bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Germany > The ETO > War of Attrition > Lorraine/Alsace, 1944, © 2023 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 31 Dec 2023.
This webpage and its affiliated webpages summarize US Third and Seventh Army operations in Lorraine and Alsace in northeast France from mid-September to the end of 1944.
Links to Big Pigeon's The ETO > War of Attrition > Lorraine/Alsace, 1944 affiliated webpages:
The Geographic and Military Setting
The accompanying maps show northeastern France, since 1984 known as the Grand Est administrative region.
  • The western part of Grand Est is historic Champagne, with major city Reims.
  • The central part of Grand Est is historic Lorraine, with major cities Metz and Nancy. It contains the departments of Meuse, Meurthe et Moselle, Moselle, & Vosges.
  • The eastern part of Grand Est is historic Alsace, with major cities Strasbourg and Mulhouse and departments Bas-Rhin & Haut-Rhin.

The Ardennes Department in northern Champagne, like the rest of Champagne, was liberated during the Allied sweep across northern France in the late summer of 1944 and remained liberated. The Battle of the Bulge was fought in the Belgian Ardennes, to the northeast, and in northern Luxembourg.

​In late August 1944, as German forces retreated across northern France, General George Patton's Third Army XX and XII Corps advanced eastward from southern Normandy and entered the Grand Est area.
  • XX Corps liberated Reims on 30 August, crossed the Meuse River, and stalled before Metz.
  • XII Corps liberated Troyes on 26 August, crossed the Meuse river and stalled before Nancy.
Departments in the Grand Est Region
Departments in the Grand Est Region
The Grand Est Region of France
The Grand Est Region - northeastern France
Scalable Version
Meanwhile the US Seventh and French First Armies landed in southeastern France in mid August 1944 and fought their way northward along the Rhone River Valley, liberating Lyon on 3 September, Dijon on 11 September, and Chaumont (on the above map) on 13 September. 

In early September, fuel shortages in the Third Army and developing German resistance in eastern Lorraine caused the Allied offensive in northeastern France to sputter. Portions of Lorraine and Alsace were not liberated in the fall of 1944, but remained under German occupation until late March 1945, when the last German forces were expelled from what is today the Grand Est region. 

​Follow the three links above for summaries of major fall 1944 military operations in northeastern France.
Sources for Big Pigeon's The ETO > War of Attrition > Lorraine/Alsace, 1944 webpage: