Chapter 10
After frustrations through much of October, the main Allied attacks kicked off on 13 November. The French First Army used its two armored divisions and its experienced colonial infantry divisions to liberate Belfort and Mulhouse. The French reached the Rhine on 19 November. Meanwhile, the Seventh Army had several divisions that had developed sound mountain-fighting experience in the Italian campaign and managed to push through the Vosges via two mountain passes. Although armor was used in a supporting role in the fighting, this was primarily an infantry contest.
The Seventh Army's armored reserve at this point was the French 2e DB, which remained under American command through most of 1944 because of political differences between Leclerc and the French First Army leaders. When the Seventh exited the mountain passes to the Rhine plains, the 2e DB was unleashed and made a dash for the provincial capital of Strasbourg, which was liberated on 25 November. Gen. Jacob Devers, the 6th Army Group's commander, proposed to leap-frog the Rhine and advance up its eastern bank in order to unhinge German defenses standing in Patton's way, but Eisenhower was skeptical of this approach. Instead, the Seventh Army was given the task of striking toward Hagenau and the Wissenibourg gap in the hopes of undermining German defenses on the western bank of the Rhine, while the French First Army continued to struggle against a large pocket of German troops still holding out on the western side of the Rhine around Colmar.
A French M4A4 of the 2e Cuirassiers, 1 e DB (French 1st Armored Division) knocked out during the fighting on the approaches to Alsace in the autumn of 1944.
A U.S. Seventh Army M7 105mm howitzer motor carriage crosses a hastily repaired bridge near Remiremont on 24 September. Typical of vehicles that had served in Italy, it is a 1942-production vehicle upgraded in the field with a piece of armor welded behind the machine-gun pulpit to extend the side panel upward to cover the hull ammunition racks. It is also refitted with the later suspension bogies.
On 21 September, American troops inspect a 37mm Flakpanzer, popularly dubbed the Mobelwagen ("furniture truck"), abandoned in Vertigny during the German retreat into the Vosges Mountains. This was a specialized antiaircraft version of the Pz.Kpfw. IV tank armed with a 37mm automatic cannon.
September 1944 was one of the wettest on record in Europe, with many fields being turned to mud by the rain. Here, an M4 of the 59th Armored Field Artillery Battalion's HQ company is retrieved by a wrecker after having become bogged down in a field near Plombieres on 26 September.
In the autumn of 1944, the Germans began deploying surplus tank guns on expedient pedestal mounts to create hasty defensive lines along the German frontier. One of the first of these guns in action was an SK-L Ila pedestal 88mm KwK 43 gun from Festungs-PaK-Verband XXVI (XXVI Fortress Anti-Tank Unit) on a standard Betonfundament concrete pad positioned in the Saverne gap in the High Vosges to block access to Phalsbourg as part of the Vosges Line. This particular gun was originally intended for the Jagdpanther tank destroyer. This position fell during the fighting with the U.S. Seventh Army in November, one of thirty-two of these guns lost in this campaign.
An M4A1 of the 756th Tank Battalion knocked out during the fighting in Vagney, France, on 8 October. This is a tank from the early-production batch of about 250 M4A1 s with the direct vision ports for the driver. Like many veterans of the Italian campaign, the 756th Tank Battalion had a large number of old tanks when it arrived in southern France.
This Panther turret was intended for emplacement as a fixed Panzerturm in the Saales Pass in November on a concrete bunker, but it was overrun before completion. This is an example of a Pantherturm-Stellung based on a surplus tank turret rather than a newproduction Ostwallturm, which was a dedicated fortification Panther turret with thicker roof armor.
The men of an M4 (105mm) assault gun crew of the HQ Company, 191st Tank Battalion, cook food during a lull in the fighting near Rambervillers, France, on 15 October. The M4 (105mm) was fitted with a 105mm howitzer instead of the normal 75mm gun and was used to provide indirect fire support for the battalion. In 1944, most tank battalions had six of these attached to their headquarters company.
An M4A3 (76mm) medium tank of the 756th Tank Battalion, supporting the 3rd Infantry Division near Brouvelieures, France, in October. The crew has started to weld metal strips to the glacis plate as the first step in applying a layer of sand bags to add further protection to the tank. The M4 was not well protected against typical German antitank weapons like the Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck, which led to many improvised armor improvements in the field.
The Polish TKS tankette was used for antipartisan patrols by German forces on the Russian front and in the Balkans and was rarely encountered in the West.
