The Battle of Nancy in September 1944 was a 10-day battle on the Western Front of World War II in which the Third United States Army defeated German forces defending the approaches to Nancy, France and crossings over the Moselle River to the north and south of the city. The battle resulted in U.S. forces fighting their way across the Moselle and liberating Nancy.
When the Third Army began its attempt to capture Nancy, it had only recently recovered from a severe fuel shortage which had caused it to halt on the Meuse River for five days. During this time, German defenders in the area had reinforced their positions.
While the U.S. XX Corps in the north was tasked with the capture of Metz, Nancy, the other major city in the region, was assigned to the U.S. XII Corps. When the XII Corps first started on this assignment it was not at full operational strength as the 35th Infantry Division was guarding the southern flank of the Allied forces until the southern Seventh Army could close the gap. This left only the 4th Armored Division and the 80th Infantry Division available.
80th Infantry Division attempts to secure a bridgehead
Initial plans for assault on Nancy.
Due to the difficulty of the terrain and lack of intelligence about enemy strength, it was decided against risking the 4th Armored Division in the initial capture of a bridge, as had been done at Commercy.
At Pont-à-Mousson, the 317th Infantry dispensed with reconnaissance and preliminary artillery bombardments, hoping to use tactical surprise instead. This turned out to be a poor decision though, as the German defenders, who were in greater strength and much better prepared than assumed, held terrain that allowed them to observe the movement of the American forces in the vicinity. American forces made two crossing attempts, the first in the daylight and the second at night, but both were easily repulsed and the assault was called off by General Eddy.
Confronting the German 92. Luftwaffe-Regiment around Marbache, the 318th Infantry had a difficult fight through the woods as they tried to seize the high ground which commanded the vicinity. After a two-day battle, they managed to dislodge the German defenders and capture the hill, but were soon thrown back by a German counter-attack.
At Toul, there was seemingly more success as a loop of the Moselle was crossed by the 319th Infantry, but it was short-lived as the German defenders of the 3rd Parachute Replacement Regiment simply fell back until they reached a 10mi (16km) defensive line flanked by two forts from which they were able to stall further advances.
Americans regroup and 35th Infantry Division secures a bridgehead
Though the initial crossing attempts largely failed, by 7 September the situation had started to improve for the Americans. With the Seventh Army rapidly approaching from the south and the XV Corps returning to the Third Army to guard the southern flank, the 35th Infantry Division was now available to use in the next assault.
A new plan drawn up was for the 80th Division to attack in the north and the 35th Division in the south along with the 4th Armored's Combat Command B (CCB), while Combat Command A (CCA) would wait in reserve to exploit either flank. This new plan was scheduled to take place on 11 September.
Dieulouard Bridgehead
After the poor results from the hasty earlier crossing attempts, greater effort was made for a coordinated and well-supported assault, with General Eddy deciding on a concentric advance to encircle the German forces around Nancy. Dieulouard (48°49′52″N06°05′44″E / 48.83111°N 6.09556°E / 48.83111; 6.09556), located about 4 miles (6.4km) south of Pont-à-Mousson, was chosen as the new crossing site for the northern thrust of the encircling maneuver. The new plan would have the 317th Infantry cross first and secure a foothold, then for the 318th Infantry to follow and capture the high ground centered on Mousson Hill to the north. A heavy bridge would then be laid and CCA would be able to strike and capture Château-Salins, an important rail centre in the region. Because the 319th Infantry was still engaged in combat at Toul, they could not be used in this assault.
Because of the formidable terrain held by the German forces, extra support was called in. On 10 September, the IX Bomber Command destroyed a bridge at Custines to prevent enemy reinforcements from Nancy, and the following evening struck at Mousson Hill. In order to feint the enemy, artillery and air strikes were primarily directed at Pont-à-Mousson.
The infantry crossings took place on September 12 and met with only weak resistance. So fast was the advance that elements of CCA were able to cross on the very same day. The reason for this ease was the Americans had crossed in a region near where two separate German divisions (3. Panzergrenadierdivision and the 553. Volksgrenadierdivision) linked up and were thinly posted. Most of the reserves in the area had already been sent north to engage XX Corps.
