Operation Undertone
Encyclopedia
Operation Undertone was a large assault by the U.S. 7th and French 1st Armies as part of the Allied invasion of Germany
in March 1945 during World War II
. Opposing commanders were U.S. General Jacob L. Devers
, commanding U.S. 6th Army Group and German SS General Paul Hausser
, commanding German Army Group G
. Significantly assisted by operations of the U.S. 3rd Army that overran German lines of communication, Operation Undertone cleared the German defenses and pushed to the Rhine River in the area of Karlsruhe
within 10 days. General Devers′ victory—along with a rapid advance by the U.S. 3rd Army—completed the advance of Allied armies to the west bank of the Rhine along its entire length within Germany.
, General Dwight D. Eisenhower
on 13 February 1945 had told his two American army group commanders—Generals Omar Bradley
and Jacob L. Devers
—to begin planning for a joint drive to sweep the Saar-Palatinate. Assigned a target date of 15 March, the offensive was to begin only after the 21st Army Group had reached the Rhine. It was to be designed both to draw enemy units from the north and to provide an alternate line of attack across the Rhine should the principal Allied drive in the north fail. The main effort, SHAEF planners contemplated, was to be made by the 6th Army Group's 7th Army, which was to be augmented by transferring one armored and three infantry divisions from the 3rd Army.
During the first week of March, General Devers at 6th Army Group approved a plan (Operation UNDERTONE) prepared by General Alexander Patch
′s 7th Army. Three corps were to attack abreast from Saarbruecken to a point southeast of Hagenau. A narrow strip along the Rhine leading to the extreme northeastern corner of Alsace
at Lauterbourg
was to be cleared by a division of the French 1st Army under operational control of the 7th Army. The 7th Army′s main effort was to be made in the center up the Kaiserslautern
corridor.
Approving the plan in turn, General Eisenhower noted that the objective was not only to clear the Saar-Palatinate but also to establish bridgeheads with forces of the 6th Army Group over the Rhine between Mainz
and Mannheim
. The 12th Army Group (i.e., the 3rd Army), he also noted, was to be limited to diversionary attacks across the Moselle to protect the 6th Army Group′s left flank.
Eisenhower approved on 8 March, the same day that General George S. Patton
obtained approval from General Bradley for the plan prepared by the 3rd Army staff for a major attack across the Moselle
.
The 12th Army Group commander in turn promoted the plan with General Eisenhower. Noting that the Germans had given no indication of withdrawing from the West Wall in front of the 7th Army and that General Patch thus might be in for a long, costly campaign, Bradley suggested that the 3rd Army jump the Moselle near Koblenz
, sweep south along the west bank of the Rhine to cut the enemy′s supply lines, and at the same time press from its previously established Saar-Moselle bridgehead near Trier
to come at the West Wall fortifications from the rear. General Eisenhower approved the plan without qualification.
Although General Devers was briefly reluctant to endorse 3rd Army operations south of the Moselle lest the two forces become entangled with their converging thrusts, he too in the end approved the plan. He and Bradley agreed on a new boundary that afforded the 3rd Army a good road leading northeast from Saarlautern
to headwaters of the Nahe River, some 35 mi (56.3 km) northeast of Saarlautern, thence along the valley of the Nahe to the Rhine at Bingen
. This boundary gave the 3rd Army responsibility for clearing the northwestern third of the Saar-Palatinate. Bradley and Devers also authorized the commanders of the two armies—3rd and 7th—to deal directly with each other rather than through their respective army group headquarters.
Facing the undented fortifications of the West Wall, the 7th Army commander planned a set-piece attack, preceded by an extensive program of aerial bombardment. Before the attack could begin, supplies had to be accumulated, division and corps boundaries adjusted, some units shuffled, and new divisions joining the army fed into jump-off positions. This meant to General Patch that the 7th Army could not attack before the target date, 15 March.
All along the Moselle, from Koblenz to Trier, the German 7. Armee on 17 March was in peril, if not from direct attack, then from the flanking thrust against the right wing of the 1. Armee by General Walton Walker
′s XX Corps
. Collapse of the 7. Armee clearly was but a question of time. Soon the German 1. Armee, too, would be in dire straits, for the U.S. 7th Army two days earlier, on 15 March, had launched a power drive against General Hermann Foertsch
′s army along a 70 mi (112.7 km) front from the vicinity of Saarlautern southeastward to the Rhine. Even if that offensive failed to penetrate the West Wall, it might tie the 1. Armee troops to the fortifications while Patton′s forces took them from the rear.
The U.S. 7th Army traced its origin back to Sicily
where General Patton had first led it into battle. An infantryman who had seen combat many months before on Guadalcanal
, "Sandy" Patch, had assumed command for the invasion of southern France and a swift advance northward. Patch′s chief of staff was an artilleryman, Maj. Gen. Arthur A. White, who had held a similar post under Patch on Guadalcanal.
The 7th Army numbered among its ranks several relatively inexperienced units but retained a flavoring of long-term veterans. The VI Corps (Maj. Gen. Edward H. Brooks
), for example, and three divisions—the 3rd, 36th, and 45th—had fought at length in the Mediterranean theater, including the Anzio beachhead. The XV Corps
(Maj. Gen. Wade H. Haislip
) had joined the 7th Army after fighting across France with the 3rd Army. A third corps, the XXI
(Maj. Gen. Frank W. Milburn
), was relatively new, having joined the army in January.
As the 7th Army offensive began, the basic question was how stubbornly the Germans would defend before falling back on the West Wall. Only General Milburn′s XXI Corps—on the 7th Army′s left wing, near Saarbruecken—was fairly close to the West Wall, while other units were as much as 41 in 6 in (12.65 m)twenty miles away. Making the army′s main effort in the center, General Haislip′s XV Corps faced what looked like a particularly troublesome obstacle in the town of Bitche
. Surrounded by fortresses of the French Maginot Line
, Bitche had been taken from the Germans in December after a hard struggle, only to be relinquished in the withdrawal forced by the German counteroffensive
. On the army′s right wing, General Brooks′s VI Corps—farthest of all from the West Wall—first had to get across the Moder River
, and one of Brooks′s divisions faced the added difficulty of attacking astride the rugged Lower Vosges Mountains
.
Two German corps and part of a third were in the path of the impending American drive. At Saarbruecken, the left wing of General Knieß′ LXXXV Korps would receive a glancing blow from Milburn′s XXI Corps. Having recently given up the 559. Volksgrenadierdivision to the 7. Armee, Knieß had only two divisions, one of which was tied down holding West Wall positions northwest of Saarbruecken. Southeast of the town, with boundaries roughly coterminous with those of Haislip′s XV Corps, stood the XIII SS Korps
(SS-Gruppenfuehrer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Max Simon
) with three divisions. Extending the line to the Rhine was the XC Korps (General der Infanterie
Erich Petersen
) with two volksgrenadier divisions and remnants of an infantry training division.
Although the Germans worried most about a breakthrough in the sector of Petersen′s XC Korps into the Wissembourg Gap rather than through Simon′s XIII SS Korps into the Kaiserslautern corridor, the shifts and countershifts made in preceding weeks to salvage reinforcements for the 7. Armee actually had left the XIII SS Korps the stronger. In addition to two volksgrenadier divisions, Simon's corps had the 17th SS Panzergrenadierdivision
, at this point not much more than a proud name, but a unit possessing considerably more tanks and other armored vehicles than were to be found in the entire adjacent corps. The American main effort thus aimed at the stronger German units, though at this stage of the war strength in regard to German divisions was but a relative term.
As General Patch′s 7th Army attacked before daylight on 15 March, the apparent answer on German intentions was quick to come. Only in two places could the resistance be called determined. One was on the left wing, where the 63rd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Louis E. Hibbs) sought to bypass Saarbruecken on the east and cut German escape routes from the city. The fact that the 63rd Division early hit the West Wall provided ready explanation for the stanch opposition there. The other was on the extreme right wing where an attached 3rd Algerian Infantry Division
(3e Division d'Infanterie d'Algerie) was to clear the expanse of flatland between Hagenau and the Rhine. There an urban area closely backing the Moder River defensive line and flat ground affording superb fields of fire for dug-in automatic weapons accounted in large measure for the more difficult fighting.
