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    Metz 1944: Patton’s fortified nemesis
    Metz 1944: Patton’s fortified nemesis
    Metz 1944: Patton’s fortified nemesis
    Ebook227 pages2 hours

    Metz 1944: Patton’s fortified nemesis

    By Steven J. Zaloga and Steve Noon

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    About this ebook

    A complete examination of Patton's campaign to take the fortified city of Metz.

    General George Patton's most controversial campaign was the series of battles in autumn 1944 battles along the German frontier which centered on the fortified city of Metz. In part, the problem was logistics. As was the case with the rest of the Allied forces in the European Theatre, supplies were limited until the port of Antwerp could finally be cleared. Also problematic was the weather. The autumn of 1944 was one of the wettest on record, and hardly conducive to the type of mechanized warfare for which Patton was so famous.

    However at the heart of the problem was the accretion of sophisticated fortifications. Metz had been fortified since ancient times, heavily rebuilt by France in the post-Napoleonic period, modernized by Germany in 1870–1914, and modernized by France during the Maginot effort in 1935–40. The Germans hoped to hold Metz with a thin screen of second-rate troops, counting on the impregnable fortifications.

    This book covers the entire campaign from beginning to end, offering an unbiased assessment of the success and failures of both the Allied and Axis efforts.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMar 20, 2012
    ISBN9781780960432
    Metz 1944: Patton’s fortified nemesis
    Author

    Steven J. Zaloga

    Steven J. Zaloga received his BA in History from Union College and his MA from Columbia University. He has worked as an analyst in the aerospace industry for three decades, covering missile systems and the international arms trade, and has served with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federal think tank. He is the author of numerous books on military technology and history, including NVG 294 Allied Tanks in Normandy 1944 and NVG 283 American Guided Missiles of World War II. He currently lives in Maryland, USA.

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      Book preview

      Metz 1944 - Steven J. Zaloga

      READING

      INTRODUCTION

      The Metz campaign by Patton’s Third US Army in the late autumn of 1944 is often forgotten or dismissed as a setback. Yet the task faced by his forces in Lorraine in October–December 1944 was amongst his most daunting. The Third US Army had shrunk to only two corps since its glory days in the race to Paris in August 1944, and Patton’s units were short of both supplies and fresh troops. Facing them was the most heavily fortified region along the western German frontier, starting with the sturdy 19th-century German forts along the Moselle, followed by a belt of Maginot Line forts, and finally the Westwall pillboxes from the 1930s. In the autumn of 1944, the Wehrmacht modernized and deepened these defensive belts as part of the West-Stellung program. Patton’s original attempts to breach the Moselle River on the run in September had mixed results. XII Corps had gained substantial bridgeheads in the areas east of Nancy, but in the XX Corps area Patton had only a small toehold near Metz. The river-crossing sites near Metz were well protected by the neighboring forts and smothered with artillery fire. XX Corps tried to capture Fort Driant in early October 1944, but the attacks failed in the face of fierce resistance. Hitler declared Metz to be a Festung (fortress) to be defended to the last bullet.

      After a lull in the fighting through most of October dictated by logistics problems, Eisenhower authorized a new round of offensives in early November. Operation Madison aimed to reduce Festung Metz but, taking to heart the lessons of the failed Fort Driant attack, intended to infiltrate past the forts where possible and leave them to rot on the vine. The main impediment during the November offensive proved to be the weather. Unusually heavy rains flooded the Moselle Valley, making river-crossing operations especially difficult. In the XII Corps sector, the sodden, muddy conditions turned the battlefield into a quagmire that subverted Patton’s usual finesse with tank warfare. In the XX Corps sector, the raging river swept away many bridges, but in the end, the key forts around Thionville were overcome or avoided, and two divisions enveloped Metz. Once the outer crust of forts had been overcome, the city quickly fell on November 18.

      In spite of the atrocious weather, Patton’s Third US Army managed to overwhelm German forces in Lorraine. By early December, footholds had been secured over the Saar River in the shadows of the Westwall. The ultimate prize was the Rhine River and it seemed to be within their grasp. Operation Tink was planned for December 19, 1944, to leap to the Rhine near Mainz and Mannheim in anticipation of a drive on Frankfurt. Days before the launch of this bold winter offensive, the Wehrmacht struck in the Ardennes, diverting Patton’s Third US Army northward on its legendary campaign to relieve Bastogne.

      CHRONOLOGY

      THE STRATEGIC SETTING

      By September 1944, neither Patton’s Third US Army, nor its German opponent, 1. Armee, was fighting in the region that their high commands had planned earlier in the summer. The Third US Army had been the follow-on wave after Bradley’s First US Army had executed Operation Cobra, the breakout from Normandy. Instead of following Bradley’s units eastward towards Germany, Patton’s forces had been directed westward towards Brittany to seize ports such as Quiberon Bay and Brest. It was a futile mission resulting from the failure of senior Allied commanders to reassess pre-invasion plans. The Germans recognized the Allies’ insatiable need for port facilities, and the Wehrmacht demolished ports before their surrender such as Cherbourg in June 1944; there was no reason to expect otherwise at Brest. Furthermore, Brest was hundreds of miles further west of the advancing Allied armies, detracting from its logistical value. Third US Army conducted the Brittany campaign in a speedy fashion, but by mid-August, its futility was evident. Patton convinced Bradley and Eisenhower to redirect his forces eastward towards Paris on Bradley’s right flank. It was an ideal mission for Patton, taking advantage of his skills as a bold cavalry commander on a classic exploitation mission against very weak enemy forces. Patton’s spectacular summer advance led to the unexpected liberation of Paris and put the Third US Army on the borders of Lorraine in early September.

      Metz has been fortified since ancient times. The last remnant of the fortified medieval city was the Porte des Allemands (Deutsches Tor) built on the Seille River starting in 1230, and seen here shortly after the end of the fighting in November 1944. (NARA)

      The strategic situation, September 25, 1944

      US troops inspect the ruins of Fort Douaumont on October 1, which had been the infernal center of the Verdun fighting in 1915. Both American and German commanders were skeptical of the value of the old forts under modern battlefield conditions until shown otherwise during the fighting for Fort Driant in early October 1944. (NARA)

      A motorized column from the 7th Armored Division descends into the Moselle Valley on September 8 on the approaches to Metz. This division took part in the early stages of the Lorraine campaign with XX Corps, but was transferred to the Netherlands later in the month. (NARA)

      The weak forces facing Patton on the approaches to Paris were elements of 1. Armee, better known by its German acronym, AOK 1 (Armeeoberkommando 1). Armeeoberkommando 1 had been assigned the defense of the Atlantic coast from its headquarters in Bordeaux. Its units had been gradually stripped away to reinforce the Normandy front, and by August, it was a shadow of its pre-invasion strength, consisting mainly of third-rate garrison units assigned to coastal defense. When the Wehrmacht in Normandy became trapped in the Falaise pocket, AOK 1 was instructed by Berlin to dispatch a rump headquarters to erect a defensive line in front of Patton’s onrushing tanks on the approaches to Paris. It was an impossible mission and one which inevitably failed. Still on the Atlantic coast, the remainder of AOK 1 was in even more desperate circumstances. Operation Dragoon, the American and French landings on the French Mediterranean coast on August 15, 1944, succeeded beyond anyone’s imagination and Allied forces soon were rushing up the Rhône Valley towards Alsace. Stuck in their Atlantic coastal defenses, AOK 1 was on the verge of being cut off. Uncharacteristically, Hitler authorized AOK 1 to withdraw along with the rest of Heeresgruppe G

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