U.S. Third Army After Action Report, May 1945, Headquarters, Third U.S. Army, 1 August 1944 - 9 May 1945 VOL. British veterans waited nervously to see how the Americans would react to a full-scale German offensive, and British generals quietly acted to safeguard the Meuse River's crossings. Call Us Today! When the United States entered the First World War, Patton found himself deployed along with the American Expeditionary Force under the command of General John Black Jack Pershing, whom Patton had served under in the Pancho Villa Expedition. For every 100 females, there were 97.7 males. This battle was an attempt to repeat the decisive breakthrough of 1940. By January 1945, the remainder of the process of closing up to the Rhine could be completed. He saved hundreds of lives during World War II and The Fhrer dismissed all objections, convinced that the elite German forces would roll over the war-weary and/or inexperienced American formations in the Ardennes Forest and drive all the way to the English Channel port of Antwerp. During January 1919, the Third Army was engaged in training and preparing the troops under its command for any contingency. On 9 August of that year, in a reorganisation of field forces in the United States, four field armies, Third Army amongst them, were activated, to control the formations of the U.S. Army stationed on home soil. Units of the Canadian First Army, British Second Army, and the U.S. Ninth Army were to receive support from the First Allied Airborne Armys parachute drop on 24 March (Operation Varsity). Before the Americans closed in on the area, overcrowding, disease, and food shortages created a state of emergency among the prisoners. Eisenhower decided that several simultaneous crossings would have the greatest chance of success of sustaining the drive into the Ruhr in order to encircle a large part of the German Army in advance of the final drive toward Berlin. By late January 1945, U.S forces, with their British, Canadian, and French allies, had regained the territory lost in December and resumed their drive eastward to defeat Hitlers Third Reich. All that stood between the tanks of "Old Blood and Guts" and Germany were the remnants of several tattered German armies. Liberation had come at a high cost: more than 200,000 dead, wounded, and missing from the Allied armies, more than 300,000 from the German. How did Americans respond to this humanitarian calamity as World War II in Europe entered its final weeks? On 15 December Third Army Headquarters at Mayen opened at Coblenz: III Corps Headquarters at Polch opened at Neuwied and IV Corps Headquarters remained at Cochem, with the VII Corps at Grevenmacher. In February, military schools were opened through the Third Army area; a quartermaster depot was organized; 2,000 officers and enlisted men left to take courses in British and French universities; better leave facilities were created; and plans for sending American divisions to the United States were made. The Third Army remained responsible for this aspect of U.S. Armed Forces operations until 1974, when a new major headquarters, that of Forces Command, or FORSCOM was activated to replace Third Army. The Holocaust in Ukraine represents the first phase of the Holocaust in which an estimated 1.5 million Jews were shot to death at close range in ravines, open fields, and forests. As of July 2011, Third U.S. Army is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina with a forward element at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. In the evening the bad weather returned. The plan focused on Wesel, with multiple crossings set to occur along a 22-mile front on the evening of 23 March. However, Ultra interceptions of German cipher traffic alerted the Americans to the danger, and, when Lttich opened on August 7, heavy antitank defenses were in place. George S. Patton was the epitome of a military leader. The LCVPs capably moved the entire divisions men, vehicles, and equipment within 48 hours. The VII Corps occupied under the same order that portion of the Regierungsbezirk of Trier within army limits. U.S. Third Army infantrymen board a LCVP to cross the Rhine, March 1945 (National Archives and Records Administration, Still Pictures Division, College Park, MD, Record Group 119A, SC 203352-A). Its headquarters and all personnel (numbering about 6,800 men) and units under it were thereafter designated American Forces in Germany. On August 25, 1944, the 4 th Infantry Division, a lead element of Patton's Third Army, arrived at the outskirts of Paris. However, the 4th Armored Division, 10th Armored Division, 26th Infantry Division, and the 80th Infantry Division from General Patton's Third Army have moved against the southern flank of the German main advance. Yet what he witnessed on the grounds of that place of horror, between April 28 and May 11, 1945, seared his memory and challenged his comprehension. Never did he believe their claims they knew nothing of Buchenwald. Buchenwald was the first of the major concentration camps of Greater Germany to be liberated. Patton is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Runstedt in particular was miffed when he learned that the Allies were referring to the operation as the "Runstedt offensive." Morison, Samuel