Elsewhere, local engagements sometimes were vicious and costly but usually were short-lived. Anti-personnel and anti-tank mines abounded. German artillery fire seldom was more than moderate and in most cases could better be classified as light or sporadic. That was attributable in part to a campaign of interdiction for several days preceding the attack by planes of the XII Tactical Air Command
(Brig. Gen. Glenn O. Barcus) and by D-day strikes by both the fighter-bombers and the mediums and heavies of the 8th Air Force
. The latter hit West Wall fortifications and industrial targets in cities such as Zweibruecken and Kaiserslautern. The weather was beautifully clear, enabling the aircraft to strike at a variety of targets, limited only by range and bomb-carrying capacity. Among the German casualties were the operations officers of two of the three XC Korps divisions.
Of the units of the outsized (six divisions) XV Corps, only a regiment of the 45th Division (Maj. Gen. Robert T. Frederick
) faced a water obstacle at the start. That regiment had to cross the Blies River at a site upstream from where the Blies turns northeast to meander up the Kaiserslautern corridor. Yet even before dawn men of the regiment had penetrated the enemy′s main line of defense beyond the river. Aided by searchlights, they bypassed strongpoints, leaving them for reserves to take out later. As night came, the 45th Division had driven almost 3 mi (4.8 km) beyond the Blies to match a rate of advance that was general everywhere except in the pillbox belt near Saarbruecken and on the flatlands near the Rhine.
On the right wing of the XV Corps, men of the 100th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Withers A. Burress
) drove quickly to the outskirts of the fortress town of Bitche. Perhaps aided by the fact that they had done the same job before in December, they gained dominating positions on the fortified hills around the town, leaving no doubt that they would clear the entire objective in short order the next day, 16 March.
The only counterattack to cause appreciable concern hit a battalion of the 3rd Division′s 7th Infantry
. Veterans of combat from the North African campaign onward, the regiments of the 3rd Division (Maj. Gen. John W. O'Daniel
) were making the main effort in the center of the XV Corps in the direction of Zweibruecken and the Kaiserslautern corridor. Although a company of supporting tanks ran into a dense minefield, disabling four tanks and stopping the others, a battalion of the 7th Infantry fought its way into the village of Uttweiler, just across the German frontier. Then an infantry battalion from the 17. SS Panzergrenadierdivision, supported by nine assault guns, struck back. The Germans quickly isolated the American infantrymen but could not force them from the village. Supported by a platoon of tank destroyers and the regimental antitank company organized as a bazooka brigade, another of the 7th Infantry′s battalions counterattacked. The men knocked out four multiple-barrel 20 mm (0.78740157480315 in) FlaKwagen
s and seven assault gun
s and freed the besieged battalion.
On the 7th Army's right wing, pointed toward the Wissembourg Gap
, divisions of General Brooks′s VI Corps experienced, with the exception of the 3rd Algerian Division, much the same type of opposition. Although all four attacking divisions had to overcome the initial obstacle of a river, either the Moder or a tributary, they accomplished the job quickly with predawn assaults. The Germans were too thinly stretched to do more than man a series of strongpoints. On the corps left wing, the 42nd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Harry J. Collins
) overcame the added obstacle of attacking along the spine of the Lower Vosges by avoiding the roads and villages in the valleys and following the crests of the high ground. Pack mules—already proved in earlier fighting in the High Vosges—provided the means of supply.
As with the 3rd Division, a battalion of the 103rd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe) ran into a counterattack, but the reaction it prompted was more precautionary than forced. Having entered Uttenhoffen
, northwest of Hagenau, the battalion encountered such intense small arms fire and shelling from self-propelled guns that the regimental commander authorized withdrawal. When German infantry soon after nightfall counterattacked with support from four self-propelled pieces, the battalion pulled back another few hundred yards to better positions on the edge of a copse.
In the sector of the 36th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. John E. Dahlquist
), the day′s fighting produced a heroic performance by a rifleman of the 142d Infantry, Pfc. Silvestre S. Herrera
. After making a one-man charge that carried a German strongpoint and took eight prisoners, Herrera and his platoon were pinned down by fire from a second position protected by a minefield. Disregarding the mines, Herrera also charged this position but stepped on a mine and lost both feet. Even that failed to check him. He brought the enemy under such accurate rifle fire that others of his platoon were able to bypass the minefield and take the Germans in flank.
The 3d Algerian Division meanwhile got across the Moder with little enough trouble but then encountered intense house-to-house fighting. Despite good artillery support made possible by the unlimited visibility of a clear day, grazing fire from automatic weapons prevented the Algerians from crossing a stretch of open ground facing the buildings of a former French Army frontier post. A welter of mines and two counterattacks, the latter repulsed in both cases by artillery fire, added to the problems. As night fell, no Algerian unit had advanced more than a mile.
On the second day, 16 March, indications that the Germans were fighting no more than a delaying action increased everywhere except, again, on the two flanks. It seemed particularly apparent in the zone of the XV Corps, where all three attacking divisions improved on their first day′s gains. Mines, demolitions, and strongpoints usually protected by a tank or an assault gun were the main obstacles. By nightfall, both the 3rd and 45th Divisions were well across the German frontier, scarcely more than a stone′s throw from the outposts of the West Wall, and the 100th Division, relieved at Bitche by a follow-up infantry division, had begun to come abreast. Fighter-bombers of the XII Tactical Air Command again were out in force.
Even though the Germans appeared to be falling back by design, in reality they intended a deliberate defense. Although corps commanders had begged to be allowed to withdraw into the West Wall even before the American offensive began, General Foertsch at 1. Armee and General Hausser at Army Group G
had been impelled to deny the entreaties. The new Commander-in-Chief West—Generalfeldmarshall Albert Kesselring
—remained as faithful as his predecessor to the Hitler-imposed maxim of no withdrawal anywhere unless forced.
As events developed, no formal order to pull back into the fortifications ever emerged above corps level. Beginning the night of 16 March, commanders facing the U.S. XV Corps simply did the obvious, ordering their units to seek refuge in the West Wall whenever American pressure grew so great that withdrawal or annihilation became the only alternatives. The next day, commanders facing the U.S. VI Corps adopted the same procedure.
It became at that point as much a matter of logistics as of actual fighting before all divisions of the 7th Army would be battling to break the concrete barrier into the Saar-Palatinate; but as more than one German commander noted with genuine concern, whether any real fight would develop for the West Wall was not necessarily his to determine. That responsibility fell to those units, decimated and increasingly demoralized, which were opposing the onrush of U.S. 3rd Army troops from west and northwest into the German rear.
Using the authority granted by Kesselring on 17 March to pull back units threatened with encirclement, the 1. Armee′s General Foertsch authorized withdrawal by stages of his westernmost troops, those of General Knieß′ LXXXV Korps. Over a period of three days, units of the corps were to peel back from west to east, redeploying to block the main highway leading northeast through the Kaiserslautern Gap.
Unfortunately for Foertsch′s plan, the principal threat to the Kaiserslautern Gap came not from west or southwest but from northwest where Walker′s XX Corps was pouring unchecked through General Hahm′s LXXXII Korps. The 10th Armored Division′s arrival at Kaiserslautern itself on 20 March meant not only that the gap was compromised by a force well in the rear of Knieß′' formations but also that the only way out for both Knieß′ troops and those of the adjacent XIII SS Korps was through the Pfaelzer Forest.
As Knieß′ withdrawal progressed, it had the effect of opening a path through the West Wall for the left wing of the U.S. 7th Army. Despite a stubborn rear guard, the 63rd Division of General Milburn′s XXI Corps broke through the main belt of fortifications near St. Ingbert
late on 19 March. Had events moved according to plan, Milburn then would have sent an armored column northward to link with Walker′s XX Corps near St. Wendel
; but so swift had been the advance of Walker′s troops that all worthwhile objectives in Milburn′s sector beyond the West Wall already had fallen. Milburn and his XXI Corps had achieved a penetration but had no place to go.