Riflemen of the Japanese-American 442nd Infantry Regiment near Bruyeres pass by a disabled German Leichte SPW U304(f), an armored conversion of the captured French Unic Kegresse P107 half-track.
The M4 (105mm) assault gun was a prodigious consumer of ammunition since it was normally used on firesupport missions like normal field artillery. Here, one of the crewman helps load a 105mm round through the shell ejection port on the left turret side. The stenciled 5698GG marking is a shipping code for the unit.
During the campaign along the Meurthe River, the 21st Panzer Division was committed against the U.S. Seventh Army in October. This is a pair of Panthers of the division knocked out near Autrey to the east of Vesoul in a tank battle with American forces in late October.
Two M31's of the 753rd Tank Battalion recover an overturned truck near Les Rouges Eaux, France, on 22 October. The M31 nearest the camera is named Sad Sack.
A close-up view of the M31 Sad Sack during the recovery effort by the 753rd Tank Battalion on 22 October.
An M4 medium tank and M8 armored car of the 753rd Tank Battalion pass by the town church of Brouvelierures while supporting the 36th Division during the fighting for the Vosges mountain passes on 29 October.
An M4A1 of the Seventh Army knocked out near La Salle, France, on 3 November. The GI points to where a German antitank shell penetrated the hull armor and then passed through the turret race. This is an early-production M4A1 with the early-pattern bogie assemblies. The Seventh included many units that had fought in 1943 in the Italian theater and so had a large amount of older equipment.
The rainy conditions in the autumn of 1944 are graphically shown in this view of an M4A3 (105mm) assault gun of the 756th Tank Battalion, seen near Les Rouges Eaux on 8 November.
An M12 155mm gun motor carriage of Battery C, 557th Field Artillery Battalion, near Morteau, France, on 15 November. This photo shows the recoil chocks placed under the front tracks and the hoops for the camouflage net erected over the gun compartment. This vehicle is unusual in that it is still fitted with the front portion of the sand skirts, a feature not commonly seen on the M12 155mm gun motor carriage in Europe.
A 75mm PaK 40 auf Chenillette (f) abandoned in Vesoul. This was a Becker conversion done in France to reinforce the poorly equipped garrison forces in 1942-43. This type of conversion was more commonly seen with the 21st Panzer Division in Normandy than in Alsace, but some elements of the division served in the Lorraine campaign in the autumn.
An M4 tank is covered in a fresh coat of wet snow on a roadside near Belmont, France, after having run over a mine on 12 November. The tank has already been roped off by engineers with white cloth tape, the usual precaution in mined areas.
A rare example of a late-production Sd.Kfz. 251/17 half-track armed with 2centimeter KwK 38 is seen knocked out in the ruins of La Bourgance during the fighting with the 3rd Infantry Division on 15 November in the Vosges Mountains.
An M2A1 command post vehicle of the 56th Armored Infantry Battalion, 12th Armored Division, lands in France at Le Havre from an LST on 15 November. This was the second American armored division assigned to the Seventh Army and the last to arrive. The French 2e DB and U.S. 14th Armored Division were already in combat in Alsace by this time.
The le Spahis, the reconnaissance element of the French 2e DB, pass through Brouville on 17 November during the approach to the Alsatian capitol of Strasbourg. The unit was equipped with the M5A1 light tank and M8 light armored car.
On 17 November, the crewmen of an M4A3 (76mm) tank of the 712th Tank Battalion perform a "show and tell" for a Signal Corps photographer to demonstrate how a German Panzerschreck rocket launcher knocked out their tank near Metzervisse. The crewman on the right is showing the small penetration hole caused by the rocket's shapedcharge warhead.
An M10 3-inch gun motor carriage tank destroyer takes up covered positions in the Vosges foothills during the fighting around St. Benoit in November.
The effect of a Panzerfaust antitank rocket could be catastrophic if it detonated the internal ammunition of an M4. This M4A2 of the French 5e DB, serving with the U.S. 6th Army Group in Alsace, had its turret blown off after a Panzerfaust set off its ammunition during the fighting in Issans on 18 November. The tank's hull can be seen in the distance.
A German Sd.Kfz. 251/21 with triple machine-gun mount, possibly from Panzer Brigade 106, was knocked out by Seventh Army artillery in St. Michel-surMeurthe during the fighting on 20 November.
