Third & Seventh Armies

bigpigeon.us webpage WW II - Germany > ETO > Rhineland Campaign - 1945 > Third & Seventh Armies, updated by RAC 20 Sep 2020. In Process.

In February and March 1945, the US Third and Seventh Armies overran the southern portion of the German Rhineland in today's Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, advanced to the Rhine River, and crossed in multiple locations.

The Rhineland-Palatinate Physial Map

The Southern Rhineland

Part 1 - The Northern Palatinate - February and early March 1945 In process.

Although the Battle of the Bulge officially ended on 25 January, 1945, it was around 7 February before US lines were extended eastward to their position at the beginning of the battle.

Throughout February, the Third Army battled eastward over swollen rivers and through the Siegfrield line through the western Eifel.

Following will hopefully be a text/map duo for February 1945 for each Third Army corps, from north to south. VIII, XII, XX. (III Corps moved north from the Third Army to the Ninth Army on 10 February and thus doesn't figure in here.) Here is a synopsis:
Meanwhile, Patton's Third Army battered through the Siegfried Line in three areas:

Prum - Between 4 and 6 February, before the Rhineland Campaign formally began, Patton's VIII Corps breached the Siegfried Line northwest of Prum in the Schnee Eifel. Siegfried Line fortifications here were not fully manned. Prum fell on 12 February.
Bitburg - The Third Army's XII Corps made a costly river crossing near the junction of the Sauer and Our Rivers, cleared the Vianden Bulge and advanced to Bitburg, which fell on 28 February.
Trier fell on 2 March.

Third Army in Bitburg, ~ 1 Mar 1945

Beginning on 4 February, VIII Corps advanced eastward through the Siegfried Line, passing just to the south of the Schnee Eifel ridge. It captured Prüm on 12 February, and then assumed an aggressive defensive posture through the remainder of the month.

Arrows in the accompanying map are labeled with battalions and regiments of the 4th and 90th Infantry Divisions.

VIII Corps Advance to Prüm, Early February 1945

The XII Corps advance to Bitburg involved a costly wintertime crossing of the swollen Sauer River and then an advance through the Siegfried Line.

XII Corps Advance to Bitburg - Feb 1945

Southern Palatinate & Saarland, 11-24 Mar 1945

By 11 March 1945, almost all of the Rhine left bank was in Allied hands, except for the portion from Coblenz south into northeasterrn Alsace. Within two weeks this large salient was removed, primary by aggressive action by Patton's Third Army.

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.

As late as 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.
Seventh Army units had been involved in combat further south in the Colmar Pocket through the first week of February.

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.

In a remarkable but little-known offensive starting 11 March, Third Army units drove from the Moselle River south and east, occupying the bulk of the 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 Palatinate Cleared - status on 21 March

As German resistance collapsed, Seventh Army units had access to a good highway from Zweibrucken northeast through 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.

On 27 March, the French sector was extended northwards to Speyer. There the first Rhine crossings by the French Army would occur.

A late March timeline:

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.
23 Mar late - Operation Plunder, major Rhine crossing at Wesel, begins.
24 Mar - Operation Undertone, 7th Army offensive in southern Palatinate, ends.
25 Mar - Mopping up of rear guard and stragglers in southern Palatinate ends.
27 Mar - French sector is extended northward to Speyer.

Sources for the Rhineland Campaign > Third & Seventh Armies webpage:

The Rhineland-Palatinate map is courtesy of freeworldmaps.net.
The Southern Rhineland map is courtesy of ontheworldmap.com.

The Third Army in Bitburg, ~ 1 Mar 1945 photo is courtesy of https://dbs.bh.org.il, the Open Databases Project of the Museum of the Jewish People.
The VIII Corps Advance to Prüm map is courtesy of http://1-22infantry.org/kia2/hankspers.htm.
The XII Corps Advance to Bitburg map is courtesy of https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Last/.
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 Siegfried Line Smashed, Eifel Plateau Overrun, and Palatine Cleared maps are courtesy of the United States Military Academy.
The Third Army's advance through the Siegfried Line in the western Palatinate is outlined in Chapters V, VI and VII of United States Army in World War II, European Theater of Operations, The Last Offensive at https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Last/index.html#index. Each chapter contains a detailed map.
The End of the Official Rhineland Campaign map is courtesy of the United States Military Academy.

Pottawattamie County, Iowa Area WW II Dead - Rhineland Campaign > Third & Seventh Armies:

Taken from the bigpigeon.us WW II Dead webarea.

03-07 - Rhineland Campaign 1945 > Third & Seventh Armies: (eight dead, updated 3 Jan 2021)
† Armstrong, Kenneth Burton, SN 37-735-072, US Army, Harrison Co.

Co. F, 319th Inf. Regt., 80th Inf. Div., Third Army; KIA 6 Feb 1945 Luxembourg, near German Border, at Sauer River NW of Wallendorf, Eifel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany; Rhineland 1945 > Third & Seventh Armies.

† Barrett, Henry Joseph Jr., SN 37-699-275, US Army, Pott. Co.

Co. I, 301st Inf. Regt., 94th Inf. Div., Third Army; KIA 6 Mar 1945 near Zerf, S of Trier, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany; Rhineland 1945 > Third & Seventh Armies.

† Lindsay, William Larkin, SN 37-750-189, US Army, Pott. Co.

275th Inf. Regt., 70th Inf. Div., Seventh Army; KIA 16 Mar 1945 near Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany; Rhineland 1945 > Third & Seventh Armies.

† Orr, Bertis Stanley, SN 37-118-280, US Army, Pott. Co. & Adams Co., IL

Co. F, 319th Inf. Regt., 80th Inf. Div., Third Army; KIA 7 Feb 1945 Luxembourg, near German Border, at Sauer River NW of Wallendorf, Eifel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany; Rhineland 1945 > Third & Seventh Armies.

† Rold, John Angus “Jack”, SN O-2007132, US Army, Cass Co., IA

Co. K, 276th Inf. Regt., 70th Inf. Div., Seventh Army; DOW 8 Mar 1945 Forbach, near Saar River, Lorraine, France; Rhineland 1945 > Third & Seventh Armies.

† Sanderson, Albert James “Beebee”, SN 37-071-522, US Army, Pott. & Woodbury Cos.

Co. B, 42nd Tank Bn., 11th Armored Div., Third Army; tank commander; KIA 19 Mar 1945 near Simmern, S of Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany; Rhineland 1945 > Third & Seventh Armies.

† Starner, Russell Leroy, SN 37-734-909, US Army, Shelby Co

Co. K, 319th Inf. Regt., 80th Inf. Div., Third Army; KIA 13/15 Feb 1945 E of Sauer River, near Wallendorf, Eifel, Rhineland-Palatinate; Germany; attack on Siegfried Line - Rhineland 1945 > Third & Seventh Armies.

† Winslow, Fred Lute John, SN 37-693-036, US Army, Mills Co.

Co. K, 318th Inf. Regt., 80th Inf. Div., Third Army; KIA 11 Feb 1945 near Sauer and Our River junction, Luxembourg; Rhineland 1945 > Third & Seventh Armies.