Kettle of Mons
1944: Overlord · Dragoon · Mons · Market Garden · Scheldt estuary · Aachen · Hürtgenwald · Queen · Alsace-Lorraine · Ardennes
1945: Nordwind · Bodenplatte · Blackcock · Colmar · Veritable · Grenade · Blockbuster · Lumberjack · Undertone · Plunder · Würzburg · Ruhrkessel · Nuremberg
During the Second World War, during the withdrawal of German troops from northern France between the end of August and September 6, 1944, several German divisions were almost completely wiped out by units of the Western Allies in the Mons pocket. Mons was liberated on September 2nd.
The Wehrmacht Troops it was the following, in the fighting during Operation Overlord in Normandy the Falaise pocket escaped and been decimated divisions:
- the 2nd and 9th Panzer Division and the 2nd and 12th SS Panzer Division ,
- the 3rd , 5th and 6th Paratrooper Divisions ,
- the 47th , 275th and 353rd Infantry Divisions and
- the combat group of Aulock
Essentially, they were units from three German corps that were subordinate to the 5th Panzer Army and had lost contact with their higher-level staffs in the last days of August. General of the infantry Erich Straube took over the provisional supreme command of the troops threatened by the enclosure .
German columns were retreating along the Amiens - Cambrai - Mons road towards Belgium when they were sighted by US reconnaissance planes and bombed by Thunderbolt fighter planes .
The 3rd US Armored Division under Brigadier General Maurice Rose and the 1st US Infantry Division supporting them and other American and British units succeeded in building roadblocks north of the Germans and holding them despite heavy fighting. Other Allied units reached the area at Mons and started the boiler to close. More than 25,000 Germans surrendered to the Allies. Large numbers continued to fight, and indeed a breakout occurred the following day. About 40,000 Germans were able to escape through the porous American lines, although US units tried to pursue them.
Most of the divisions were then reorganized in the Netherlands or Germany . In addition, there was the Hohenstaufen combat group under SS-Obersturmbannführer Walter Harzer and the Frundsberg combat group under SS-Oberführer Heinz Harmel , both of which only two weeks later played an important role in the defense against the Allied airborne campaign, Market Garden .
In the cauldron and in the course of the German outbreak, the Allies captured three German generals:
- Major General Carl Wahle , commander of the 47th Infantry Division
- Major General Hubertus von Aulock , commander of the combat group von Aulock
- Lieutenant General Rüdiger von Heyking , commander of the 6th Parachute Division
Brigadier Rose was promoted to Major General on September 5 for the encirclement of the German units .
The Allied victory at Mons in the edition of Life magazine from the 18th September 1944 discussed in an article.
literature
-
Martin Blumenson : Breakout and Pursuit. United States Army in World War II, European Theater of Operations. Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington DC 1961. (Online: archive.org , ibiblio )
- Chapter 32: The Mons pocket