An M10 3-inch gun motor carriage with the XV Corps during the fighting on the approaches to Sarrebourg in late November. This is probably one of the M1 O's of the RBFM, the tank destroyer battalion of the French 2e DB, which was the main armored element of the attack.
Infantry of the French 3rd Moroccan Infantry Division (3e DIM), supported by camouflaged Sherman tanks, pass through Rochesson during the fighting along the Rhine in November.
An M4A2 tank of the French 5e DB crosses a treadway bridge near Belfort on 20 November during the siege of that city. Logs were carried on the tanks in corduroy bundles that were placed under the track in muddy ground conditions to improve traction.
An M4A2 tank of the French 5e DB with infantry support moves into the outskirts Belfort on 20 November during the efforts to penetrate the Belfort Gap onto the Alsatian plains along the Rhine. Although the Free French Army was equipped mainly with American equipment and uniforms, some French armored units managed to locate prewar French crew helmets, as can be seen on several of the troopers behind the tank.
Fontenay, an M4A4 of the 2e Cuirassiers, French le DB, takes part in the attack on the Gestapo headquarters in Mulhouse on 22 November.
A pair of M4A4 medium tanks of the 2e Cuirassiers, 1e DB, during the fighting for Mulhouse on 22 November. One of the key cities in the Belfort gap, Mulhouse covered access to the Rhine plains and so was a key objective of the 6th Army Group's offensive.
Two French M4A2 tanks of the French 1 e DB fire on German defenders near the Lefevre Kaserne in Mulhouse on 23 November during the attack of the French First Army beyond Belfort. Obscured by the smoke is an M7 105mm howitzer motor carriage in the background in front of the two tanks.
On 23 November, the Panzer Lehr Division began a counterattack from Sarre-Union against the Seventh Army, hitting two regiments of the 44th Division. This Panther Ausf. G was knocked out near Schalbach on 25 November during fighting with the 114th Infantry. There is a bazooka hit evident on the hull side immediately below the turret. The Panzer Lehr was forced to abandon the attack when the 4th Armored Division launched a flank attack from Fenetrange with its Combat Command B.
M4A1 medium tanks refuel and rearm in the town square of Sarrebourg on 24 November. The nearest tank carries the name Audrey.
GIs look over a well-camouflaged 88mm PaK 43 antitank gun positioned in front of Hotel Mazeran in the Saales Pass on 25 November during the fighting in the Vosges Mountains.
The 14th Armored Division was one of the last American armored divisions to arrive in France, docking at Marseilles on 31 October. It was committed to the fighting in the Vosges region on 20 November, and here, some M4A3 tanks of its Combat Command A move forward near Cirey on 23 November.
After the Seventh Army burst out of the Vosges in mid-November, Gen. Alexander Patch unleashed his mobile exploitation force, the French 2e Division Blindee.The advance of Leclerc's 2e DB was so sudden and unexpected that when the French tanks burst into Strasbourg on 23 November, the citizens were going about their business with no expectation of the drama that was unfolding. This photo was taken a few days after the liberation, with the damaged Notre Dame cathedral in the background.
An M10 3-inch gun motor carriage of the RBFM, knocked out in Strasbourg on 25 November.
An M10 of the RBFM, French 2e DB, on the approaches to Strasbourg during the mid-November fighting.
The rainy conditions in the autumn of 1944 undermined roads and led to accidents like this one where a M4A3 (76mm) of Company A, 781st Tank Battalion, slid off the road in Lamberg after the bank collapsed under its weight. It is being recovered by one of the new M32 armored-recovery vehicles.
The M4 (named Brive-la-Gaillarde) of Lieutenant Krebs, leader of the 3rd Platoon, 3rd Squadron, 12th Cuirassiers, French 2e Division Blindee, advances through Strasbourg on 25 November. It carries the distinctive Cross of Lorraine insignia unique to this division, which always fought in American armies, in this case with Patch's Seventh Army. The other French armored divisions of the French First Army carried the 1804 Napoleonic flag instead.
A GI inspects a StuG III in Molsheim during the fighting in the Alsace region of France. Two of its side skirts have been removed and placed in front to provide improvised camouflage.
A GI looks over an M4 tank of the 756th Tank Battalion knocked out by a German StuG III during an engagement near Mutzig on 26 November while supporting Task Force Whirlwind from the 3rd Division.
M4A3's of the 14th Armored Division pass by three other Shermans knocked out by German mines near Barr, France, on 29 November. These are very lateproduction M4A3 tanks, evident from the late-style 75mm gun turret with its improved commander's vision cupola and the raised rear bustle casting.