The 7th Army commander, General Patch, seized on the situation to provide a boost for his army′s main effort, the attack of the XV Corps through Zweibruecken toward the Kaiserslautern Gap. In two days of hammering at General Simon′s XIII SS Korps, the divisions of the XV Corps still had opened no hole through the West Wall for armored exploitation. Send a combat command, Patch directed the XV Corps commander, General Haislip, to move through the 63rd Division′s gap and come in on the rear of the West Wall defenders facing the XV Corps.
That the Americans would exploit the withdrawal was too obvious to escape the 1. Armee commander, General Foertsch. During the night of the 19th, he extended the authority to withdraw to the west wing of the XIII SS Korps. Thus, hardly had the American combat command begun to move early on 20 March to exploit the 63rd Division′s penetration when the 45th Division of the XV Corps also advanced past the last pillboxes of the West Wall near Zweibruecken. During the night of the 20th, the rest of the SS korps also began to pull back, and the momentum of the 3rd Division′s advance picked up accordingly.
The German problem was to get the survivors of both the LXXXV Korps and the XIII SS Korps through the Pfaelzer Forest despite three dire threats: one from the closely following troops of the U.S. 7th Army; another from the 10th Armored Division of Walker′s XX Corps, which at Kaiserslautern was in a position to swing south and southeast through the Pfaelzer Forest and cut the escape routes; and a third from the Argus
-eyed fighter bombers of the XII Tactical Air Command.
It was the last that was most apparent to the rank and file of the retreating Germans. Since speed was imperative, the men had to move by day as well as by night, virtually inviting attack from the air. Since almost everybody, including the troops of the motorized 17. SS Panzergrenadierdivision, had to use either the main east-west highway through the forest or the secondary road close behind the West Wall, American fighter pilots had only to aim their bombs, their cannon, and their machine guns in the general direction of those roads to be assured of hitting some target. An acute gasoline shortage added to the German difficulties. Almost every foot of the two roads soon became clogged with abandoned, damaged, or wrecked vehicles, guns, and equipment.
The destruction in the Pfaelzer Forest was in keeping with the pattern almost everywhere. So long a target of both artillery and aircraft, the drab towns and cities in and close to the West Wall were a shambles. "It is difficult to describe the destruction," wrote the 45th Division commander, General Frederick. "Scarcely a man-made thing exists in our wake; it is even difficult to find buildings suitable for CP′s: this is the scorched earth." In Zweibruecken, with the entire business district razed, only about 5,000 people of a normal population of 37,000 remained, and they were hiding in cellars and caves. Fires burned uncontrolled, neither water nor fire-fighting equipment available to quench them. No local government existed. Thousands of released slave laborers and German soldiers who had changed into civilian clothes complicated the issue for military government officials. In more than one city, particularly Homburg, looting and pillage were rampant.
Running the gantlet of American fighter aircraft through the Pfaelzer Forest, the amorphous mass of retreating Germans faced still a fourth American threat—General Brooks′s VI Corps, which had followed closely the German withdrawal from northeastern Alsace and on 19 March had begun to assault the West Wall on either side of Wissembourg
. There, General Petersen′s XC Korps was charged with holding the fortifications and denying access to the flatlands along the Rhine.
In the 7th Army′s original plan, the attached 3rd Algerian Division on the right wing of the VI Corps along the Rhine was to have been pinched out after it reached the Lauter River at the German frontier. The planners had not reckoned with the aspirations of the French and their 1st Army commander, General Jean de Lattre
. Assured of support from the provisional head of the French state, General Charles de Gaulle
, de Lattre was determined to acquire a zone along the Rhine north of the Lauter in order to assure a Rhine crossing site for the final drive into Germany.
As the Algerians matched and sometimes exceeded the strides of the American units of the VI Corps and reached the Lauter along a 10 mi (16.1 km) front, de Lattre had no difficulty pressing his ambition on the 6th Army Group commander, General Devers. Using the 3rd Algerian Division and a combat group from the 5th French Armored Division
, again to be attached to the VI Corps, the French (organized as Task Force (Groupement) de Monsabert) were to continue northward some 12 mi (19.3 km) beyond the Lauter River, thereby gaining limited Rhine River frontage inside Germany. The subsequent French advance pushed through the Bienwald
, a large forested expanse just north of the Lauter through which bunkers, trenches, and other obstacles of the West Wall were emplaced. In the ensuing clash, elements of the German 257th Volksgrenadier and 905th Infantry Training Divisions were forced to retreat northward in fighting dominated by the forested terrain.
The adjustment meant that the West Wall assault by the four American divisions of the VI Corps was to be concentrated in a zone less than twenty miles wide. Since the German XC Korps had only the remnants of two volksgrenadier divisions and an infantry training division to defend against both Americans and French, a breakthrough of the fortifications was but a matter of time. Yet just as had been the case in the zones of the XXI Corps and the XV Corps, it was less the hard fighting of the VI Corps that would determine when the West Wall would be pierced than it was the rampaging thrusts of the 3rd Army′s XX Corps in the German rear.
The divisions of the VI Corps had been probing the pillbox belt less than 24 hours when General Walker, leaving the task of gaining the Rhine to the 12th Armored Division and of actually capturing Kaiserslautern to an infantry unit, turned the 10th Armored Division south and southeast into the Pfaelzer Forest. By nightfall of 20 March, two of the 10th Armored′s columns stood only a few hundred yards from the main highway through the forest, one almost at the city of Pirmasens
on the western edge, the other not far from the eastern edge. A third was nearing Neustadt
, farther north beyond the fringe of the forest. The 12th Armored meanwhile was approaching the Rhine near Ludwigshafen. Not only were the withdrawal routes through the Pfaelzer Forest about to be compromised but a swift strike down the Rhine plain from Neustadt and Ludwigshafen against the last escape sites for crossing the Rhine appeared in the offing.
In desperation, on 20 March the Luftwaffe sent approximately 300 planes of various types—including jet-propelled Messerschmitt Me 262
—to attack the 3rd Army′s columns, but to little avail. Casualties on the American side were minor. Anti-aircraft units—getting a rare opportunity to do the job for which they were trained—shot down 25 German planes. Pilots of the XIX Tactical Air Command
claimed another eight.
In the face of the 10th Armored Division′s drive, the word to the westernmost units of the XC Korps to begin falling back went out late on the 20th, and when the 42nd Division—in the mountains on the left wing of the VI Corps—launched a full-scale assault against the West Wall late the next day, the attack struck a vacuum. Soon after dawn the next morning, 22 March, a regiment of the 42nd cut the secondary highway through the Pfaelzer Forest. A column of the 10th Armored had moved astride the main highway through the woods and emerged on the Rhine flatlands at Landau. Any Germans who got out of the forest would have to do so by threading a way off the roads individually or in small groups.
By nightfall of 22 March, the Germans west of the Rhine could measure the time left to them in hours. In the West Wall on either side of Wissembourg, Germans of Petersen′s XC Korps continued to fight in the pillboxes in a manner that belied the futility of their mission. The 14th Armored Division (Maj. Gen. Albert C. Smith) attacked into the Wissembourg Gap on 20 March and then fought Germans of the XC Corps over the possession of Steinfeld
for the next two days. Both at Neustadt and at Landau, remnants of two divisions of the XIII SS Korps, including the 17. SS Panzergrenadierdivision, had held through the day, but early in the evening the defense collapsed. General Beyer′s LXXX Corps, transferred from the 7. Armee to plug the hole from the north alongside the Rhine, had hardly anything left to prevent the 12th Armored Division from driving southward from Ludwigshafen toward Speyer
. By nightfall of the 22nd, a column of the 12th Armored stood only six miles from Speyer, and on the 23rd, the 14th Armored broke through the Westwall at Steinfeld and began its advance on Germersheim
.
To forestall a second Remagen
, by 19 March the Germans had blown all Rhine bridges from Ludwigshafen northward. Of three that remained upstream, the southernmost, at Maximiliansau, was destroyed on 21 March when a round of American artillery fire struck a detonator, setting off prepared demolitions. A second, at Speyer, was too immediately threatened and too far removed from the main body of German troops to be of much use to any but the defenders of Speyer itself. It would be blown late on the 23rd.
