Patton and His Third Army by Brenton Greene Wallace

Author:Brenton Greene Wallace [Wallace, Brenton Greene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9780359464401
Google: 2FuLDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Lulu.com
Published: 2019-02-26T22:32:36+00:00

*Following image: Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932).

Following image: Dietrich signs a soldier’s cast (Belgium November 1944).

AT THIS TIME, THE HEINIES were beginning to scrape the bottom of the manpower barrel, but they were still fighting tenaciously. There were now the equivalent of 4 enemy divisions in the Third Army front and about 50 tanks. This was a decrease of about 150 tanks and 3 infantry divisions since 1 October. It was believed, however, by our G-2 that 5 additional divisions could be brought against us immediately as reinforcements.

On 19 October over the radio, Hitler in a speech announced “Due to failure of some of our allies, the enemy is now on our borders. The purpose of our enemy is to exterminate the German people. A new People’s Army will be formed in Germany, of men between 16 and 60. Himmler will be in command of this army. Every kilometer will cost our enemy streams of blood. Every German farm will be defended, if not by men, then by women and girls.”

We began to encounter a new type of enemy troops. They were called Fortress Battalions and were used in the forts surrounding Metz and in the Maginot and Siegfried Lines. They were for the most part men well past middle age, veterans of World War I, or were boys 15 and 16 years old. Many of the older men had lost a leg or an arm and sometimes an eye, but they could organize the youngsters and could fire a machine gun or rifle from an embrasure in a fort or pillbox. The Germans were continually improving their defensive positions and doing active patrolling.

There were also numerous enemy movements observed in their rear areas. In a lighter vein and to lessen the tension of the news of the serious, bitter fighting, our Public Relations Officer, Major P. D. Weidmer, who read the briefing notes of the news picked out of the air, at the 0900 Staff meetings, one day stated, “From America it is announced that Gypsie Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, is in Reno to divorce her third husband, to write her second book, and to have her first child.” General Patton and the staff always got a big kick out of these quips.

It was now decided to have our heavy bombers attack Ft. Driant with a new type of bomb which was expected to penetrate about 50 feet. The attack was put on, but Ft. Driant still held out. Mines were being laid by the thousands around Metz and the forts surrounding the city. The Moselle River had risen 2½ feet since October 15th. Our artillery fire was being curtailed due to a shortage of ammunition. We, however, supplemented our own artillery by firing captured enemy guns and ammunition.

Several interesting statements and observations were made in our G-2 briefings during these weeks, especially in view of the great German attack in the north in the First Army area, in the Ardennes, a couple of months later.

On

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