GIs from Company B, 114th Infantry, 44th Division, hop aboard M5A1 light tanks of the 749th Tank Battalion in Struth, France, on 28 November following the fall of Sarrebourg. By this stage, the sand bags added to the glacis plate have become a heap of mud from the wet weather.
An M3A1 half-track (named Baby Bastard No. 1) passes the burning wreck of an M4A3 (76mm) medium tank of the 48th Tank Battalion, 14th Armored Division, knocked out during the fighting in Barre on 29 November.
A column of M4A3 tanks from Combat Command A, 14th Armored Division, halts in the Alsatian village of Scherwiller on 2 December during the Seventh Army's assault toward Selestat. These are late-production vehicles with the oval loader's hatch and the commander's all-round vision cupola.
The crew of an M18 76mm gun motor carriage of the 602nd Tank Destroyer Battalion loads ammunition in SaarUnion on 2 December. The ammunition came packed in black fiber-board containers, and the crew can be seen removing them from the tubes to load in the ammunition racks inside the M18.
Panzer support for the German Nineteenth Army in the Belfort Gap was scant. The badly depleted Panzer Brigade 106 served as its fire brigade, rushing from spot to spot in hopes of averting catastrophe. One of its Pz.Kpfw. IV tanks is seen on fire after being hit by bazooka fire during a skirmish with the French 4e DMM in the Hardt Woods near Pont-du-Bouc, north of Mulhouse, during the fighting for the Belfort gap in the first days of December.
Riflemen of the 313rd Infantry, 79th Division, advance into Bischwiller on 8 December while supported by M5A1 light tanks of Company D, 191st Tank Battalion.
An M7 105mm howitzer motor carriage of the 143rd Cannon Company, 36th Division, conducts a fire mission on the outskirts of Ribeauville, France, on 9 December with the ground nearby littered with propellant casings and fiberboard shipping tubes.
An M4A3 (76mm) of the 191st Tank Battalion passes by the wrecked "Gasthaus zu Fussball" ("Football Hotel") along the Strasbourg-Hagenau road on 9 December while supporting the 79th Infantry Division.
An M4A3 (76mm) tank of the 191st Tank Battalion supports infantry of the 79th Division during the fighting for the town of Hagenau north of Strasbourg on 10 December, part of a broader VI Corps offensive in Alsace.
An M2A1 half-track of the 495th Field Artillery Battalion, 12th Armored Division, disabled by a mine in Bining, France, on 10 December. Once again, a stowage bin has been fitted to the rear.
An M5A1 of the 12th Armored Division lies disabled in the streets of Bining on 10 December after an artillery strike near its weakly protected rear area damaged the engine.
Some of the dozer tanks operated by the Seventh Army had been converted in British REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) workshops in Italy and were based on M4A4 tanks, like this one from the 63rd Engineers, knocked out by a mine near Enchenberg, France, on 10 December. The M4A4 version of the Sherman was seldom used by the U.S. Army in Europe; most were earmarked for Lend-Lease supply to Britain.
This M2A1 is being used as the command post-with its battalion insignia on the side-for the 56th Armored Infantry Battalion, 12th Armored Division, in France in December 1944. These command-post vehicles usually had the interior covered by a regulation tarp to protect the radio equipment, especially in foul winter weather. The similarity of the stowage bin on this half-track suggests that the divisional ordnance unit may have constructed standardized designs.
During the Alsace fighting in December, an ordnance unit in the Seventh Army built a 4.5-inch rocket launcher on a jeep using M14 launch tubes designed for fitting on aircraft.
An M8 armored car troop from the 92nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized), 12th Armored Division, uses an abandoned fortress from the Maginot Line near Guising, France, for a bivouac on 13 December. Half-tracks, like the M3A1 here, were used in the squadron's maintenance and supply sections.
A close-up view of the 4.5-inch rockets being loaded into the Seventh Army's jeep rocket launcher.
A good study of an M18 76mm gun motor carriage of Company B, 827th Tank Destroyer Battalion (Colored), in Sarrebourg, France, on 1 December. This was a segregated unit with AfricanAmerican troops and white officers. This unit later fought during the battle for Hatten-Rittershoffen in January 1945.