The German assault to destroy the bridge began about 01:00 on 13 September, and was initially successful as troops of the 29. Panzergrenadier-Regiment forced a retreat of the American infantry and pushed them almost back to the bridge itself. An American battalion commander assembled enough troops and medium tanks (of the attached 702nd Tank Battalion) to stop the Germans at le Pont de Mons. CCA sent a reconnaissance troop of armored cars and jeeps into the bridgehead at 06:15, and this unit pushed to the outskirts of Sainte-Geneviève (48°53′50″N06°05′23″E / 48.89722°N 6.08972°E / 48.89722; 6.08972) but was forced to halt by German self-propelled guns. As daylight broke, the Germans began retreating to the north and east, pursued by 80th Division troops and tanks of CCA. CCA's 37th Tank Battalion—commanded by Lt. Col. Creighton Abrams—pushed across the bridgehead and rapidly moved to the southeast, defeating German roadblocks and taking prisoners. By that evening, the bridgehead was considered secure, allowing all of CCA to cross and move on Château-Salins.
The following day saw further counterattacks against the foothold by German forces emerging from mist-shrouded hills, but they were again repelled by the 80th Division, aided by reinforcements sent back from the advanced CCA.
Flavigny and Bayon Bridgeheads
On 10 September, as the 35th Division moved into position to begin their part of the assault, a bridge, rigged with demolition charges but otherwise intact, was located at Flavigny (48°33′05″N06°13′19″E / 48.55139°N 6.22194°E / 48.55139; 6.22194). The 2nd Battalion of the 134th Infantry Regiment was given permission to assault the bridge at dusk, and although they succeeded in capturing it and establishing a bridgehead, reinforcements failed to arrive. The Americans defeated two German infantry attacks, but the bridge was subsequently destroyed by German artillery early the next morning. The American troops were forced back across the river by a third German counterattack supported by tanks, suffering heavy losses. This loss prevented the regiment from being further involved in the attempt to secure a crossing site, and the next day, it was instead assigned to guard the left flank at Pont St. Vincent (48°34′46″N06°11′10″E / 48.57944°N 6.18611°E / 48.57944; 6.18611). At this location, the regiment garrisoned an 1880s-era French fort which was subject to a small German assault that was eventually broken up by artillery.
The 137th Infantry also managed to secure a foothold at Crévéchamps (48°37′22″N06°18′29″E / 48.62278°N 6.30806°E / 48.62278; 6.30806) after a feint 5mi (8.0km) to the north and a half-hour artillery bombardment. They quickly found themselves pinned down after crossing, but were able to fight themselves out after German forces were depleted following the failed counterattack against the Bayon bridgehead.
Encirclement of Nancy
4th Armored Division encircles Nancy
The drive of Abrams' 37th Tank Battalion on 13 September reached Fresnes-en-Saulnois (48°51′18″N06°26′16″E / 48.85500°N 6.43778°E / 48.85500; 6.43778), a village located 3mi (4.8km) west of Château-Salins. The next day, orders were changed though and CCA was to instead capture the high ground at Arracourt (48°43′53″N06°32′09″E / 48.73139°N 6.53583°E / 48.73139; 6.53583), cutting off German escape routes from Nancy. On arrival in the area, CCA encountered and dispatched forces from the 15. Panzergrenadierdivision with only light casualties, then proceeded to set up a defensive position, oriented towards the east from which they were able to harass German forces on the main road to Nancy and send advance units to meet with patrols from CCB around the Marne-Rhin Canal. The raiding party was very successful, as CCA took over 400 prisoners, destroyed over 160 vehicles, and knocked out ten 88mm (3.46in) guns. The following day brought word to CCA of further German counterattacks at Dieulouard, at which point they released a reinforcing infantry battalion as well as a tank company to stabilize the situation.
After CCB crossed the Moselle in the south, the German defenders, finding poor natural defense in the terrain, retreated to the Forêt de Vitrimont (48°34′48″N06°25′48″E / 48.58000°N 6.43000°E / 48.58000; 6.43000) across the Meurthe River. The Germans had little time to prepare their defenses in the area, and were soon driven off after CCB crossed the Meurthe River on 14 September, the bulk of them falling back to Lunéville. The meeting with units from CCA at the Marne-Rhein Canal that night completed the encirclement of Nancy.
