Battle for Metz

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Battle for Metz
Metz1944-1.jpg
date August 27 to December 13, 1944
place Metz , France
output allied victory
Parties to the conflict

United States 48United States United States

German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire

Commander

George Patton

Otto von Knobelsdorff

losses

3,800 killed,
14,368 prisoners,
7,904 wounded

The battle for Metz from August 27 to December 13, 1944 was the culmination of the fighting for Lorraine in World War II.

Starting position

Major General Heinrich Kittel, the last commandant of Metz, 1944

The 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division (under the command of SS Standartenführer Hans Lingner) initially took up their position in the vicinity of Metz . The town itself was home to the 462nd Training Division (until September 18, 1944 under Lieutenant General Walter Krause, then under Lieutenant General Vollrath Lübbe , from November 8, 1944 under Lieutenant General Heinrich Kittel ). It was subordinate to the following units: the officers' school under Colonel Joachim von Siegroth , the NCOs under Colonel Wagner, the SS news school under SS-Standartenführer Ernst Kemper, the 1010 security regiment under Colonel Richter as well as an artillery department, an anti-aircraft battery and about 10 anti-tank guns . With regard to the old Metz fortifications from Prussian times (1871–1918), it was possible to make some of the still existing fortress guns functional again and to reconnect all systems by telephone.

On the opposite side stood the 3rd US Army under Lieutenant General George S. Patton , which had not been able to carry out its actual attack with the main direction on Frankfurt am Main / Mannheim since late summer due to insufficient fuel supply. While in the south the XII. US Corps was tasked with the liberation of Nancy , the XX. Capture US Corps Metz. The following were now available for further action: the 5th US Infantry Division (under the command of Major General Irwin , who was advancing from Verdun to St. Maurice), the 90th US Infantry Division (Major General James A. Van Fleet , in Étain ) and behind it the 7th US Armored Division . (Major General Robert Hasbrouck).

Fighting

The battle for Metz on September 5, 1944

In the early morning of September 6, 1944, Allied reconnaissance troops set out to look for an intact bridge over the Moselle. But all the crossings had already been blown up. Two days later it was possible to cross over at Dornot with assault boats and to form a small bridgehead, which, however, could not hold due to violent German counterattacks. In the next few days, new bridgeheads were built further south at Arnaville and Novéant , which, however, were under constant attack from the fortress of the Crown Prince . At the same time they had attacked further north with the 7th US Panzer Division in the area Amanvillers-Vernéville-Gravelotte, but behind these villages the fortress Metz was the strongest. By September 9, 1944, the Americans had lost 14 officers and 332 men. It was decided to turn off the annoying artillery fire of the Kronprinz Fortress first. But all attempts to attack this fortress between September 27 and October 13 failed. As a result, and also because of other priorities ( Arnhem ), the 3rd US Army stopped all further attacks and Metz had to be evaded extensively.

A grenadier who excelled in the fight for makers , with the Panzerschreck . Machern near Metz, October 27, 1944

At the beginning of October, the OKH withdrew all replacement officers and non-commissioned officers from Metz. To replace this, some security battalions came from the Siegfried Line and the Vosges. On November 9, 1944, the American major attack began with the crossing of the Moselle northeast of Thionville (Diedenhofen). The Americans advanced north of Metz by the 13th - but were now to the right of the Moselle. On November 14th the last refreshment train arrived at the fortress. Two days earlier, three fortress machine-gun battalions under the command of the 462nd Division arrived, so that with one Volkssturm battalion it had a combat strength of around 10,000 men. There were no more tanks or assault guns.

Enclosure of Metz during the November offensive of the 3rd US Army
Members of the American 5th Infantry Division searching houses in Metz on November 19, 1944

On the night of November 16-17, 1944, the German units remaining in the vicinity of Metz withdrew to the east in the direction of the Siegfried Line - Metz was now completely on November 19, 1944 by the 90th, 95th and 5th US Infantry division included. The main command post in the city lasted until November 21. The fortresses were still occupied by German troops: Haeseler, Prince August von Württemberg, Crown Prince, Empress, Friedrich Karl and Alvensleben. When the supplies there ran out, Haeseler capitulated on November 26th, Prince August von Württemberg on November 29th, Alvensleben on December 6th (crew: Grenadier Regiment 1215; Commander: Lieutenant Colonel Arno Stoessel von der Heyde) and Friedrich Karl on December 7th with 600 starving men. On December 8th, the remaining garrison of the Kronprinz Fortress surrendered (crew: Grenadier Regiment 1217; Commander: Lieutenant Colonel Helmut Richter) and finally on December 13th 1944 the Kaiserin Fortress.

For the members of the Siegroth combat group who had actively participated in the battle for the fortress of Metz, the Metz 1944 arm band badge was donated. This sleeve band also existed as a traditional badge for all officers, civil servants, NCOs and men in School VI for Fahnenjunker of the Metz Infantry School (teaching and permanent staff as well as students), provided they had belonged to the school at the end of 1944.

Some of the German fallen in this battle are buried in the German military cemetery in Andilly (France); there are 33,085 fallen from the Second World War .

meaning

Neither the German nor the American side initially believed that the Prussian fortifications around Metz, the most important of which had been built around 1900, still represented a serious obstacle in late summer 1944. However, due to the unexpected resistance - the main part of the 3rd US Army was stopped at this point - there was such a delay in the further advance of the US troops, which made the Ardennes offensive as the last major German counter-attack in the West possible.

swell

  • Edgar Christoffel: War on the Siegfried Line 1944/45 . Trier 1989, ISBN 3-88915-033-0 .
  • Hugh M. Cole: The Lorraine campaign . Washington 1950.
  • Alain Hohnadel: La bataille des Fort Verdun face à Metz . 1995, ISBN 2-84048-087-5 .
  • Antony Kemp: The role of the permanent fortification in the Lorraine campaign, 1944 . In: publication series fortress research . No. 8 , 1989, ISSN  0723-2039 , pp. 181-192 .
  • Kurt-Gerhard Klietmann : German Awards. Volume 2: German Empire: 1871–1945. The Order Collection, Berlin 1971, pp. 160–161.
  • Rudi Rolf: The German tank fortification . Osnabrück 1991, ISBN 3-7648-1784-4 .

Web links

  • US Army (Center of Military History): United States Army in World War II. European Theater of Operations. The Lorraine Campaign. Chapter IX. The November Battle for Metz. (607 pages + appendices) , English.

Individual evidence

  1. See Kemp, p. 181.