bigpigeon.us webpage WWII-Germany > The ETO > Siegfried Line 1945, updated by RAC 1 October 2022.
The early 1945 Allied operations summarized herein penetrated the remaining portions of Germany's defensive Siegfried Line.
The early 1945 Allied operations summarized herein penetrated the remaining portions of Germany's defensive Siegfried Line.
Links to Big Pigeon's The ETO > Siegfried Line 1945 subpages:
- Operation Blackcock, British Second Army (Jan '45)
- The First US Effort, First & Third Armies (late Jan-early Feb '45)
- The Roer River Dams, V Corps, First Army (early Feb '45)
- VIII Corps, Third Army to Prüm, (first of Patton's "Probing Attacks", Feb '45)
- XII Corps, Third Army to Bitburg, (second of Patton's "Probing Attacks", Feb '45)
- XX Corps, Third Army to Trier, (third of Patton's "Probing Attacks", Feb '45)
The Siegfried Line, 1945 - Context
By the end of January 1945, Germany forces had been squeezed out of the Bulge, the salient in the Allied lines created by the German Ardennes counteroffensive of December. The Wehrmacht was again behind the defensive fortifications known as the Siegfried Line, commonly known in Germany as the Westwall. A subsidiary German counteroffensive in the northern Alsace in France, known as Operation Nordwind, had been contained. Offensive operations, suspended by the Western Allies in mid-December 1944, had already resumed.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the ground commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in the European Theater, planned to secure most of the west bank of the Rhine River with his seven Allied armies before crossing the Rhine and taking the war to the German heartland. Securing the west bank would increase the number of divisions he could safely commit to activity east of the Rhine.
In much of the western front, the Siegfried Line still stood as a barrier between the Allied armies and the Rhine River. Only in the Ninth Army's sector in the northern Rhineland had the Siegfried Line been penetrated, during various campaigns by the First and Ninth Armies the previous fall.
By the conclusion of the operations described herein, all major portions of the Siegfried Line west of the Rhine had been penetrated.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the ground commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in the European Theater, planned to secure most of the west bank of the Rhine River with his seven Allied armies before crossing the Rhine and taking the war to the German heartland. Securing the west bank would increase the number of divisions he could safely commit to activity east of the Rhine.
In much of the western front, the Siegfried Line still stood as a barrier between the Allied armies and the Rhine River. Only in the Ninth Army's sector in the northern Rhineland had the Siegfried Line been penetrated, during various campaigns by the First and Ninth Armies the previous fall.
By the conclusion of the operations described herein, all major portions of the Siegfried Line west of the Rhine had been penetrated.
The Siegfried Line, 1945 - Summary
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The following bullets correspond to the subpages in the above list of links and summarize European Theater operations in early 1945.
Having played the major role in clearing German forces from the Bulge, General George Patton ended January with four corps in his Third Army. III Corps was reassigned to the First Army on 10 February. For most of February, Patton was under instructions to restrict offensive actions to "probing attacks". Fortunately, Patton chose to redefine the meaning of a probing attack. Thus the last three operations in the above list of links took the Third Army through the Siegfried line and positioned it for quick dashes to the Rhine in mid-March. |
Ninth, First & Third Armies, 17 Jan, 24 Jan, & 7 Feb 1945
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The Third Army's February Probing Attacks
- VIII Corps on the Third Army's left wing penetrated the Siegfried Line in the Schnee Eifel region of Germany's Rhineland Palatinate and advanced eastward towards Prüm.
- XII Corps in the Third Army's middle crossed the swollen Our and Sauer Rivers from Luxembourg into Germany and advanced eastward towards Bitburg.
- XX Corps on the Third Army's right wing attacked northward and advanced to Trier.
The Third Army Order of Battle, ~ 1 February 1945
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The major Third Army units, holding the Allied line between the Losheim Gap northeast of St. Vith and a point midway between Saarlautern and Saarbrucken near the Saarland border, were deployed thusly in early February 1945:
VIII Corps in the north (General Troy Middleton):
III Corps, formerly part of the Third Army, had been assigned to the First Army on 10 February, but some components of III Corps remained with the Third Army and are listed above. |
Third Army Order of Battle, Early February 1945
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Sources for Big Pigeon's ETO > Siegfried Line, 1945 webpage:
Major Sources:
Major Sources:
- The Last Offensive, by Charles B. MacDonald, 1972, ~532 pp. [CMH #7-9] - the 1945 ETO Rhineland Campaign.
- Ninth, First & Third Armies, 17 Jan, 24 Jan, & 7 Feb 1945, map, is excerpted from https://www.westpoint.edu/academics/academic-departments/history/world-war-two-europe. This is Map 74 in the West Point World War II European Theater map series.
- Third Army Order of Battle, Early February 1945, map, sources is unknown.