THE US FIRST ARMY THE FORGOTTEN HEROES OF WW2; THE BREAK OUT INTO BRITTANY CHAPTER 6

The following day being the 1^st of August the 3^rd Army was activated under Lieutenant General George S Patton and the American forces swept into Brittany while Patton’s forces turned east to clear the Cotentin Peninsular, the First Army turned west to link up with the advancing elements of the British 21^st battle group with a view to trapping the German 7^th and 5^th armies in a huge pincer movement around the town of Falaise and destroy the German armies in the field.

The Third Army subsequently advanced westward to capture Man, the erstwhile headquarters of the German Seventh Army and also cut off the retreat of the German forces trapped in the Cotentin Peninsular. German Dictator Adolf Hitler, in a foolhardy move ordered Field Marshal Von Kluge to launch a counter offensive against the advancing Allied Armies with a view to splitting the British and American armies between Mortain and Avranches and throw them back into the sea if possible.

 Against his own better judgment Von Kluge committed the remainder of his seven armored divisions in a counter attack codenamed operation Luttich. Von Kluge’s intentions were intercepted by the Ultra intelligence operation and the Allied commanders duly informed, waited for him.

 On August 7^th the attack was launched by the panzer divisions that could muster only 75 Panzer IV and 70 Panther tanks and 32 self propelled guns. Hopelessly outnumbered, the offensive was over in 24 hours with the German forces completely routed and desperately seeking to avoid the encirclement that was closing in on them around Falaise.

The depleted German armored divisions were almost completely annihilated by the combined power of four Allied armies that had them completely surrounded and pulverized with air and artillery strikes, which completely decimated them, and left the dazed survivors fleeing on foot in the direction of the Seine River in the bid to escape the noose of the Allied encirclement. Two complete German armies the 7^TH and the 5^th were caught in the jaws of the Allied pincers.

A failure of proper co-ordination between the 90^TH division of the First army and the inexperienced Polish 1^st armored division of the Canadian 4^TH Army, particularly in the sector closed by the Polish Corp left a fifteen mile gap through which many German soldiers managed to escape on foot out of the pocket, leaving behind 50,000 prisoners and most of their vehicles and equipments.

 Some historians blame General Bradley who had now been lifted to the command of the two American armies the 12^th army group for stopping Patton’s forces just short of the point of sealing the pocket for fear of the advancing British and American units converging on the pocket clashing accidentally. 

 Altogether over 150,000 Germans managed to escape from the pocket, crossed the Seine River and regrouped on the other side. Over 100,000 German soldiers were killed or wounded in the operation. This defeat gave the Allied armies the opportunity to advance towards the Seine over undefended territory as all the Allied armies advanced in pursuit of the fleeing enemy.

The fleeing Germans crossed the Seine River and hastily built a new defensive line on the left side of the River. With the collapse of the German positions in Normandy, the advancing British and American armies began a race for the French capital to forestall a regrouping of the German forces.

 As they approached Paris the Allies decided to bypass the city and instead pursue the fleeing Germans to give them no respite. General Courtney Hicks Hodges had assumed the command of the First Army upon the elevation of Lieutenant General Omar N Bradley to the command of the newly formed 12^th Army group consisting of the US First Army and General George S Patton’s Third Army.

 Lieutenant General Hodges now ordered his Army to cross the Seine River across bridge heads established between Mantes – Grassi courts and Mellon to the east, beginning an equally spectacular advance with three Corps towards Namur, Liege and the German frontier.

Moving on the right flank, VII Corps crossed the Aisne River on August 29, while Soissons was overrun by elements of the 3^rd armored division which also seized Laon the next day after overcoming heavy enemy resistance. The advance of the 3^rd armored division proceeded swiftly and on the 1^st of September 1944 advanced to a point 30 miles north east of Laon

The next two days saw the columns advancing over 40 miles, crossing the Belgian border in the Hirson area and reaching Charleroi and Mons. Moving on the left flank a rapidly advancing column of XIX Corps moving from the Mantes bridge head led by the 2^nd armored division advanced over 13miles on 30^th August and another 20 miles of break taking advance brought it close to Montdidier in Belgium.

By September 2, XIX Corps had reached the Belgian border south of Tournai, an incredible advance of 60 miles in 2 days. The consequence of this swift advance was that the armored division completely outflanked and by passed large pockets of German soldiers as they outpaced and outran the retreating German army. The Germans trapped in the pocket extending from Mons area to Compiegne – St Quentin reaching a line east of Cambrai eventually capitulated and over 25,000 of them were taken prisoner over a period of three days.

On the 4^th of September, the First army turned at a right angle to the east, with the V Corps moving on the right flank crossing the Meuse River north of Sedan on the 5^th- 6^th September 1944. Sedan eventually fell to the 5^th armored division on the 6^th of September opening up a front that led to a rapid advance across Belgium and Luxembourg on a 65 mile front.

