bigpigeon.us webpage WWII - Germany > ETO > Rhineland 1945 > South Rhineland 1945, updated by RAC 17 May 2022.
Southern Palatinate & Saarland, 11-24 Mar 1945

By 11 March 1945, almost all of the Rhine left bank was in Allied hands, except for a large portion of the Palatinate south of the Moselle River and a portion of northern Alsace. Within two weeks this salient was removed.
Picture
Treadway Bridge across the Moselle, March 1945
The US Third Army had cleared the Eifel in the northern Palatine north of the Moselle River in February and early March. The Seventh Army was charged with clearing the southern Palatinate. However, several issues impeded Seventh Army progress.​​
  • By mid-March, the Seventh Army had not regained all the northeastern France territory lost in the January German Nordwind counterroffensive. Thus it still had not advanced to the Siegfried Line.
  • The Siegfrield Line in the Seventh Army sector was a formidable barrier.
Considering these difficulties, the Seventh Army turned over additional portions of the Palatinate to the Third Army. The revised army boundary passed through Kaiserslautern as shown on the accompanying map.

Operation Undertone, the official Seventh Army offensive, began on 15 March and ended on 24 March. All three units of the Seventh Army, with elements of the French 1st Army on the right flank, began moving northward. XXI Corps on the left flank engaged the Siegfried Line first, followed by XV Corps in the middle. Gradually German forces facing the Siegfried LIne abandoned their positions, moving eastward through the fortified area.

In a remarkable but little-known offensive starting on 11 March, The three Third Army corps drove from the Moselle River south and east, with the XX Corps passing through the road junction of Kaiserslautern on 20 March. Soon the Third Army occupied the bulk of the southern Palatinate. On 19 March, General Patton received permission for the Third Army to cross the Rhine.  The stage for the second Rhine crossing was set.

On 23 March, Patton's 10th Armored Division, shown near Neustadt on the map, linked up with Seventh Army units advancing from the south, trapping the remaining Wehrmacht units.
The Southern Palatinate
The Palatinate Cleared - status on 21 March
As German resistance collapsed, XV Corps of the Seventh Army had access to a good highway from Zweibrucken northeast through Kaiserslautern and the Kaiserslautern gap to the Rhine, from which they could stage for their pending Rhine crossing near Worms.

​Missing from the above commentary is mention of the French First Army, also a part of the 6th Army Group. the Third Algerian Division is represented by the rightmost arrow on the bottom of the above map. Complemented by other French units, it advanced northwards on the Rhine plain. 

The Southern Rhineland - a late March timeline:
  • 15 Mar - Seventh Army begins Operation Undertone moving north and Third Army begins moving SE and east into southern Palatinate.
  • 20 Mar - Seventh Army, XX Corps, captures Kaiserslautern.
  • 21 Mar - Rhineland Campaign officially ends.
  • 22 Mar - Central Europe Campaign officially begins.
  • 22 Mar late - Third Army's first Rhine crossing,  5th Division at Oppenheim begins.
  • 23 Mar - German withdrawal across Rhine in southern Palatinate begins.
  • 23 Mar - Third and Seventh Army units meet near Landau in eastern Palatine, trapping remaining German Siegfried Line units.
  • 24 Mar - Operation Undertone, 7th Army offensive in southern Palatinate, officially ends.
  • 25 Mar - Major mopping up of rear guard and stragglers in southern Palatinate ends.
  • 26 Mar - 3rd & 45th Inf. Divs. of XV Corps, Seventh Army cross Rhine near Worms.
  • 27 Mar - French 1st Army sector is extended northward to Speyer.
  • 31 Mar - French 1st Army begins crossing the Rhine at Speyer.
Sources for the WWII - South Rhineland 1945 webpage:
  • The Treadway Bridge across the Moselle, March 1945 photo is courtesy of http://www.150th.com/rivers/moselle3.htm. It was completed at Hatzenport, near Coblenz, on 15 March by the 150th Engineering Combat Battalion.
  • The Palatine Cleared map is courtesy of the United States Military Academy.

Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead - Rhineland 1945 > South Rhineland 1945:​03-07 - Rhineland Campaign 1945 > South Rhineland 1945:  (two dead, updated 29 Jan 2021)
† Lindsay, William Larkin, SN 37-750-189, US Army, Pott. Co.
  • 275th Inf. Regt., 70th Inf. Div., XXI Corps, Seventh Army; KIA 16 Mar 1945 near Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany; Rhineland 1945 > South Rhineland 1945.
† Rold, John Angus “Jack”, SN O-2007132, US Army, Cass Co., IA
  • Co. K, 276th Inf. Regt., 70th Inf. Div., XXI Corps, Seventh Army; DOW 8 Mar 1945 Forbach, near Saar River, Lorraine, France; Rhineland 1945 > South Rhineland 1945.