Metz 1944: Patton's fortified nemesis (Campaign)

Metz 1944: Patton's fortified nemesis (Campaign)

Language: English

Pages: 96

ISBN: 1849085919

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


General George Patton's most controversial campaign was the series of battles in autumn 1944 along the German frontier which centered on the fortified city of Metz. It took nearly four months, from September to December 1944, for Patton's Third Army to capture the Metz-Thionville fortified zone. 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.

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Reinforce the Mosel-Stellung. Wehrkreis XII deployed seven fortification infantry battalions, nine MG battalions and light Flak battalions armed with 398 light MG, 366 heavy MG, 255 50mm mortars, 180 20mm Flak and 54 37mm Flak guns. Wehrkreis XII had an extensive if somewhat motley selection of field artillery to supplement the artillery of AOK 1 totaling some 379 field guns ranging from World War I 77mm field guns to 305mm siege mortars. There were also a half-dozen large-caliber railway guns in.

Driant prior to the next attack. The figure to the far left is Capt. Jack Gerrie, Co. G commander, and next to him is Major John Russell, the battalion commander. (NARA) overlooked the Moselle crossing site of the 11th Infantry, 5th Division, near Dornot. Hinkmann’s crews began firing on the Dornot bridgehead on September 10, and the following day, XX Corps artillery targeted the site, hitting one of the armored cupolas and killing three crewmen. However, the gun was functional again within a.

Ltd: Oxford, 2000) 10 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com TOP The Arnaville bridgehead proved to be more successful after the engineers were able to erect a pontoon treadway bridge over the Moselle. In addition, the site was shielded from observation of nearby Fort Driant and the Verdun fortified group by smoke generators as seen here on September 23. (NARA) BOTTOM XII Corps made numerous crossings of the Moselle in the Nancy area in September. An M4A3 tank and Jagdpanzer IV are.

With 73 tanks and assault guns being lost to the 6th Armored Division on this front in three weeks of fighting, a heavy toll given the impoverished state of the German Panzer units. On December 4, the attack resumed in this sector by the 35th and 80th Infantry Divisions and the 6th Armored Division with the aim of securing Sarreguemines on the Saar River. In two days of fighting, the 35th Division and 6th Armored Division advanced to the western bank of the Saar and had a toehold in.

Infantry component took one of two forms, either a three-regiment configuration with a reduced regimental strength of only two grenadier LEFT Although AOK 1 was weak in infantry and Panzers, it was relatively well equipped with artillery. This 150mm Kanone 39 was part of a trainload captured by the Third Army near Verdun in September and it is seen here in use by the 344th Field Artillery Battalion, 90th Division, in the Metz area on October 7, 1944. Owing to ammunition shortages in the Third.

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