Liberation of Nancy
The concentric assault around Nancy hastened the German withdrawal from the city which had already been authorized on 13 September by GeneraloberstJohannes Blaskowitz, the army group commander.
The 320th and 137th Infantry Regiments pushed out of the Bayon bridgehead and made an oblique advance to the Meurthe River, crossing it by the evening of 14 September. By 16 September, the 320th Infantry had crossed the Marne-Rhin Canal while the 137th Infantry had pushed up to it in the vicinity of Saint-Nicolas-de-Port (48°36′44″N06°18′44″E / 48.61222°N 6.31222°E / 48.61222; 6.31222). At this point, resistance by the 553. Volksgrenadierdivision stiffened again, and both regiments found themselves under heavy fire.
On 14 September, the 319th Infantry was prepared to advance on Nancy proper. Intelligence provided by the French Forces of the Interior informed the U.S. troops that the Germans had evacuated the Forêt de Haye (48°41′39″N06°05′24″E / 48.69417°N 6.09000°E / 48.69417; 6.09000), and on 15 September, the 3rd Battalion, 319th Infantry entered Nancy on the Toul Road and pushed through to the eastern outskirts of the city with no opposition.
Aftermath
The capture of Nancy provided the Allies an important communications center in France and the city later served as the garrison of Third Army Headquarters. The German defenders of Nancy, however, largely escaped the encirclement of the city and were available for further operations during the Lorraine Campaign. The XII Corps' successful assault across the Moselle around Nancy also prompted the subsequent German counter-attack at Arracourt by the 5. Panzerarmee.
The Moselle is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is in its basin as it includes the Sauer and the Our.
The 8th Armored Division was an armored division of the United States Army that served in the European Theater of World War II.
The 14th Armored Division was an armored division of the United States Army assigned to the Seventh Army of the Sixth Army Group during World War II. It remains on the permanent roll of the Regular Army as an inactive division, and is eligible for reactivation. The division is officially nicknamed the "Liberators".
The siege of Bastogne was an engagement in December 1944 between American and German forces at the Belgian town of Bastogne, as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge. The goal of the German offensive was the harbor at Antwerp. In order to reach it before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. Because all seven main roads in the densely wooded Ardennes highlands converged on Bastogne, just a few miles away from the border with neighboring Luxembourg, control of its crossroads was vital to the German attack.
The 80th Training Command is a formation of the United States Army Reserve.
The 92nd Infantry Division was an African American, later mixed, infantry division of the United States Army that served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. The military was racially segregated during the World Wars. The division was organized in October 1917, after the U.S. entry into World War I, at Camp Funston, Kansas, with African American soldiers from all states. In 1918, before leaving for France, the American buffalo was selected as the divisional insignia due to the "Buffalo Soldiers" nickname, given to African American cavalrymen in the 19th century. The divisional nickname, "Buffalo Soldiers Division", was inherited from the 366th Infantry, one of the first units organized in the division.
The 94th Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War I, and of the Organized Reserve Corps in 1921 until 1942.
The Colmar Pocket was the area held in central Alsace, France, by the German Nineteenth Army from November 1944 to February 1945, against the U.S. 6th Army Group during World War II. It was formed when 6th AG liberated southern and northern Alsace and adjacent eastern Lorraine, but could not clear central Alsace. During Operation Nordwind in December 1944, the 19th Army attacked north out of the Pocket in support of other German forces attacking south from the Saar into northern Alsace. In late January and early February 1945, the French First Army cleared the Pocket of German forces.
The 37th Armor is an armor (tank) regiment of the United States Army. It is often remembered as the successor to the 37th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division, commanded by then Lieutenant Colonel Creighton Abrams during World War II.
The Battle of the Iron Triangle took place from 16 May to 20 November 1974, when the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 9th Division captured Rach Bap and An Dien. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) regained the lost towns in a series of costly counterattacks.
