bigpigeon.us webpage WWII-Germany > The ETO > Siegfried Line 1945 > First US Effort, © 2023 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 1 Oct 2022.
Once US Forces had recovered from the Battle of the Bulge, the First Army launched a short-lived offensive in the mid-Rhineland.
Summarizing the US Rhineland operation launched in late January 1945.
In late January 1945, the last German troops were retreating to the positions held before the Battle of the Bulge, as shown on the accompanying map.

Referring to the map:
  • VIII Corps was transferred from Hodge's First Army to Patton's Third Army on 20 December.
  • 26 December 1944 was a high-water mark of Germany's Ardennes counteroffensive. Late that day the siege of Bastogne was lifted by Third Army forces from the south.
  • For the next month, the US First and Third Armies continued to squeeze German forces out of the Ardennes bulge.
  • On ~16 January, the British XXX Corps withdrew from the Ardennes line to return to the Netherlands.
  • On 18 January, the First Army was detached from General Bernard Montgomery's 21st Army Group and returned to the control of General Omar Bradley's 12th Army Group.​
Recovering from the German Ardennes counteroffensive
Battle of the Ardennes, 26 Dec 1944 - 28 Jan 1945 - Recovering from the German counteroffensive
The planned January offensive into the Rhineland
12th Army Group envisaged a drive by General Hodge's First Army using V Corps and XVIII Airborne Corps. They would attack through the northern Eifel, with the road center of Schleiden as the immediate objective and Euskirchen, on the northeast corner of the accompanying map, as a potential goal. Flank support would be provided by Third Army's VIII Corps on the right and elements of Ninth Army on the left; the Ninth Army was still under British control.

In large measure, this unnamed and little-documented offensive was a continuation of the January recapture of the St. Vith area of the Bulge shown on the previous map. 

Heavy snow made progress was painfully slow. General Eisenhower, already committed to gathering resources in the north for the planned major Rhine crossing, communicated on 1 February his plans to shut down this offensive.

Thus the so-called Main Effort in the Eifel stalled in the First Army sector. However:
  • the advance continued on the left flank, with the seizure of the Roer River dams by the 78th and 9th Infantry divisions of V Corps, now assigned to the First Army.
  • on the right flank, the Third Army's VIII Corps continued its advance toward the Prüm area as the first of General Patton's euphemistic "probing attacks". At a heavy cost in men and misery, Patton's three February probing attacks would position the Third Army for its magnificent dashes to and across the Rhine River in March.

​
The Northern Eifel
The Northern Eifel in the Rhineland, Germany
Scalable Map of the Eifel Area
The First Army's January Attempt
Main Effort in the Eifel, 27 Jan -3 Feb 1945 - The First Army's January Breakthrough Attempt
Scalable Map
Sources for Big Pigeon's The ETO > Siegfried Line - 1945 > First US Effort webpage:
Major Source: Sources for the webpage images:
Pottawattamie Area WW II Dead - The ETO > Siegfried Line 1945 > First US Effort: 03-06 - The ETO > Siegfried Line 1945 > First US Effort: (one dead, updated 27 Jan 2027)
† Patton, John A., SN 37-463-856, US Army, Page Co. & Los Angeles Co., CA
  • Co. F, 504th Parachute Inf. Regt., 82nd Airborne Div., attached to First Army; KIA 2 Feb 1945, Siegfried Line, near Udenbreth SE of Monshau, North Rhineland-Westphalia, Germany; The ETO > Siegfried Line 1945 > First US Effort.