Over the remaining bridge, at Germersheim, roughly east of Landau, as many vehicles and field pieces as could be salvaged began to pass during the night of the 22nd. Still no orders for final withdrawal beyond the Rhine came from the Commander-in-Chief West. Headquarters of both the 1. Armee and Army Group G still were west of the river.
Some German officers were beginning to wonder if every last increment of the 1. Armee was to be sacrificed when at last, on 23 March, authority came to cross the Rhine. While the bridge at Germersheim continued to serve artillery and vehicles, foot troops began to evacuate the west bank at three ferry sites south of the town. A smattering of infantrymen, an occasional tank or assault gun, and a regiment of antiaircraft guns operating against ground targets formed rear guard perimeters west of the ferry sites.
It is impossible to ascertain how many Germans escaped from the Saar-Palatinate to fight again on the Rhine's east bank, or how much equipment and matériel they managed to take with them. Yet German losses clearly were severe. "Tremendous losses in both men and matériel," noted the chief of staff of the 1. Armee. The staff of the U.S. 7th Army estimated that the two German armies had lost 75-80% of their infantry in the Saar-Palatinate fight. The 7th Army and its attached French units captured 22,000 Germans during the campaign, and the 3rd Army imprisoned more than 68,000. The 3rd Army estimated that the German units opposing its advance lost approximately 113,000 men, including prisoners, while the 3rd Army′s casualties totaled 5,220, including 681 killed. The 7th Army, much of its fighting centered in the West Wall, probably incurred about 12,000 casualties, including almost 1,000 killed.
In view of the success of the campaign, criticism of it would be difficult to sustain. Yet it was a fact nonetheless that the German 1. Armee—and to some extent the 7. Armee—for all the losses, conducted a skillful delaying action to the end in the face of overwhelming strength on the ground and in the air and never succumbed to wholesale encirclement, despite a higher command reluctant to sanction any withdrawal. In the process, the Germans had withstood the clear threat of a rapid drive by some unit of the 3rd Army or the 7th Army along the west bank of the Rhine to trap the 1. Armee. In preserving their forces, however, the Germans had to surrender the important industrial area around Saarbruecken as well as the readily defensible terrain of the Pfaelzer Forest.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in March 1945 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Opposing commanders were U.S. General Jacob L. Devers
Jacob L. Devers
General Jacob "Jake" Loucks Devers , commander of the 6th Army Group in Europe during World War II. He was the first United States military officer to reach the Rhine after D-Day.-Biography:...
, commanding U.S. 6th Army Group and German SS General Paul Hausser
Paul Hausser
Paul "Papa" Hausser was an officer in the German Army, achieving the high rank of lieutenant-general in the inter-war Reichswehr. After retirement from the regular Army he became the "father" of the Waffen-SS and one of its most eminent leaders...
, commanding German Army Group G
Army Group G
The German Army Group G fought on the Western Front of World War II and was a component of OB West.When the Allied invasion of Southern France took place, Army Group G had eleven divisions with which to hold France south of the Loire...
. Significantly assisted by operations of the U.S. 3rd Army that overran German lines of communication, Operation Undertone cleared the German defenses and pushed to the Rhine River in the area of Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
within 10 days. General Devers′ victory—along with a rapid advance by the U.S. 3rd Army—completed the advance of Allied armies to the west bank of the Rhine along its entire length within Germany.
Background
Anticipating early completion of operations to clear the west bank of the Rhine north of the MoselleMoselle River
The Moselle is a river flowing through France, Luxembourg, and Germany. It is a left tributary of the Rhine, joining the Rhine at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is also drained by the Mosel through the Our....
, General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
on 13 February 1945 had told his two American army group commanders—Generals Omar Bradley
Omar Bradley
Omar Nelson Bradley was a senior U.S. Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the Army in the United States Army...
and Jacob L. Devers
Jacob L. Devers
General Jacob "Jake" Loucks Devers , commander of the 6th Army Group in Europe during World War II. He was the first United States military officer to reach the Rhine after D-Day.-Biography:...
—to begin planning for a joint drive to sweep the Saar-Palatinate. Assigned a target date of 15 March, the offensive was to begin only after the 21st Army Group had reached the Rhine. It was to be designed both to draw enemy units from the north and to provide an alternate line of attack across the Rhine should the principal Allied drive in the north fail. The main effort, SHAEF planners contemplated, was to be made by the 6th Army Group's 7th Army, which was to be augmented by transferring one armored and three infantry divisions from the 3rd Army.
During the first week of March, General Devers at 6th Army Group approved a plan (Operation UNDERTONE) prepared by General Alexander Patch
Alexander Patch
General Alexander McCarrell "Sandy" Patch was an officer in the United States Army, best known for his service in World War II. He commanded Army and Marine forces during the invasion of Guadalcanal, and the U.S...
′s 7th Army. Three corps were to attack abreast from Saarbruecken to a point southeast of Hagenau. A narrow strip along the Rhine leading to the extreme northeastern corner of Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
at Lauterbourg
Lauterbourg
Lauterbourg is a commune and Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. Situated on the German border and not far from the German city of Karlsruhe, it is the easternmost commune in Metropolitan France...
was to be cleared by a division of the French 1st Army under operational control of the 7th Army. The 7th Army′s main effort was to be made in the center up the Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, and from Luxembourg.Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...
corridor.
Approving the plan in turn, General Eisenhower noted that the objective was not only to clear the Saar-Palatinate but also to establish bridgeheads with forces of the 6th Army Group over the Rhine between Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
and Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
. The 12th Army Group (i.e., the 3rd Army), he also noted, was to be limited to diversionary attacks across the Moselle to protect the 6th Army Group′s left flank.
Eisenhower approved on 8 March, the same day that General George S. Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
obtained approval from General Bradley for the plan prepared by the 3rd Army staff for a major attack across the Moselle
Moselle River
The Moselle is a river flowing through France, Luxembourg, and Germany. It is a left tributary of the Rhine, joining the Rhine at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is also drained by the Mosel through the Our....
.
The 12th Army Group commander in turn promoted the plan with General Eisenhower. Noting that the Germans had given no indication of withdrawing from the West Wall in front of the 7th Army and that General Patch thus might be in for a long, costly campaign, Bradley suggested that the 3rd Army jump the Moselle near Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
, sweep south along the west bank of the Rhine to cut the enemy′s supply lines, and at the same time press from its previously established Saar-Moselle bridgehead near Trier
Trier
Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....
to come at the West Wall fortifications from the rear. General Eisenhower approved the plan without qualification.
Although General Devers was briefly reluctant to endorse 3rd Army operations south of the Moselle lest the two forces become entangled with their converging thrusts, he too in the end approved the plan. He and Bradley agreed on a new boundary that afforded the 3rd Army a good road leading northeast from Saarlautern
Saarlouis
Saarlouis is a city in the Saarland, Germany, capital of the district of Saarlouis. In 2006, the town had a population of 38,327. Saarlouis, as the name implies, is located at the river Saar....
to headwaters of the Nahe River, some 35 mi (56.3 km) northeast of Saarlautern, thence along the valley of the Nahe to the Rhine at Bingen
Bingen
Bingen may refer to:* Bingen am Rhein, Germany* Bingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany* Bingen, Washington, United States* Bingen Hauptbahnhof...
. This boundary gave the 3rd Army responsibility for clearing the northwestern third of the Saar-Palatinate. Bradley and Devers also authorized the commanders of the two armies—3rd and 7th—to deal directly with each other rather than through their respective army group headquarters.
Facing the undented fortifications of the West Wall, the 7th Army commander planned a set-piece attack, preceded by an extensive program of aerial bombardment. Before the attack could begin, supplies had to be accumulated, division and corps boundaries adjusted, some units shuffled, and new divisions joining the army fed into jump-off positions. This meant to General Patch that the 7th Army could not attack before the target date, 15 March.
Assault
Walton Walker
Walton Harris Walker was an American army officer and the first commander of the U.S. Eighth Army during the Korean War.-Biography:...
