into the Rhine River. When he reached the other side of the river, Patton pretended to stumble, imitating William the Conqueror, who famously fell on his face when landing in England but transformed the bad omen into a propitious one by leaping to his feet with a handful of English soil, claiming it portended his complete possession of the country. ww2dbaseSources: I was certainly very full of hopes and saw myself crossing the Rhine, Patton said. The German high command also reinforced the Fifth Panzer Army with Gen. Lt. Wend von Wietersheims 11th Panzer Division. Patton arrived in France exactly one month after the D-Day invasion to set up the operational command for Third Army. Because Knobelsdorff had no better luck than Manteuffel against the Americans, Balck returned control of the offensive back to Manteuffel. In Germany, US Third Army captured Frankfurt and Wiesbaden and US Seventh Army captured Mannheim. Like his counterpart, Balck was loath to go on the defensive but found he had no choice. 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. 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. 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