patton crossing the rhine

To learn more,click here for our comprehensive guide to General Patton. The German high command also reinforced the Fifth Panzer Army with Gen. Lt. Wend von Wietersheims 11th Panzer Division. Manteuffel had originally been promised two more new panzer brigades, the 107th and 108th, but Hitler had shunted them north to defend Aachen against Hodges First Army. Meanwhile, Company B engaged the Germans who had taken up a strong position inside Juvelize. He is all through. 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 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. 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. Both sides employed heavy guns to shell enemy forces clinging to their respective slopes. Frankfort was captured by Allied troops on 29 Mar. 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. 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. 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. 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. This article is part of our larger selection of postsabout the George S. Patton. By dawn the Germans had seized the crest of Hill 318. On the same day, 150 bombers of the Fifteenth Air Force flew from Italy to bomb the German capital of Berlin nearly unopposed from the air, meanwhile British Royal Air Force bombers attacked rail and oil targets in the Ruhr region. The shift in plans resulted in an ominous quiet on the front lines that day and led to speculation as to whether the Germans had finally quit their offensive. 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. Once again, Company C of the 704th TD Battalion rushed forward to delay the advance supported by P-47s firing rockets and machine guns. In Germany, US Third Army captured Darmstadt and reached Main, allowing the linking up with US Seventh Army near Worms. The Panzergrenadiers methodically fought their way up the southern slope, clearing Americans from their foxholes. events, and resources. 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. American troops had already made a crossing on March 7a signal moment in the war . 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. He ordered Knobelsdorff to attack Dagers CCB with the 559th Volksgrenadier Division and the remnants of the 106th Panzer Brigade. The media and public back home were outraged that a general would treat an enlisted man in such a manner. Pattons troops beat Montgomery across the Rhine by one day. As he came closer to the German lines, He immediately became calm, shaking off tremors of fear. It was an unusually costly day for the Americans, who lost a dozen Shermans. On the night of March 22, just hours before the official operation began, Patton and his division crossed the Rhine quietly in boats. Within three days Patton's troops were rapidly approaching Frankfurt, Germany, capturing bridges in tact as the German defenses began to fall apart. Pattons third corps, Troy Middletons VIII Corps, had been detached and assigned to mop up German resistance in Brittany. Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. ", ww2dbaseAdditional Contribution by Alan Chanter. Photo Credit: Men of the U.S. 5th Infantry Division hug the walls in one of the suburbs of Metz in early September 1944. Balck requested that Rundstedt provide Army Group G with three fresh divisions and 80 additional tanks and assault guns to continue the fight. From the standpoint of losses in men and equipment, the Arracourt battles were a resounding victory for the Americans. Click here for our comprehensive information resource on the society, ideology, and key events in Nazi Germany. The Commanders: The Leadership Journeys of George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel. This meant that CCA was now on the left flank of the Arracourt-Juvelize salient and CCB was on the right. Meanwhile, US Third Army captured Ludwigshafen and Speyer, Germany. The men of the 317th Infantry Regiment managed to cross a bridge left intact and braced themselves for a counterattack. Site created in November 2000. von Florian Weber; Verffentlicht am 1. Meanwhile, Patton acknowledged that he might have to delay his advance east. When I looked for a second target, it was gone.. On 22 March, General George S. Patton sent his Third Army across the Rhine, at Nierstein, to form another bridgehead. 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. He was confident that Eddys 35th Division, with close support of the 4th Armored, could achieve a breach and hold it open to allow Third Armys armored divisions to punch through the wall. Another 2,153 fighters supported the ground operations. 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. For 10 months he was without a command and on pins and needles as to the exact nature of his next assignment. Lloyd Clark. Patton was relieved of command in the wake of the incident but was not dismissed from war service. 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. ww2dbaseTo Eisenhower's surprise, the crossing of the Rhine River north of the Ruhr was not met with fierce resistance, and he attributed it to the beginning of the destruction of German morale. We hope that visitor conversations at WW2DB will be constructive and thought-provoking. We've got him. But the main attacks were made by the bulk of the 80th Division north of Nancy, and by Maj. Gen. Paul Baades 35th Infantry Division south of the city. So Patton called Bradley again. Above and below Nancy, the Germans were content to wait for the Allies to attempt to cross the Moselle and launch local counterattacks in an effort to contain or eliminate the bridgeheads. During the fighting around Juvelize, the Americans lost 14 Shermans and 7 Stuarts. My Dad was quoted as saying: We had crossed the Moselle River and gained a high ground position two miles to the east. 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. 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. Seventh Army in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Although Heckers division was at nearly full strength, Rodts had been depleted as a result of nearly a year of hard fighting. 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. Control of the crest of Hill 318 shifted back and forth on September 28. From there, the vehicle fired an armor-piercing shell into the side of a Panther in a field 300 yards away. Eddy planned to isolate Nancy in a double envelopment. As a result, the Germans broke off the attack and retreated to the safety of a nearby forest leaving behind 11 wrecked tanks. Unlike Patton, Churchill forbade photographs of the occasion. 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. 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. The turning point in the battle came when a U.S. artillery observer directed more than 300 howitzer rounds onto a German column lined up on a sunken road in preparation for an assault on the village of Mairy. 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. The delay would prove a costly one. Some 22,000 tons of assault bridging had to be brought forward, including 25,000 wooden pontoons, 2,000 assault boats, 650 Storm boats, 120 River tugs, 80 miles of balloon cable and 260 miles of steel wire rope. 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. 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. A follow-on series of panzer brigades, numbered above 110, would contain a battalion of Panthers and a battalion of Mark IVs. The fighting resulted in the final destruction of two panzer brigades. (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. Leclerc also benefited from repeated tactical air strikes by P-47 Thunderbolts of Brig. 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. News of the crossing made it around the world. The Shermans, which went into action in the morning, knocked out eight enemy tanks in quick order. Unlike Manteuffels forces, Knobelsdorffs had artillery with which to support an attack. In Washington, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson declared, We gave Monty everything he asked forparatroopers, assault boats and even the Navy, and by God, Patton has crossed the Rhine!. 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 British prime minister had long dreamed of relieving himself on Hitlers much-vaunted Siegfried Line to show his contempt for Hitler and Nazism. 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. The historic city of Metz included an extensive system of man-made fortifications from previous wars. From there, Third Army would advance along a northeast route of march toward the fortified West Wall. News of the crossing made it around the world. 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. After 48 hours of hard fighting, the bridgehead was abandoned. Email Address Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. This was the first crossing of the Rhine River by boat by an invading army since Napoleon Bonaparte. This meant that two columns of tanks and half-tracks from the 113th would have to carry the objective themselves. I never knew what happened to those other boats., Once the two returned to the west bank, Tuckers entire squad was ordered north to help the U.S. Navy. It is thought that the accompanying photo of General George Patton documents Patton urinating into the Rhine River. HistoryOnTheNet 2000-2019. ww2dbaseSources: 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. Through skilled use of defensive positions, the Americans stopped the Germans from capturing the town. 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. Stopped the Germans broke off the attack and retreated to the German lines, he immediately became,... And a battalion of Panthers and a battalion of Panthers and a battalion of Mark IVs also reinforced Fifth! Gained a high ground position two miles to the east and Erwin Rommel for 10 months he was without command... 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