The Western Allied invasion of Germany was coordinated by the Western Allies during the final months of hostilities in the European theatre of World War II. In preparation for the Allied invasion of Germany east of the Rhine, a series of offensive operations were designed to seize and capture its east and west banks: Operation Veritable and Operation Grenade in February 1945, and Operation Lumberjack and Operation Undertone in March 1945; these are considered separate from the main invasion operation. The Allied invasion of Germany east of the Rhine started with the Western Allies crossing the river on 22 March 1945 before fanning out and overrunning all of western Germany from the Baltic in the north to the Alpine passes in the south, where they linked up with troops of the U.S. Fifth Army in Italy. Combined with the capture of Berchtesgaden, any hope of Nazi leadership continuing to wage war from a so-called "national redoubt" or escape through the Alps was crushed, shortly followed by unconditional German surrender on 8 May 1945. This is known as the Central Europe Campaign in United States military histories.
The XX Corps of the United States Army fought from northern France to Austria in World War II. Constituted on 10 October 1943 by re-designating the IV Armored Corps of the Army Ground Forces, a training organization which had been activated at Camp Young, California on 5 September 1942, XX Corps became operational in France as part of Lieutenant General George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army on 1 August 1944.
A combat command was a combined-arms military organization of comparable size to a brigade or regiment employed by armored forces of the United States Army from 1942 until 1963. The structure of combat commands was task-organized and so the forces assigned to a combat command often varied from mission to mission.
The Battle of Arracourt took place between U.S. and German armoured forces near the town of Arracourt, Lorraine, France between 18 and 29 September 1944, during the Lorraine Campaign of World War II. As part of a counteroffensive against recent U.S. advances in France, the German 5th Panzer Army had as its objective the recapture of Lunéville and the elimination of the XII Corps bridgehead over the Moselle River at Dieulouard.
The Battle of Samawah took place during the 2003 invasion of Iraq as American troops fought to clear the city of Iraqi forces. The city had been bypassed during the advance on Baghdad, leaving the task of clearing it to American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division with mechanized infantry and armor provided by units of the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, and 2-70th Armor Battalions, along with 3rd platoon 59th Chemical Company tasked with finding and removing any potential chemical or biological weapons. The battle was the largest sustained urban combat that paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne had been involved in since World War II.
The siege of Toul was the siege of the fortified French town of Toul from 16 August to 23 September 1870 by Prussian, Bavarian and Württemberg forces during the Franco-Prussian War. Toul controlled a railway line leading to Germany and it was vital for the Germans to secure it to resupply and reinforce their armies in northern France.
The Battle of Kassel was a four-day struggle between the U.S. Army and the German Army in April 1945 for Kassel, a medium-sized city 140 kilometers northeast of Frankfurt am Main, which also is the second-largest city in Hesse. The battle resulted as the U.S. Third Army pushed northeast from the region of Frankfurt and Mainz. The battle opened on April 1, 1945 and ended with an American victory three days later. Opposing the Third Army's 80th Infantry Division were an infantry replacement battalion, some heavy tanks, and anti-aircraft guns. Although the Germans gave battle at Kassel, their army was on the brink of collapse as the Western Allies and the Red Army made deep inroads into Germany. The defense of Kassel did not materially impede the Allied advance, and, one month after the battle ended, Germany was forced to capitulate.
This is the order of battle for Operation Cobra, a World War II American offensive against German forces in Normandy, France that lasted 25-31 July 1944.
Major General Roderick Random Allen was a senior United States Army officer, who commanded the 20th and 12th Armored Divisions during World War II. Under his command of the 12th AD, the division defended Strasbourg from recapture; it provided the armored contingent in the closure of the Colmar Pocket and the liberation of Colmar; it spearheaded General George Patton's drive to the Rhine; captured intact the remaining bridge over the Danube River and broke the German defense line; and played a major part in blocking the Brenner Pass, thereby trapping over a million German soldiers in Italy as the war ended. En route to the Brenner Pass it overran eleven concentration camps at Landsberg, Germany.
The 80th Infantry Division was an infantry formation of the Russian Imperial Army.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United States 
Germany 