An M18 76mm Hellcat gun motor carriage of Company B, 827th Tank Destroyer Battalion (Colored), near Sarrebourg, France, on 13 December. This unit had used towed 3-inch guns but converted to M18's in late July 1944; it was committed to action in Europe in November. This gives a very good view of the typical stowage patterns of the crew and vehicle stores.
One of the main drawbacks of the use of the M20 as a command car was the cramped conditions in the rear bay and its exposure to the elements. Some units fabricated their own canvas covers to make the M20 more functional in winter conditions. These are a group of M20's of the 827th Tank Destroyer Battalion in Sarrebourg on 16 December.
An M103-inch gun motor carriage of the 813th Tank Destroyer Battalion supports riflemen of the 313rd Infantry, 79th Division, during the attacks toward Oberhoffen on 8 December.
An M15 combination gun motor carriage of Battery C, 106th Anti-Aircraft Battalion, takes up position near a Maginot Line bunker near Lembach on 13 December.
A scene repeated in many Alsatian towns in the autumn and early winter of 1944-45. A series of road obstructions consisting of two vertical log walls with the center filled with earth and rocks have been erected to block major thoroughfares. Such obstacles were usually built by impressing local civilians and were part of the Germans' massive West-Stellung fortification program. Here, an M10 3-inch gun motor carriage of the 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion is supporting 45th Division actions near Lembach on 14 December during the attempts to penetrate the Low Vosges.
An M4A3 of the 23rd Tank Battalion, 12th Armored Division, knocked out by six antitank-gun hits near Guising on 15 December.
An M4A3 (named Buckland Beauty) of Company B, 23rd Tank Battalion, 12th Armored Division, is recovered by a pair of M32 tank-recovery vehicles after having slipped down into a muddy crater near Guising, France, on 15 December.
An M4A3 (76mm) tank of Company B, 29th Tank Battalion, 14th Armored Division, advances into Wissembourg in Alsace on 16 December.
A column of M4A1 tanks of the 191st Tank Battalion advances through Lauterbourg during the fighting thereon 16 December by the 79th Division.
The crew of a 57mm gun of the 77th Infantry's Regimental antitank company had camouflaged their gun on the outskirts of a cemetery near Sierthal, France, on 17 December. Although this gun had become increasingly ineffective in tank fighting, it remained the primary infantry antitank gun through the end of the war.
Although this appears to bean M16 machine-gun motor carriage on first glance, it is in fact a field-expedient Patterson conversion on an M2 half-track antiaircraft vehicle. This vehicle from the 443rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic-Weapons Battalion (Mobile) is covering the canal near Seareinsming in Alsace on 18 December in support of the nearby 35th Infantry Division.
An M4A3 (76mm) supports infantry from the 68th Armored Infantry Battalion, 14th Armored Division, during operations near Oberotterbach on 18 December. The M4A3 is unusual in several respects, such as its multitone camouflage scheme and the use of a second radio aerial mounted in place of the front-turret smoke mortar.
The wreckage of a German Sd.Kfz. 251/21 is seen near Keintzheim on 20 December. It was knocked out by the French 5e DB during the fighting for the town on 17-18 December. It carries the markings of Panzer Brigade 106. This photo clearly shows the triple automatic cannon mount that distinguished this version of the half-track.
A close-up view of the knocked-out halftrack of Panzer Brigade 106. The Sd.Kfz. 251/21 had a triple 15mm MG151 machine-gun mount, which was a dualuse weapon intended both for air defense as and ground fire support.
As the Seventh Army approached the Wiseembourg gap, it encountered one of the most heavily fortified areas of Europe with the Maginot Line on the French side of the border and the Siegfried Line on the German side. Here, troops of the 71st Infantry, 44th Division, look over portions of the Simershoff fortress, part of the Maginot defenses, on 20 December.
An M7 105mm howitzer motor carriage of the French 2e DB conducts a fire mission while emplaced near Erstein on the FrancoGerman border on 24 December. The ground nearby is littered with spent casings and fiberboard packing tubes.
An M4A3 (76mm) in the streets of Bennwihr during the fighting toward the Wissembourg gap on 27 December. A few days later, the Germans would strike this area during Operation Nordwind.
An M19 tank transporter of the 44th Ordnance Battallion recovers a damaged M4A1 medium tank in Hagenau on 28 December.
An M4 tank (named Pornoue) from CC5 of the French 5e DB in the ruins of Kientzheim on 20 December after three days of hard fighting with Panzer Brigade 106. Many of the tanks of the division were whitewashed in the ensuing days during a lull in the battle.