′s XX Corps
XX Corps (United States)
The XX Corps of the United States Army fought from northern France to Austria in World War II. Constituted by redesignating the IV Armored Corps, which had been activated at Camp Young, California on 5 September 1942, XX Corps became operational in France as part of Lieutenant General George S....
. Collapse of the 7. Armee clearly was but a question of time. Soon the German 1. Armee, too, would be in dire straits, for the U.S. 7th Army two days earlier, on 15 March, had launched a power drive against General Hermann Foertsch
Hermann Foertsch
Hermann Foertsch was a highly decorated General der Infanterie in the Wehrmacht during World War II who held commands at the divisional, corps and army levels. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme...
′s army along a 70 mi (112.7 km) front from the vicinity of Saarlautern southeastward to the Rhine. Even if that offensive failed to penetrate the West Wall, it might tie the 1. Armee troops to the fortifications while Patton′s forces took them from the rear.
The U.S. 7th Army traced its origin back to Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
where General Patton had first led it into battle. An infantryman who had seen combat many months before on Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal is a tropical island in the South-Western Pacific. The largest island in the Solomons, it was discovered by the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña in 1568...
, "Sandy" Patch, had assumed command for the invasion of southern France and a swift advance northward. Patch′s chief of staff was an artilleryman, Maj. Gen. Arthur A. White, who had held a similar post under Patch on Guadalcanal.
The 7th Army numbered among its ranks several relatively inexperienced units but retained a flavoring of long-term veterans. The VI Corps (Maj. Gen. Edward H. Brooks
Edward H. Brooks
Edward Hale Brooks was a decorated officer in the United States Army and a veteran of World War I, World War II and the Korean War...
), for example, and three divisions—the 3rd, 36th, and 45th—had fought at length in the Mediterranean theater, including the Anzio beachhead. The XV Corps
XV Corps (United States)
The XV Corps of the US Army was initially constituted on 1 October 1933 as part of the Organized Reserves, and was activated on 15 February 1943 at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana. During the Second World War, XV Corps fought for 307 days in the European Theater of Operations, fighting from Normandy...
(Maj. Gen. Wade H. Haislip
Wade H. Haislip
Wade Hampton Haislip was a United States Army four star general who served as Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1949 to 1951.-Military career:...
) had joined the 7th Army after fighting across France with the 3rd Army. A third corps, the XXI
XXI Corps (United States)
Initially constituted on 2 December 1943 in the Army of the United States, the XXI Corps was activated on 6 December 1943 at Camp Polk, Louisiana. XXI Corps fought for 116 days in the European Theater of Operations, fighting from Alsace through southern Germany and into Austria. The corps was...
(Maj. Gen. Frank W. Milburn
Frank W. Milburn
Frank William Milburn was a general in the United States Army during World War II and the Korean War....
), was relatively new, having joined the army in January.
As the 7th Army offensive began, the basic question was how stubbornly the Germans would defend before falling back on the West Wall. Only General Milburn′s XXI Corps—on the 7th Army′s left wing, near Saarbruecken—was fairly close to the West Wall, while other units were as much as 41 in 6 in (12.65 m)twenty miles away. Making the army′s main effort in the center, General Haislip′s XV Corps faced what looked like a particularly troublesome obstacle in the town of Bitche
Bitche
Bitche is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in north-eastern France.It is known for its large citadel. The surrounding territory is known as le Pays de Bitche in French and Bitscherland in German.-Geography:...
. Surrounded by fortresses of the French Maginot Line
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...
, Bitche had been taken from the Germans in December after a hard struggle, only to be relinquished in the withdrawal forced by the German counteroffensive
Operation Nordwind
Operation North Wind was the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front. It began on 1 January 1945 in Alsace and Lorraine in northeastern France, and it ended on 25 January.-Objectives:...
. On the army′s right wing, General Brooks′s VI Corps—farthest of all from the West Wall—first had to get across the Moder River
Moder River
The Moder is a long river in northeastern France, left tributary of the river Rhine. Its source is near the hamlet Moderfeld, in the commune of Zittersheim. It joins the Rhine near the Iffezheim Lock, in Germany.- Notes :...
, and one of Brooks′s divisions faced the added difficulty of attacking astride the rugged Lower Vosges Mountains
Vosges mountains
For the department of France of the same name, see Vosges.The Vosges are a range of low mountains in eastern France, near its border with Germany. They extend along the west side of the Rhine valley in a northnortheast direction, mainly from Belfort to Saverne...
.
Two German corps and part of a third were in the path of the impending American drive. At Saarbruecken, the left wing of General Knieß′ LXXXV Korps would receive a glancing blow from Milburn′s XXI Corps. Having recently given up the 559. Volksgrenadierdivision to the 7. Armee, Knieß had only two divisions, one of which was tied down holding West Wall positions northwest of Saarbruecken. Southeast of the town, with boundaries roughly coterminous with those of Haislip′s XV Corps, stood the XIII SS Korps
XIII SS Army Corps
XIII SS Army Corps was formed August 1944 at Breslau. It was moved to France and the Western Front, where it remained until the end of the war, by which time it had retreated to the Alps...
(SS-Gruppenfuehrer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Max Simon
Max Simon
Max Simon was a German SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS during World War II, who was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves. Simon was a private in the Prussian Army during World War I and was one of the first members of the SS in the early 1930s...
) with three divisions. Extending the line to the Rhine was the XC Korps (General der Infanterie
General der Infanterie
General of the Infantry is a military rank of a General officer and refers to:* General of the Infantry * General of the Infantry...
Erich Petersen
Erich Petersen
Erich Karl Alexander Petersen was a German general during the Second World War. Petersen served as Commander of the 7. Flieger-Division, until being tapped for promotion to Commanding General of the IV. Luftwaffe-Field-Corps...
) with two volksgrenadier divisions and remnants of an infantry training division.
Although the Germans worried most about a breakthrough in the sector of Petersen′s XC Korps into the Wissembourg Gap rather than through Simon′s XIII SS Korps into the Kaiserslautern corridor, the shifts and countershifts made in preceding weeks to salvage reinforcements for the 7. Armee actually had left the XIII SS Korps the stronger. In addition to two volksgrenadier divisions, Simon's corps had the 17th SS Panzergrenadierdivision
17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen
The 17. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Götz von Berlichingen was a German SS panzergrenadier division which saw action on the Western Front during World War II.-Formation and training:...
, at this point not much more than a proud name, but a unit possessing considerably more tanks and other armored vehicles than were to be found in the entire adjacent corps. The American main effort thus aimed at the stronger German units, though at this stage of the war strength in regard to German divisions was but a relative term.
As General Patch′s 7th Army attacked before daylight on 15 March, the apparent answer on German intentions was quick to come. Only in two places could the resistance be called determined. One was on the left wing, where the 63rd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Louis E. Hibbs) sought to bypass Saarbruecken on the east and cut German escape routes from the city. The fact that the 63rd Division early hit the West Wall provided ready explanation for the stanch opposition there. The other was on the extreme right wing where an attached 3rd Algerian Infantry Division
3rd Algerian Infantry Division
The 3rd Algerian Infantry Division was an infantry division of the French Army during the last half of the Second World War. The 3e DIA had one of the most successful combat records of any French Army division during the Second World War. It paid a high price for this distinction, suffering more...
(3e Division d'Infanterie d'Algerie) was to clear the expanse of flatland between Hagenau and the Rhine. There an urban area closely backing the Moder River defensive line and flat ground affording superb fields of fire for dug-in automatic weapons accounted in large measure for the more difficult fighting.
Elsewhere, local engagements sometimes were vicious and costly but usually were short-lived. Anti-personnel and anti-tank mines abounded. German artillery fire seldom was more than moderate and in most cases could better be classified as light or sporadic. That was attributable in part to a campaign of interdiction for several days preceding the attack by planes of the XII Tactical Air Command
XII Tactical Air Command
The XII Tactical Air Command is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the United States Air Forces in Europe, based at Bad Kissingen, Germany...
(Brig. Gen. Glenn O. Barcus) and by D-day strikes by both the fighter-bombers and the mediums and heavies of the 8th Air Force
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....
. The latter hit West Wall fortifications and industrial targets in cities such as Zweibruecken and Kaiserslautern. The weather was beautifully clear, enabling the aircraft to strike at a variety of targets, limited only by range and bomb-carrying capacity. Among the German casualties were the operations officers of two of the three XC Korps divisions.
Of the units of the outsized (six divisions) XV Corps, only a regiment of the 45th Division (Maj. Gen. Robert T. Frederick
Robert T. Frederick
Robert Tryon Frederick was a highly decorated American combat commander during World War II, who commanded the 1st Special Service Force, the 1st Airborne Task Force and the 45th Infantry Division.-Career:...
) faced a water obstacle at the start. That regiment had to cross the Blies River at a site upstream from where the Blies turns northeast to meander up the Kaiserslautern corridor. Yet even before dawn men of the regiment had penetrated the enemy′s main line of defense beyond the river. Aided by searchlights, they bypassed strongpoints, leaving them for reserves to take out later. As night came, the 45th Division had driven almost 3 mi (4.8 km) beyond the Blies to match a rate of advance that was general everywhere except in the pillbox belt near Saarbruecken and on the flatlands near the Rhine.
On the right wing of the XV Corps, men of the 100th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Withers A. Burress
Withers A. Burress
Withers A. Burress was a graduate and commandant of the Virginia Military Institute as well as a career U.S. Army officer and combat commander in World War I and World War II.-Education and early career:...
) drove quickly to the outskirts of the fortress town of Bitche. Perhaps aided by the fact that they had done the same job before in December, they gained dominating positions on the fortified hills around the town, leaving no doubt that they would clear the entire objective in short order the next day, 16 March.
The only counterattack to cause appreciable concern hit a battalion of the 3rd Division′s 7th Infantry
7th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The United States Army's 7th Infantry Regiment, known as "The Cottenbalers" from an incident that occurred during the Battle of New Orleans, while under the command of Andrew Jackson, when soldiers of the 7th Infantry Regiment held positions behind a breastwork of bales of cotton during the...
. Veterans of combat from the North African campaign onward, the regiments of the 3rd Division (Maj. Gen. John W. O'Daniel
John W. O'Daniel
John W. "Iron Mike" O'Daniel was a United States Army general, best known for commanding the Third Infantry Division in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Southern France during World War II. He is also known for being the commanding officer of Audie Murphy.O’Daniel was an athlete, a teacher, a...
) were making the main effort in the center of the XV Corps in the direction of Zweibruecken and the Kaiserslautern corridor. Although a company of supporting tanks ran into a dense minefield, disabling four tanks and stopping the others, a battalion of the 7th Infantry fought its way into the village of Uttweiler, just across the German frontier. Then an infantry battalion from the 17. SS Panzergrenadierdivision, supported by nine assault guns, struck back. The Germans quickly isolated the American infantrymen but could not force them from the village. Supported by a platoon of tank destroyers and the regimental antitank company organized as a bazooka brigade, another of the 7th Infantry′s battalions counterattacked. The men knocked out four multiple-barrel 20 mm (0.78740157480315 in) FlaKwagen
Self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon
An anti-aircraft vehicle, also known as a self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon or self-propelled air defense system , is a mobile vehicle with a dedicated anti-aircraft capability...
s and seven assault gun
Assault gun
An assault gun is a gun or howitzer mounted on a motor vehicle or armored chassis, designed for use in the direct fire role in support of infantry when attacking other infantry or fortified positions....
s and freed the besieged battalion.
On the 7th Army's right wing, pointed toward the Wissembourg Gap
Wissembourg Gap
The Wissembourg Gap is a corridor of open terrain approximately six kilometers wide that is situated between the hills of the Palatinate Forest and the Bienwald on the Franco-German border. The gap is dominated by the town of Wissembourg, Alsace, France...
, divisions of General Brooks′s VI Corps experienced, with the exception of the 3rd Algerian Division, much the same type of opposition. Although all four attacking divisions had to overcome the initial obstacle of a river, either the Moder or a tributary, they accomplished the job quickly with predawn assaults. The Germans were too thinly stretched to do more than man a series of strongpoints. On the corps left wing, the 42nd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Harry J. Collins
Harry J. Collins
Harry J. Collins , was an Army Major General.-Biography:He was born on December 7, 1895 in Chicago, Illinois....
) overcame the added obstacle of attacking along the spine of the Lower Vosges by avoiding the roads and villages in the valleys and following the crests of the high ground. Pack mules—already proved in earlier fighting in the High Vosges—provided the means of supply.
As with the 3rd Division, a battalion of the 103rd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe) ran into a counterattack, but the reaction it prompted was more precautionary than forced. Having entered Uttenhoffen
Uttenhoffen
Uttenhoffen is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.-History:Finds from the Neolithic Age and the Hallstatt culture period are as attested as the settlement in Roman times. After introduction of the Reformation in the 16th Century Uttenhoffen had until the 18th...
, northwest of Hagenau, the battalion encountered such intense small arms fire and shelling from self-propelled guns that the regimental commander authorized withdrawal. When German infantry soon after nightfall counterattacked with support from four self-propelled pieces, the battalion pulled back another few hundred yards to better positions on the edge of a copse.
In the sector of the 36th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. John E. Dahlquist
John E. Dahlquist
John Ernest Dahlquist was a United States Army general and World War II division commander. In the course of his career, he commanded three different army divisions, commanded at the corps and field army level, and rose to the rank of four-star general.-Biography:Dahlquist was born on March 12,...
), the day′s fighting produced a heroic performance by a rifleman of the 142d Infantry, Pfc. Silvestre S. Herrera
Silvestre S. Herrera
Silvestre Santana Herrera was a member of the United States Army of Hispanic heritage who received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during World War II in Mertzwiller, France. His one-man charge on an enemy stronghold resulted in his single-handed capture of eight enemy soldiers...
. After making a one-man charge that carried a German strongpoint and took eight prisoners, Herrera and his platoon were pinned down by fire from a second position protected by a minefield. Disregarding the mines, Herrera also charged this position but stepped on a mine and lost both feet. Even that failed to check him. He brought the enemy under such accurate rifle fire that others of his platoon were able to bypass the minefield and take the Germans in flank.
The 3d Algerian Division meanwhile got across the Moder with little enough trouble but then encountered intense house-to-house fighting. Despite good artillery support made possible by the unlimited visibility of a clear day, grazing fire from automatic weapons prevented the Algerians from crossing a stretch of open ground facing the buildings of a former French Army frontier post. A welter of mines and two counterattacks, the latter repulsed in both cases by artillery fire, added to the problems. As night fell, no Algerian unit had advanced more than a mile.
On the second day, 16 March, indications that the Germans were fighting no more than a delaying action increased everywhere except, again, on the two flanks. It seemed particularly apparent in the zone of the XV Corps, where all three attacking divisions improved on their first day′s gains. Mines, demolitions, and strongpoints usually protected by a tank or an assault gun were the main obstacles. By nightfall, both the 3rd and 45th Divisions were well across the German frontier, scarcely more than a stone′s throw from the outposts of the West Wall, and the 100th Division, relieved at Bitche by a follow-up infantry division, had begun to come abreast. Fighter-bombers of the XII Tactical Air Command again were out in force.
Even though the Germans appeared to be falling back by design, in reality they intended a deliberate defense. Although corps commanders had begged to be allowed to withdraw into the West Wall even before the American offensive began, General Foertsch at 1. Armee and General Hausser at Army Group G
Army Group G
The German Army Group G fought on the Western Front of World War II and was a component of OB West.When the Allied invasion of Southern France took place, Army Group G had eleven divisions with which to hold France south of the Loire...
had been impelled to deny the entreaties. The new Commander-in-Chief West—Generalfeldmarshall Albert Kesselring
Albert Kesselring
Albert Kesselring was a German Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall during World War II. In a military career that spanned both World Wars, Kesselring became one of Nazi Germany's most skilful commanders, being one of 27 soldiers awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords...