E. History of United States Naval Operations, Volume XI: The Invasion of France and Germany, 19441945. Reinforcement gave them a clear superiority in tank and infantry divisions, while the Allied Expeditionary Force had the bombardment power to devastate the Germans in their path. LTG General George S. Patton, Jr. takes command of Third Army. Behind schedule, the Allied commanders understood that something had to give to push the German war machine east. They had survived the cold, the snow and the battle. Units involved in the initial assault 16 Dec, SS-Gruppenfhrer Hermann Prie Patton, however, drew attention away from the main effort when he arrived on the Rhines west bank near Oppenheim on 21 March. Third Army was shipped from the U.S. to the United Kingdom. See for Allied and German Orders of Battle: December 1944 & January 1945: (Tucker-Jones pp 263-287), Oberbefehlshaber WestGeneralfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt[a], Heeresgruppe B By the night of 14 December, Third Army troops had occupied their positions on the perimeter of the Coblenz bridgehead. Third Army did not see the light of day again until 1932. Dave Weakleydwweakley@yahoo.comInd., Ky., Tenn., Ill., Wis.Deutschland Regiment 2nd SS 3rd Regiment Panzergrenadierhttp://www.deutschlandregiment.combarry.kemballcook@ubs.comTexas Based1st Battalion of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.http://ablecompany502pir.org/index.htmlinfo@ablecompany502pir.orgTexas6th Cavalry Historical Associationhttp://www.6thcav.netTexas167th Volksgrenadier Divisionhttp://167thvolksgrenadierdivision.com/wordpress/Unit Commander : Thomas Pachalostpachalos@austin.rr.comTexasE Company 2 Battalion 505th PIR {Parachute Infantry Regiment}Unit CO Dave Weakleydwweakley@yahoo.comCo 1st SGT Brian Hartballs2n@yahoo.comUnit email iseco505thpir82ndab@yahoo.comInd., Ky., Tenn., Ill., Wis.Co.F, 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Division.Contact Alan jones atj53@att.netInd., Ky., Tenn., Ill., WisTroop B 6th Cavalry GroupTate Mowrey tate.mowrey@gmail.comTexas, General Patton and his Dodge Command Cars, Pattons Mobile Headquarters 3rd Army HQ in Europe, Pattons beloved English Bull Terrier Willie, Booking General Pattons History Comes Alive, General Pattons Lucky Forward Movie Props, Patton Hidden In Plain Sight : The Images Uncovered (Book), http://167thvolksgrenadierdivision.com/wordpress/. In May liberated the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camps. Under Patton's brilliant leadership, elements of the Third Army raced 150 miles in 19 hours to attack the southern flank of the German forces during the Battle of the Bulge. On 20 May, Marshal Foch directed allied commanders to dispatch troops toward Weimar and Berlin in the event the peace treaty was not signed. The boat landed on the eastern bank unopposed, and the crossing recommenced at the new position with six LCVPs provided from Oppenheim. Including the initial crossing at Oppenheim, all four crossings succeeded without preparatory artillery fire. The march into Germany for occupation duty was begun on 17 November 1918. A white flag was hoisted. A week earlier, on April 4, troops from the 89th Infantry Division, 4th Armored Division, and the 602nd Tank Destroyer Battalion overran Ohrdruf, a recently established subcamp of Buchenwald. On one raid, Patton and troops of the 6th Infantry regiment ambushed a Villista outpost and killed Julio Carednas and two of his guards. They had done everything they could do to hinder the evacuation. Lieutenant Commander William Liedes Boat Unit 2 (TU 122.5.2) followed the initial assault wave at 0300 the next morning and immediately began ferrying troops across the river. The March to Victory: A Guide to World War II Battles and Battlefields from London to the Rhine. The AOR encompasses an area of approximately 6,500,000 square miles (17,000,000km2) consisting of 27 countries populated by over 650million people speaking 12 major languages and representing seven major religions. Unfortunately, tanks require gas, and on September 1, the Third Army ran out. As the first waves of troops landed on the opposite bank unopposed, the Allies soon came under fire from German artillery fire and bombing attacks by the Luftwaffe. The plan focused on Wesel, with multiple crossings set to occur along a 22-mile front on the evening of 23 March. Patton's Third Army. kingdom of deception console commands; Income Tax. General Patton's repeated speech to various units of the US Third Army on the eve of Operation #Overlord (D-Day, Normandy 1944) Previously, in Saudi Arabia, its bases include In order to mislead any Allied intelligence personnel who might discover the plan, it was given the defensive sounding name Wacht am Rhein, meaning "watch on the Rhine". Even worse than that.. Frank A. (Left) American engineers emerge from the woods and move out of defensive positions after fighting in the vicinity of Bastogne, Belgium. Currently you have JavaScript disabled. On the 15th, Major General Joseph T. Dickman assumed command and issued Third Army General Order No. The Third Army swept across Northern France light lightening crackling across the sky. I cant really describe it, to tell you how horrendous it was to see these people treated like animals.