what divisions were in patton's third army

On 22 May, the Third Army issued its plan of advance, effective 30 May, in view of the impending emergency. 3rd Signals Battalion 246th Volksgrenadier Division Oberst Peter Krte 352nd, 404th, and 689th VG Regiments 246th Artillery Regiment 246th Antitank Battalion 246th Engineer Battalion 246th Signals Battalion 272nd Volksgrenadier Division Generalmajor Eugen Knig 980th, 981st, and 982nd Volksgrenadier Regiments 272nd Artillery Regiment On the western front Patton was one of the first American leaders to understand the importance of armored warfare, a military strategy that would follow him through his military career. The inspection of this appalling site on April 12 by Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, and Patton has become an integral part of what Americans learn about liberation. In late 1944, during the wake of the Allied forces' successful D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, it seemed as if the Second World War was all but over. A massive American spearhead now threatened to drive into Brittany and, by a left turn, to encircle the Germans in Normandy from the rear. On 20 May, Marshal Foch directed allied commanders to dispatch troops toward Weimar and Berlin in the event the peace treaty was not signed. Wenker and Elby were, respectively, the commanding officer and executive officer ofBoat Unit 1, attached to the U.S. First Army during the Rhine crossing. This was due, at least part, to the fact that United States, having rejected the Treaty of Versailles, was therefore still "de jure" at war with Germany. As the first waves of troops landed on the opposite bank unopposed, the Allies soon came under fire from German artillery fire and bombing attacks by the Luftwaffe. It may be best known as the site for a large, state-run forensic psychiatric Patton State Hospital which was opened in . By January 1945, the remainder of the process of closing up to the Rhine could be completed. Commanded by Major General Robert W. Grow, the "Super Sixth," as it was nicknamed, had been in the field since mid-July 1944. Since the invasion of Normandy on 6 June, the Allies had been bogged down on this narrow strip of land on the French coast. In February, military schools were opened through the Third Army area; a quartermaster depot was organized; 2,000 officers and enlisted men left to take courses in British and French universities; better leave facilities were created; and plans for sending American divisions to the United States were made. With their contribution to Operation Plunderovercoming the final obstacle barring the wayinto Germany from the West, the Navy played a significant role in ending the war in Europe. In keeping with US national security strategy, Third Army supports U.S. Central Command through a theater security cooperation strategy that encompasses the four fundamentals of the National Military Strategy. The Third United States Army was first activated as a formation during the First World War on 7 November 1918, at Chaumont, France, when the General Headquarters of the American Expeditionary Forces issued General Order 198 organizing the Third Army and announcing its headquarters staff. In the evening the bad weather returned. Even worse than that.. Today we take a look at the location near Assenois where the seige of Bastogne was brokenBecome a Patreon of my channel: https://www.patreon.com/HistoryInYou. When Commandant Hermann Pister and the last of the SS fled late in the morning of the 11th, the prisoners distributed weapons long hidden from the Germans (including rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades) and took control of the watchtowers. The strength of the Third Army as of 19 December, the date the bridgehead occupation was completed, was 9,638 officers and 221,070 enlisted men. At this point George S. Pattons newly formed Third Army joined in the advance. 1 The four boat units were Task Unit (TU) 122.5.1, TU 122.5.2, TU 122.5.3, and TU 122.5.4. A collection of some of the most notable programs on the Holocaust at The National WWII Museum. In 1912 Patton represented the United States in the Olympics held in Stockholm, taking part in the modern pentathlon. The vanguard of Patton's 3rd Army was only six kilometers away from Bastogne. The median age was 44.3 years. He saved hundreds of lives during World War II and This strategy provides the President with a wide range of options to deter aggression and coercion from a forward presence posture, and to decisively defeat any adversary if deterrence fails across the full spectrum of conflict.[8]. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.0 square miles (5.2 km 2), of which, 1.9 square miles (4.9 km 2) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km 2) of it (6.83%) is water.. Patton Village is in southeastern Montgomery County, 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Conroe and about 32 miles (51 km) northeast . Patton is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The Third Army swept across Northern France light lightening crackling across the sky. To this day, Patton is remembered as an exceptional General. (Left) American engineers emerge from the woods and move out of defensive positions after fighting in the vicinity of Bastogne, Belgium. Since the invasion of Normandy on 6 June, the Allies had been bogged down on this narrow strip of land on the French coast. Your email address will not be published. Rachael A. Beath, Intern, NHHC Histories and Archives Division. On the same day the 42d Division passes to the command of the IV Corps, which, in support of the III Corps, continued its march to occupy the Kreise of Mayen, Ahrweiler, Adenau, and Cochem. From the inmates, they pinpointed the scattered sites for execution and photographed the six ovens in the camps crematorium, with human remains still present. Kirk was Commander, United States Naval Forces, France, in 1944 and 1945, and tells of the Navys part in the Rhine River crossing and of the capture of the Atlantic ports occupied by the German military. Hitler saw the breakout as an opportunity to restore the front. Indeed, in terms of participation and losses, the Battle of the Bulge is arguably the greatest battle in American military history. These craft ferried 3,000 troops, 80 57-mm guns, and more than 500 assorted armored and wheeled vehicles. Look for more information regarding the history of General George S. Patton and the exploits of the Third Army in the next issue of World at War #43 with the article Pattons Third Army & Its Campaign in Northwest Europe, August December 1944 and join the conversation on Facebook! For those who had lived through 1940, the picture was all too familiar. Having crossed the Rhine, the Allies advanced into the German heartland. Third Army remained in Germany until recalled to the United States again in 1947. . The Third United States Army is a military formation of the United States Army, which saw service in World War I and World War II, in the 1991 Gulf War, and in the Iraq War. In the next two days the German attacks became more and more fierce. The 4th Armored Division was activated during World War II on 15 April 1941 with 3,800 men (10,000 by the end of May 1941) from various other units, at Pine Camp (Camp Drum, 1951; Fort Drum, 1974), New York under its first Commanding General, Brigadier General Henry W. Baird. Krueger was succeeded by Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges who led the Army for the rest of 1943. He told his staff to hustlean ounce of sweat was worth a gallon of blood. On 12 December, Field Order No. Units involved in the initial assault 16 Dec, SS-Gruppenfhrer Hermann Prie However, the Germans then launched their last great offensive of the war the Battle of the Bulge. During January 1919, the Third Army was engaged in training and preparing the troops under its command for any contingency. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Fhrer dismissed all objections, convinced that the elite German forces would roll over the war-weary and/or inexperienced American formations in the Ardennes Forest and drive all the way to the English Channel port of Antwerp. During this time, Boat Unit 1 ferried more than 14,000 troops and 400 vehicles across the Rhine. Stories spread of the massacre of Soldiers and civilians at Malmedy and Stavelot, of paratroopers dropping behind the lines, and of English-speaking German soldiers, disguised as Americans, capturing critical bridges, cutting communications lines, and spreading rumors. Kiniry recalled all the bodies, human beings totally bereft of life, piled in trenches or on carts. The plan focused on Wesel, with multiple crossings set to occur along a 22-mile front on the evening of 23 March. The original plans called for Lt. Gen. George Patton, Jr.'s newly formed Third Army to turn westward to clear the Brittany ports while Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery pushed the Germans eastward across the Seine. Third Army was shipped from the U.S. to the United Kingdom. Map showing the Allied Rhine-crossing operations, 2228 March 1945 (Edward N. Bedessem, Central Europe: The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II. 504-528-1944, Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, American Soldiers Uncover Medical Mass Murder at Hadamar, The Imperative to Witness: Memoirs by Survivors of Auschwitz, Best of WWII Public Programs: The Holocaust, Wannsee Conference: The Master Plan for the "Final Solution", Confronting the Histories of Vichy and European Fascism: An Interview with Robert O. Paxton. 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130info@nationalww2museum.org The son of a proud military family, Patton followed in his fathers footsteps and attended the prestigious Virginia Military Institute before gaining admission to the US Military Academy at West Point. To aid their work, Kiniry and his unit supervised Germans brought in from nearby Weimar to clean the camp. Three members, of an American patrol, Sgt. I cant really describe it, to tell you how horrendous it was to see these people treated like animals. With 12 bridges spanning the river, the U.S. Ninth Army under Montgomery had established a bridgehead 35 miles wide and up to 12 miles deep by 28 March. The speeches were intended to motivate the inexperienced Third Army for its pending combat duty. An admiring British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill stated, "This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory." The recently arrived Free French 2nd Armoured Division was ordered to liberate the city. After a day of hard fighting, the Germans broke through the American front, surrounding most of an infantry division, seizing key crossroads, and advancing their spearheads toward the Meuse River, creating the projection that gave the battle its name. Your email address will not be published. Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model[b], Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary ForcesGeneral of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, Oberstgruppenfhrer der Waffen SS Josef "Sepp" Dietrich[e], Generalleutnant Otto Hitzfeld To the GIs, it seemed like they would be in Berlin by October. Fuller, Robert P. (2004). Third Army maintains a continued forward presence, conducts joint and coalition exercises throughout the region, provides humanitarian assistance when needed, develops close partnerships with responsible nations, assists in demining efforts, and provides support to other military service components. Never did he believe their claims they knew nothing of Buchenwald. On 20 April 1919, Third Army command changed from Maj. Gen. Dickman to Lt. Gen. Hunter Liggett. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.7 males. I have reported what I saw and heard but only part of it. Despite its heroic efforts, the remnants of the German Seventh Army and Fifth Panzer Armythe latter now led by one of Hitlers top tank commanders, Josef (Sepp) Dietrichsucceeded in breaking through between August 16 and 19. Before the advance the 1st Division passed to the command of the III Corps. Belgian townspeople put away their Allied flags and brought out their swastikas. The news that many had expected came in December 1943. In crossing the Rhine on the shortened frontfrom Rolandseck to Rhens on the west bankthe Third Army encountered no hostile act of any sort. Return to Headquarters . Kyle is a Military Historian and Senior Editor at Strategy & Tactics Press. Until the buildup of American forces prior to its entry into World War II, Third Army remained largely a paper formation. In one of the great moves of the war, Patton turned Third Army's axis of advance through ninety degrees and set it upon the south of the German forces. Here is a the Third Army summary of After Action in World War II and it was published in July of 1945. Each division ordinarily required 700-750 tons a day a total daily consumption of about 20,000 tons." Prior to D-Day, Allied aircraft had destroyed the French railway system to prevent German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel from supplying his troops along the French coastline. Units of the Canadian First Army, British Second Army, and the U.S. The colossal tasks of documenting and communicating what had occurred in Buchenwald had only just begun for American investigators. Pattons instructions were to cross with his Third Army when he arrived at Mainz, roughly 100 miles upstream from (south of) Montgomerys position. This battle was an attempt to repeat the decisive breakthrough of 1940. In the early hours of 24 March, the 15th Scottish Division and the U.S 30th and U.S.79th divisions joined the attack at Rheinberg. While Patton did not formulate an elaborate plan, his staff had been collecting assault boats and bridging equipment for an anticipated crossing operation since the previous August. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1960. The camp also held convicts (hostility between the politicals and common criminals grew very quickly). Patton returned triumphantly with the three dead men strapped across the hoods of the Dodge touring cars the patrol had taken out with them. "Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945". Nearly 50 members. There were 345 housing units at an average density of 103.9 per square mile, of the occupied units 181 (62.6%) were owner-occupied and 108 (37.4%) were rented. On July 1, 1944, the 80th Infantry Division was sent to England for deployment to France. Its vanguards arrived on August 24. On August 16, the day after a Franco-American force had landed on the Riviera (Operation Dragoon), Hitler at last recognized the inevitable and gave permission for a withdrawal from Normandy. Including the initial crossing at Oppenheim, all four crossings succeeded without preparatory artillery fire. American personnel faced a humanitarian catastrophe when they liberated Buchenwald Concentration Camp. A week earlier, on April 4, troops from the 89th Infantry Division, 4th Armored Division, and the 602nd Tank Destroyer Battalion overran Ohrdruf, a recently established subcamp of Buchenwald. Third Army After Action reports state that the Third Army captured 765,483 prisoners of war, with an additional 515,205 of the enemy already held in corps and divisional level POW cages processed between 9 May and 13 May 1945, for a total of 1,280,688 POWs, and that, additionally, Third Army forces killed 144,500 enemy soldiers and wounded 386,200, for a total of 1,811,388 in enemy losses. The 37th Tank Bttn. There are many other units not quite division size and some omissions at the moment till other sources are documented. Oral History: Lieutenant Wilton Wenker and Lieutenant F. M. Elby. Patton's Third Army was racing across France, and the German defenders of the Pas de Calaisnow threatened from the landward side by real divisions rather than phantom oneswere heading out of the region and out of the battle. Often isolated and unaware of the overall picture, they did their part to slow the Nazi advance, whether by delaying armored spearheads with obstinate defenses of vital crossroads, moving or burning critical gasoline stocks to keep them from the fuel-hungry German tanks, or coming up with questions on arcane Americana to stump possible Nazi infiltrators. Legendary CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow was one of those who came to the camp immediately after liberation, arriving on Thursday, April 12. The architect of the German withdrawal was Field Marshal Walther Model, the Fhrers fireman, a veteran of the Eastern Front who had succeeded Kluge on August 17. The southern (right) boundary was as has been previously mentioned. The necessity of maintaining good hygiene in the camp, however, was not easy; many of the freed individuals initially refused to take showers, remembering just how the SS used showering facilities. As Murrow related, hearing the appreciation for the president touched him so deeply, since, unbeknownst to the liberated, the president died that very day. Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, later to gain fame for his command of Sixth Army during operations in the Pacific commanded Third Army from May 1941 until February 1943. As with the 9 th and 10 th armored divisions, the 7 th and 8 th were right where they needed to be to help halt the great German counteroffensive of December 1944. On 27 May, Marshal Foch informed General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief, AEF, that the Supreme War Council desired allied armies be made ready immediately to resume active operations against the Germans. Plans for the ambitious river crossing had begun almost six months previously. Equipment to be ferried across the Rhine Riveris loaded on Navy LCVPs, March 1945(National Archives and Records Administration, Still Pictures Division, College Park, MD, Record Group 119A, SC 204084). To the south, Patton's 3rd Army was to drive east to Chemnitz, about 40 mi (64 km) southeast of Leipzig, but well short of the Elbe, and then turn southeast into Austria. "Last shots for Patton's Third Army". Oral History: Lieutenant Wilton Wenker and Lieutenant F. M. Elby. Gus Widhelm of Scouting Eight. The majority of this time was spent in General George S. Patton's famous Third Army. On Dec. 16, with the onset of winter, the German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war in Hitler's favor. Under his leadership, the basis of the Army's later success as a combat formation was laid. The third Army consisted of three corps (III, Maj. Gen. John L. Hines; IV, Maj. Gen. Charles Muir; and VII, Maj. Gen. William G. Hahn) and seven divisions. But when the Germans stood firm the greatest fighting was done by Patton's long undersung infantry--the foot sloggers who were called upon to reduce enemy strong points, and who took the brunt of German counterattacks.Michael Bilder, a member of the 5th Infantry ("Red Diamond" division), played a unique role in the Third Army's onslaught. Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1992. In foreground is Cpl. The U.S., British, and Canadian forces had occupied Belgium and part of the Netherlands and had reached the German frontier. The division had pushed into Thuringia, in east-central Germany, and seized Mhlhausen on April 4. They discovered the block for medical experiments (vivisections on healthy individuals; use of phosphorus; research on typhus). George S. Patton was the epitome of a military leader. The 4 th, 5 th, and 6 th armored divisions led Lieutenant General George S. Patton's renowned Third Army breakout and pursuit across France in the high summer of 1944. A member of the 45th Evacuation Hospital attached to General George S. Pattons Third Army, Kiniry was not among the first to go into Buchenwald. These operations were to surmount the final major obstacle and be the penultimate act in the Western allies drive into the German heartland. D-DAY JUNE 6, 1944 JULY 5, 1944 Third Army Headquarters lands on French soil as part of the Normandy landings, which began. The Third Army executed three more crossings at Boppard, Oberwesel, and Mainz. In order to maintain the element of surprise, there was no preparatory artillery fire. Behind schedule, the Allied commanders understood that something had to give to push the German war machine east. On 30 June, Foch and Pershing conferred in regard to American troops to be left on the Rhine. The deployment of the LCVPs and LCMs facilitated the massing of Allied forces on the Rhines eastern bank and enabled the rapid exploitation of the established bridgeheads. Reinforcement gave them a clear superiority in tank and infantry divisions, while the Allied Expeditionary Force had the bombardment power to devastate the Germans in their path. By then the Allies commanded the west bank of the Seine from the sea to Fontainebleau, while their spearheads were on the Meuse River, 186 miles (299 km) farther on. On 1 June, the advance GHQ, AEF, at Trier was discontinued. Dennis Lavanoha, of Harrisville, N.Y., cross a snow-covered Luxembourg field on a scouting mission in Lellig, Luxembourg, Dec. 30, 1944. At the critical road junctions of St. Vith and Bastogne, American tankers and paratroopers fought off repeated attacks, and when the acting commander of the 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne was summoned by his German adversary to surrender, he simply responded, "Nuts!". Once he entered Buchenwald, the former inmates crowded around him and praised President Franklin Roosevelt. These units were further bolstered by an additional 45 reserve LCMs (landing craft, mechanized). Originally planned to primarily isolate political opponents from German society, the Nazis deported some 10,000 Jews to Buchenwald after Kristallnachtin November 1938. You couldnt grasp it all, said Andrew Kiniry when asked about his time in the recently liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in the spring of 1945. Occupation beckoned again, and Third