—remained as faithful as his predecessor to the Hitler-imposed maxim of no withdrawal anywhere unless forced.
As events developed, no formal order to pull back into the fortifications ever emerged above corps level. Beginning the night of 16 March, commanders facing the U.S. XV Corps simply did the obvious, ordering their units to seek refuge in the West Wall whenever American pressure grew so great that withdrawal or annihilation became the only alternatives. The next day, commanders facing the U.S. VI Corps adopted the same procedure.
It became at that point as much a matter of logistics as of actual fighting before all divisions of the 7th Army would be battling to break the concrete barrier into the Saar-Palatinate; but as more than one German commander noted with genuine concern, whether any real fight would develop for the West Wall was not necessarily his to determine. That responsibility fell to those units, decimated and increasingly demoralized, which were opposing the onrush of U.S. 3rd Army troops from west and northwest into the German rear.
Breakthrough
As the breakthrough of General Walker′s XX Corps developed in the direction of Kaiserslautern, concern had mounted in the 1. Armee lest those units in the West Wall around Saarbruecken and Zweibruecken be trapped. Once Kaiserslautern fell, the only routes of withdrawal left to those troops led through the Haardt Mountains south of Kaiserslautern. Covered by a dense wood, the Pfaelzer Forest, the region was crossed laterally by only one main highway, by a secondary highway close behind the West Wall, and by a few minor roads and trails. The natural difficulties posed by these twisting, poorly surfaced routes already had been heightened by a mass of wrecked vehicles as American fighter pilots relentlessly preyed on hapless targets.Using the authority granted by Kesselring on 17 March to pull back units threatened with encirclement, the 1. Armee′s General Foertsch authorized withdrawal by stages of his westernmost troops, those of General Knieß′ LXXXV Korps. Over a period of three days, units of the corps were to peel back from west to east, redeploying to block the main highway leading northeast through the Kaiserslautern Gap.
Unfortunately for Foertsch′s plan, the principal threat to the Kaiserslautern Gap came not from west or southwest but from northwest where Walker′s XX Corps was pouring unchecked through General Hahm′s LXXXII Korps. The 10th Armored Division′s arrival at Kaiserslautern itself on 20 March meant not only that the gap was compromised by a force well in the rear of Knieß′' formations but also that the only way out for both Knieß′ troops and those of the adjacent XIII SS Korps was through the Pfaelzer Forest.
As Knieß′ withdrawal progressed, it had the effect of opening a path through the West Wall for the left wing of the U.S. 7th Army. Despite a stubborn rear guard, the 63rd Division of General Milburn′s XXI Corps broke through the main belt of fortifications near St. Ingbert
Sankt Ingbert
St. Ingbert is a town in the Saarpfalz district in Saarland, Germany with a population of 37361 . It is situated approx. 10 km north-east of Saarbrücken and 10 km south-west of Neunkirchen. Sankt Ingbert is an old industrial town, but most of its heavy industries have long closed down...
late on 19 March. Had events moved according to plan, Milburn then would have sent an armored column northward to link with Walker′s XX Corps near St. Wendel
Sankt Wendel
St. Wendel is a municipality in northeastern Saarland. It is situated on the river Blies 36 km northeast of Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland, and is named after Saint Wendelin of Trier.- Geography :...
; but so swift had been the advance of Walker′s troops that all worthwhile objectives in Milburn′s sector beyond the West Wall already had fallen. Milburn and his XXI Corps had achieved a penetration but had no place to go.
The 7th Army commander, General Patch, seized on the situation to provide a boost for his army′s main effort, the attack of the XV Corps through Zweibruecken toward the Kaiserslautern Gap. In two days of hammering at General Simon′s XIII SS Korps, the divisions of the XV Corps still had opened no hole through the West Wall for armored exploitation. Send a combat command, Patch directed the XV Corps commander, General Haislip, to move through the 63rd Division′s gap and come in on the rear of the West Wall defenders facing the XV Corps.
That the Americans would exploit the withdrawal was too obvious to escape the 1. Armee commander, General Foertsch. During the night of the 19th, he extended the authority to withdraw to the west wing of the XIII SS Korps. Thus, hardly had the American combat command begun to move early on 20 March to exploit the 63rd Division′s penetration when the 45th Division of the XV Corps also advanced past the last pillboxes of the West Wall near Zweibruecken. During the night of the 20th, the rest of the SS korps also began to pull back, and the momentum of the 3rd Division′s advance picked up accordingly.
The German problem was to get the survivors of both the LXXXV Korps and the XIII SS Korps through the Pfaelzer Forest despite three dire threats: one from the closely following troops of the U.S. 7th Army; another from the 10th Armored Division of Walker′s XX Corps, which at Kaiserslautern was in a position to swing south and southeast through the Pfaelzer Forest and cut the escape routes; and a third from the Argus
Argus Panoptes
In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes or Argos, guardian of the heifer-nymph Io and son of Arestor, was a primordial giant whose epithet "Panoptes", "all-seeing", led to his being described with multiple, often one hundred, eyes. The epithet Panoptes was applied to the Titan of the Sun, Helios, and...
-eyed fighter bombers of the XII Tactical Air Command.
It was the last that was most apparent to the rank and file of the retreating Germans. Since speed was imperative, the men had to move by day as well as by night, virtually inviting attack from the air. Since almost everybody, including the troops of the motorized 17. SS Panzergrenadierdivision, had to use either the main east-west highway through the forest or the secondary road close behind the West Wall, American fighter pilots had only to aim their bombs, their cannon, and their machine guns in the general direction of those roads to be assured of hitting some target. An acute gasoline shortage added to the German difficulties. Almost every foot of the two roads soon became clogged with abandoned, damaged, or wrecked vehicles, guns, and equipment.
The destruction in the Pfaelzer Forest was in keeping with the pattern almost everywhere. So long a target of both artillery and aircraft, the drab towns and cities in and close to the West Wall were a shambles. "It is difficult to describe the destruction," wrote the 45th Division commander, General Frederick. "Scarcely a man-made thing exists in our wake; it is even difficult to find buildings suitable for CP′s: this is the scorched earth." In Zweibruecken, with the entire business district razed, only about 5,000 people of a normal population of 37,000 remained, and they were hiding in cellars and caves. Fires burned uncontrolled, neither water nor fire-fighting equipment available to quench them. No local government existed. Thousands of released slave laborers and German soldiers who had changed into civilian clothes complicated the issue for military government officials. In more than one city, particularly Homburg, looting and pillage were rampant.
Running the gantlet of American fighter aircraft through the Pfaelzer Forest, the amorphous mass of retreating Germans faced still a fourth American threat—General Brooks′s VI Corps, which had followed closely the German withdrawal from northeastern Alsace and on 19 March had begun to assault the West Wall on either side of Wissembourg
Wissembourg
Wissembourg is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in northeastern France.It is situated on the little River Lauter close to the border between France and Germany approximately north of Strasbourg and west of Karlsruhe. Wissembourg is a sub-prefecture of the department...
. There, General Petersen′s XC Korps was charged with holding the fortifications and denying access to the flatlands along the Rhine.
In the 7th Army′s original plan, the attached 3rd Algerian Division on the right wing of the VI Corps along the Rhine was to have been pinched out after it reached the Lauter River at the German frontier. The planners had not reckoned with the aspirations of the French and their 1st Army commander, General Jean de Lattre
Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
Jean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny, GCB, MC was a French military hero of World War II and commander in the First Indochina War.-Early life:...
. Assured of support from the provisional head of the French state, General Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, de Lattre was determined to acquire a zone along the Rhine north of the Lauter in order to assure a Rhine crossing site for the final drive into Germany.
5th Armored Division (France)
The 5th Armored Division was an armored division of the French Army that fought in World War II and the Algerian War. It was also active in Germany during the Cold War.-World War II:...
, again to be attached to the VI Corps, the French (organized as Task Force (Groupement) de Monsabert) were to continue northward some 12 mi (19.3 km) beyond the Lauter River, thereby gaining limited Rhine River frontage inside Germany. The subsequent French advance pushed through the Bienwald
Bienwald
The Bienwald is a large forested area in the southern Pfalz region of Germany near the towns of Kandel and Wörth am Rhein. The western edge defines the eastern extent of the Wissembourg Gap, a corridor of open terrain between the Bienwald and the hills of the Pfälzer Wald. In the northwest, the...