The 5^th armored division eventually liberated the city of Luxembourg on the 10^th of September, and by the 11^th, V Corps had reached the German frontier, confronting the Siegfried line and its defenses. Up north, units of the VII Corps captured the Belgian town of Namur and the River Meuse crossings near Dinant and continued to advance down along both banks of the River towards Liege’.

German resistance was heavy but by September 8^th, the Americans broke through and Liege fell, but the relentless advance of VII Corps brought its leading elements into Luxembourg which was located 13 miles southwest of Aachen. The First Army was now deep within the defensive depth of the West wall also known as the Siegfried line.

The German crisscross of defenses, mine fields, road blocks, artillery emplacements and pill boxes slowed down but did not completely stop the First Army which pressed on with determination to breach the defenses of the Siegfried line and gain a foothold on German soil.

That notwithstanding the American advance still made some territorial gains on the 10^th of September 1944 that brought the big guns of VII Corps into range of German territory for the first time. Further north in Belgium, VII Corps had pushed its way forward alongside XIX Corps and had captured both Eupen and Malmedy while XIX Corps was at the outskirts of Maastricht and further south had crossed the Meuse River.

In a spectacular advance, the First Army had swept down from the Seine River across France, Belgium and Luxembourg and was now at the front door of Germany in the autumn of 1944. First Army was now poised to take the first major German city seized by the Allies in World War 2, that is Aachen and there after invest the German positions across the Roer River in a bid to breach the Siegfried line and make a dash for the Rhine, the last natural barrier preventing the Allies from striking at the heart of Germany and the Ruhr industrial region.

At this point German resistance stiffened considerably as the war entered into Germany proper. The autumn rains, mud and onset of winter along with swollen Rivers combined to place natural obstacles on the path of the advance of First Army as they prepared to breach the extensive defenses of the Siegfried line.

 The expectation that the war would be over by Christmas was to prove to be a hoax and a futile dream to the average American as the network of pill boxes, Dragon’s teeth, forts and concrete tunnels extending hundreds of miles across the frontlines made them realize that defeating Germany was not going to be a walk over as they had been led to believe.

The First Army thus had the tough privilege of taking the first major German city in battle. The initial plan had centered on by passing the city and allowing it to fall on its own terms but as the Allies advanced, it became increasingly clear that the Germans were preparing an all out defense, and that it would be dangerous to leave such a well fortified position in the rear of the Allied lines. General Courtney Hodges therefore ordered the units of the VII Corps to invest the city beginning in the first week of September.

Because Aachen sat right in the middle of the Siegfried line it was completely fortified with an extensive network of tunnels, pill boxes, barbed wire entanglements and concrete obstacles known as Dragon’s teeth. Because of its historical importance and strategic location it had become imperative to seize it in the drive to Germany proper.

 Even though the German garrison commander General Gerhard Von Schwerin commanding the 116^th Panzer division had intended to surrender the city to the Allies in order to spare the civilian population the ravages of war and also save the old imperial city from destruction, Adolf Hitler’s directive for him to launch an attack on the Allied lines frustrated his plans, which in any case was soon divulged to Hitler when his surrender letter was intercepted and delivered to Hitler.

He was promptly arrested and replaced by General Gerhard Wilck, who set about defending the city with the corresponding heavy loss of lives and destruction of property. By the 16 ^TH of September, Aachen had been surrounded on three sides by the First Army’s 1^st infantry division but the dearth of supplies and the diversion of logistics support to assist Field Marshall Montgomery’s Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands prevented the First Army from immediately taking the city.

The fighting eventually carried on through late October and involved bitter battles on the part of the 30^th and 1^st infantry divisions which bore the brunt of the fighting and the casualties. Aachen being on the hinge of the Siegfried line saw the beginning of a stiffening of German defenses and a willingness to fight on the part of the Germans that had not been obvious in France particularly after the battles of the hedgerows and the break out from Brittany.

In Aachen, which represented the first calculated effort by the Allies to denigrate and ultimately breach the Siegfried line, the American fighting spirit in the face of a tenacious all- out defense began to emerge. For once both parties shared parity in terms of determination to hold pre-determined objectives, which for the Americans rested on a determination to destroy the German army once and for all, regardless of the cost.

 Aachen and ultimately the battle of the Hurtgen forest showed the beginning of a willingness by the American military authorities to pay the price for victory in blood and material losses in a way that stunned the German High Command and began to shape their beliefs in the fact that unless the Americans in particular could be stopped, the war was lost as far as the western front was concerned. A lot of steely resolve was demonstrated by both parties as the hard slog unfolded.

In Aachen the First Army fought a sustained battle of attrition for over six weeks from the first week of September to the third week of October. In the words of General Eisenhower it was the beginning of the hard slog campaign against the German enemy in the face of the clear defeat the Allies faced in Operation Market Garden which was thought up by Field Marshal Montgomery as a plan to force a way into Germany through the northern route and thereby outflank the Siegfried line.

It had become pretty clear after the failed operation that there was just no way to outflank the Siegfried line and the dreary prospect of the positional and entrenched warfare of 1914-1918 loomed as an unavoidable prospect for the Allies as the First Army bore down on Aachen.