Army took up the challenge of starting to rebuild postwar Germany. Units of the Canadian First Army, British Second Army, and the U.S. Ninth Army were to receive support from the First Allied Airborne Armys parachute drop on 24 March (Operation Varsity). However, when it did take the field, its field of combat suited the style of its commander far more. Within Buchenwald, an International Camp Committee led by communists, had prepared to greet US forces. The use of the Navy landing craft immediately following the landings enabled Patton to reinforce his forces rapidly on the eastern bank and expand their initial successes in order to plunge onward into Central Germany without pause. [3] The Third Army suffered 16,596 killed, 96,241 wounded, and 26,809 missing in action for a total of 139,646 casualties. It stretches from the Central Asian States to the Horn of Africa. Units that absorbed the initial German assault 16 Dec, Major General Troy H. Middleton On August 5, the Division landed at Utah Beach. Robert O. Paxtons work continues to educate the world about the history of Vichy France, the emergence of fascism, and the Holocaust in France. . And, yet, a short distance away stood a SS-run concentration camp where 56,000 men, women, and children were murdered or died from maltreatment, exposure, starvation, or illness. [4] Between June 1941 and December 1944, Germany lost 202,000 killed fighting the Americans and British in North Africa, Italy and north-west Europe together, against 2.4 million battlefield dead on the Eastern Front.[5]. [6] The Army moved all its bases and equipment to Qatar in 2003.[7]. A letter of instruction was circulated to lower commanders prescribing a plan of action in case hostilities were resumed. The capture of. By mid January 1945 the Third Army, in a period of just six weeks, lost almost 5,000 killed, 22,000 wounded, and over 5,000 missing and captured. Next morning the German city commander, Dietrich von Choltitz, surrendered to the Resistance and to Jacques-Philippe Leclerc, the 2nd Armoured commander. On July 31, 1944, the Americans on the Allies' right, newly supported by the landing of the U.S. 3rd Army under Patton, broke through the German defenses at Avranches, the gateway from Normandy into Brittany. Third Army did not see the light of day again until 1932. During my visit to Buchenwald in June 1998, I, like so many others, was amazed by the beauty of the surrounding region and the heritage of humanism linked to Weimar. The task unit assisted the crossing by running ferry services at designated points and building pontoon and treadway bridges. For every 100 females, there were 97.7 males. Though beaten across the Rhine by Pattons Third Army, Montgomerys meticulous operation shone in its flawless execution. It held training exercises periodically, but these were almost never adequate. A Combat Engineer with Patton's Army is the untold story of Frank Lembo, one of Patton . The supreme Allied commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower rushed reinforcements to hold the shoulders of the German penetration. However, the bridgehead was won, and Third Army embarked on another great eastward dash. Following the end of the First World War Patton continued to press for innovation in armored warfare, and when the United States entered the Second World War in 1941, Patton was given the opportunity to exploit his expertise once again on the battlefield. U.S. Third Army After Action Report, May 1945, Headquarters, Third U.S. Army, 1 August 1944 - 9 May 1945 VOL. It is best known for its campaigns in World War II under the command of George S. Patton. Focusing primarily on the Middle East, Central Command and Third Army's area of responsibility (AOR) is a large and complex region. General Omar Bradley gave the allies their opening with the commencement of Operation COBRA. [Beevor, p. 82], Both Runstedt and Model were deeply skeptical of the offensive's chances of success, but Hitler ignored all their objections. I (Operations) [unclassified]. The four bridges available for crossing the river within the Coblenz bridgehead were the pontoon bridge and railroad bridge at Coblenz, the railroad bridges at Engers and Remagen. New York: Articles with unsourced statements from September 2014, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, United States Army Service Component Commands, Military units and formations established in 1918, http://www.arcent.army.mil/hidden/usarcent-history/third-army-command-biographies/cg/ltg-vincent-k-brooks-(2011---present).aspx, http://www.globemaster.de/cgi-bin/bases/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&view_records=1&so=ascend&keyword=Saudi+Arabia&submit=Search, "U.S. to move operations from Saudi base", http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/29/sprj.irq.saudi.us/, "Third Army Commanding General's Welcome Letter", http://www.arcent.army.mil/welcome/index.asp, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, [Source: "Crossing the Rhine," History of the American Third Army, 14 November 1918 to 2 July 1919, Third Army, A.E.F., 2 July 1919. Administratively called ARCENT again, it continues to serve as the Army Component Command for CENTCOM, and the forward element is serving as the Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC). Fighting broke out, and, as news of the struggle reached the public in America and Britain, Eisenhower reversed his earlier decision to bypass the capital.

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