, a large forested expanse just north of the Lauter through which bunkers, trenches, and other obstacles of the West Wall were emplaced. In the ensuing clash, elements of the German 257th Volksgrenadier and 905th Infantry Training Divisions were forced to retreat northward in fighting dominated by the forested terrain.
The adjustment meant that the West Wall assault by the four American divisions of the VI Corps was to be concentrated in a zone less than twenty miles wide. Since the German XC Korps had only the remnants of two volksgrenadier divisions and an infantry training division to defend against both Americans and French, a breakthrough of the fortifications was but a matter of time. Yet just as had been the case in the zones of the XXI Corps and the XV Corps, it was less the hard fighting of the VI Corps that would determine when the West Wall would be pierced than it was the rampaging thrusts of the 3rd Army′s XX Corps in the German rear.
The divisions of the VI Corps had been probing the pillbox belt less than 24 hours when General Walker, leaving the task of gaining the Rhine to the 12th Armored Division and of actually capturing Kaiserslautern to an infantry unit, turned the 10th Armored Division south and southeast into the Pfaelzer Forest. By nightfall of 20 March, two of the 10th Armored′s columns stood only a few hundred yards from the main highway through the forest, one almost at the city of Pirmasens
Pirmasens
Pirmasens is a district-free city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It is famous for the manufacture of shoes. The surrounding rural district was called Pirmasens from 1818 until 1997, when it was renamed Südwestpfalz....
on the western edge, the other not far from the eastern edge. A third was nearing Neustadt
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,892 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.-Etymology:...
, farther north beyond the fringe of the forest. The 12th Armored meanwhile was approaching the Rhine near Ludwigshafen. Not only were the withdrawal routes through the Pfaelzer Forest about to be compromised but a swift strike down the Rhine plain from Neustadt and Ludwigshafen against the last escape sites for crossing the Rhine appeared in the offing.
In desperation, on 20 March the Luftwaffe sent approximately 300 planes of various types—including jet-propelled Messerschmitt Me 262
Messerschmitt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft. Design work started before World War II began, but engine problems prevented the aircraft from attaining operational status with the Luftwaffe until mid-1944...
—to attack the 3rd Army′s columns, but to little avail. Casualties on the American side were minor. Anti-aircraft units—getting a rare opportunity to do the job for which they were trained—shot down 25 German planes. Pilots of the XIX Tactical Air Command
XIX Tactical Air Command
The XIX Tactical Air Command is an inactive United States Air Force unit. The unit's last assignment was with the Ninth Air Force based at Biggs Field, Texas...
claimed another eight.
In the face of the 10th Armored Division′s drive, the word to the westernmost units of the XC Korps to begin falling back went out late on the 20th, and when the 42nd Division—in the mountains on the left wing of the VI Corps—launched a full-scale assault against the West Wall late the next day, the attack struck a vacuum. Soon after dawn the next morning, 22 March, a regiment of the 42nd cut the secondary highway through the Pfaelzer Forest. A column of the 10th Armored had moved astride the main highway through the woods and emerged on the Rhine flatlands at Landau. Any Germans who got out of the forest would have to do so by threading a way off the roads individually or in small groups.
By nightfall of 22 March, the Germans west of the Rhine could measure the time left to them in hours. In the West Wall on either side of Wissembourg, Germans of Petersen′s XC Korps continued to fight in the pillboxes in a manner that belied the futility of their mission. The 14th Armored Division (Maj. Gen. Albert C. Smith) attacked into the Wissembourg Gap on 20 March and then fought Germans of the XC Corps over the possession of Steinfeld
Steinfeld, Rhineland-Palatinate
Steinfeld is a municipality in Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....
for the next two days. Both at Neustadt and at Landau, remnants of two divisions of the XIII SS Korps, including the 17. SS Panzergrenadierdivision, had held through the day, but early in the evening the defense collapsed. General Beyer′s LXXX Corps, transferred from the 7. Armee to plug the hole from the north alongside the Rhine, had hardly anything left to prevent the 12th Armored Division from driving southward from Ludwigshafen toward Speyer
Speyer
Speyer is a city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities...
. By nightfall of the 22nd, a column of the 12th Armored stood only six miles from Speyer, and on the 23rd, the 14th Armored broke through the Westwall at Steinfeld and began its advance on Germersheim
Germersheim
Germersheim is a town in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, of around 20,000 inhabitants. It is also the seat of the Germersheim district. The neighboring towns and cities are Speyer, Landau, Philippsburg, Karlsruhe and Wörth.-Coat of arms:...
.
To forestall a second Remagen
Ludendorff Bridge
The Ludendorff Bridge was a railway bridge across the River Rhine in Germany, connecting the villages of Remagen and Erpel between two ridge lines of hills flanking the river...
, by 19 March the Germans had blown all Rhine bridges from Ludwigshafen northward. Of three that remained upstream, the southernmost, at Maximiliansau, was destroyed on 21 March when a round of American artillery fire struck a detonator, setting off prepared demolitions. A second, at Speyer, was too immediately threatened and too far removed from the main body of German troops to be of much use to any but the defenders of Speyer itself. It would be blown late on the 23rd.
Over the remaining bridge, at Germersheim, roughly east of Landau, as many vehicles and field pieces as could be salvaged began to pass during the night of the 22nd. Still no orders for final withdrawal beyond the Rhine came from the Commander-in-Chief West. Headquarters of both the 1. Armee and Army Group G still were west of the river.
Some German officers were beginning to wonder if every last increment of the 1. Armee was to be sacrificed when at last, on 23 March, authority came to cross the Rhine. While the bridge at Germersheim continued to serve artillery and vehicles, foot troops began to evacuate the west bank at three ferry sites south of the town. A smattering of infantrymen, an occasional tank or assault gun, and a regiment of antiaircraft guns operating against ground targets formed rear guard perimeters west of the ferry sites.
Conclusion
Although all divisions of the U.S. VI Corps achieved clear breakthroughs during 23 March, they came in contact only with rear guards and failed to affect the German evacuation materially. Because a German force in Speyer fought doggedly, contact between the 12th and 14th Armored Divisions was delayed. Both armored divisions early on 24 March sent task forces in quest of the lone remaining Rhine bridge, the one at Germersheim, but neither had reached the fringes of the town when at 10:20 the Germans blew up the prize. Formal German evacuation of the west bank ended during the night of the 24th, while American units continued to mop up rear guards and stragglers through the 25th.It is impossible to ascertain how many Germans escaped from the Saar-Palatinate to fight again on the Rhine's east bank, or how much equipment and matériel they managed to take with them. Yet German losses clearly were severe. "Tremendous losses in both men and matériel," noted the chief of staff of the 1. Armee. The staff of the U.S. 7th Army estimated that the two German armies had lost 75-80% of their infantry in the Saar-Palatinate fight. The 7th Army and its attached French units captured 22,000 Germans during the campaign, and the 3rd Army imprisoned more than 68,000. The 3rd Army estimated that the German units opposing its advance lost approximately 113,000 men, including prisoners, while the 3rd Army′s casualties totaled 5,220, including 681 killed. The 7th Army, much of its fighting centered in the West Wall, probably incurred about 12,000 casualties, including almost 1,000 killed.
In view of the success of the campaign, criticism of it would be difficult to sustain. Yet it was a fact nonetheless that the German 1. Armee—and to some extent the 7. Armee—for all the losses, conducted a skillful delaying action to the end in the face of overwhelming strength on the ground and in the air and never succumbed to wholesale encirclement, despite a higher command reluctant to sanction any withdrawal. In the process, the Germans had withstood the clear threat of a rapid drive by some unit of the 3rd Army or the 7th Army along the west bank of the Rhine to trap the 1. Armee. In preserving their forces, however, the Germans had to surrender the important industrial area around Saarbruecken as well as the readily defensible terrain of the Pfaelzer Forest.