The Last Campaign of General Patton

The Last Campaign of General Patton

Prologue:

After crossing the Rhine River on March 22, 1945, Patton could taste victory. The German Army, incapable at this point of staging a true defense, melted away as the Third Army drove forward towards Bavaria. Along the way, they toured Buchenwald Concentration Camp, where the Americans witnessed the true horrors of the Nazi regime for the first time. Patton then drove south to Czechoslovakia and the town of Pilsen. On May 6, 1945, the 16th Armored Division and elements of the 97th and 2nd Infantry Divisions liberated Pilsen, while the Red Army liberated the rest of the country. For Patton, this would be his last battle of the war. After V-E Day, he became the military governor of Bavaria until his death from injuries suffered in a car crash in December 1945.

This is a very interesting story of the last years; specifically about the months winding down to the Germans surrendering to the Allied
forces. By early 1945, less than a year before General George S. Patton’s mysterious death, Adolf Hitler’s armies were almost exhausted. With most of Poland in Soviet hands and the Ruhr in ruins from Allied air attacks, and with dwindling supplies being
available for the 12th Army Group, because of a majority of it, including fuel going to the British 21st Army because of the strategic
location of where the British are attacking from.

On the Eastern Front, the Soviet winter offensive had reached a line less than 100 miles from Berlin, and although in the West the Siegfried Line was still basically intact. The Rhine had yet to be crossed, it was clear that with American divisions arriving in Europe at the rate of one a week, it was only a matter of time before the Third Reich collapsed in chaos and disaster.
Still, Hitler refused to consider surrender.

This is about the final days of General George S. Patton


This is my retrospective of General George S. Patton Jr.; and the last year of the European Campaign of World War II.
This was a very crucial time for the Allied Powers, with the impending fall of Nazi Germany; and with both the United States,
Britain, and Russian forces closing in on Berlin. Someone would have to be the messenger for the status of the free world:
that person was General Patton.

Some 19,000 Americans died in the Battle of the Bulge, the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the US in WWII. Patton pushed on that winter, crossing the Rhine on March 24th. He urged Eisenhower to let him go all the way to Berlin but alas political factors came into play and Patton’s hopes of reaching the capital of the Third Reich were dashed. He was dejected and increasingly listless when the war in Europe ended.

Beginning in October 1944, when many believed the Allies had all but won the war in Europe . At the time of the push toward
Germany's Western Front, Autumn 1944, 12th Army Group under General Omar Bradley, had the 1st Canadian Army, 2nd Army
(Britain), 1st US Army, 9th US Army, 7th US Army, 1st French Army, 3rd US Army; and elements of Jacob Devers 6th Army Group
to contend with the Germans.
Meanwhile, the Russians; the Baltic Army Group, the White Russian Army Group; and the Ukrainian Army Group had begun
their advance approaching Romania, Poland; and Lithonia which all borders on the Eastern Front of Germany.

Now onto the Battle of the Bulge; the relief of Bastogne. The 3rd US Army began preparations to end the siege by having
the 4th Armored Division, Seventh Tank Battalion under the command of Lt Col. Creighton Abrams; on and around December
22 1944. They moved by hidden German forces in the forest on the road to Assenois. The task force had plowed through Remonville, Remichampagne, Sibret, and Clochimont before heading toward Assenois. They would initially link up with the
327th Airborne as the American forces repelled the German forces into a retreat from the area. No counter-attack from the Germans
came; the German advance stalled on Christmas Eve 1944. Basically, the Germans overran their supply lines. And without ammunition and gasoline, they were unable to wage an offensive campaign. The continued progress of The 3rd US Army eventually spelled dome for Operation Watch on the Rhine. By January 25, 1945, the Germans had returned to the same positions they had
held at the start of the offensive six weeks earlier. Thus ended the last great German attack on the Western Front.

One such event, a not often mentioned stumbling block for the Germans was the location of the American Ninety-Ninth Division.
They held the northern shoulder of the Bulge assault, inflicting tremendous casualties on the Germans in the Battle of Elsenborn
Ridge. Despite the Wehrmacht offensive sputtering, the Germans did not give much ground until Patton was able
to relieve Bastogne. In fact, on January 1, the Germans launched Operation Baseplate (Unternehmen Bodenplatte) a last-gasp
aerial bombardment on Allied airfields by the Luftwaffe. It was a success, destroying 465 American and British
aircraft. However, the sorely depleted Luftwaffe also lost nearly 300 planes, which finished it as a fighting force.

Also, another point taken was that on February 10, Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe
ordered Patton and his Third Army to stop their drive east and go on the defensive, and selected British field marshal Bernard
Law Montgomery to lead the massive Allied invasion force to cross the strategically vital Rhine River.
Stretching eight hundred miles down the length of Germany from the North Sea to Switzerland, the Rhine is the last great
obstacle between the Allies and the German heartland. Whoever crosses it first might also soon know the glory of being the
first Allied general to reach Berlin.
The operation and campaign was a series of Allied offensive operations initially headed by the 21st Army Group commanded by Bernard Montgomery from 8 February 1945 to 25 March 1945, at the end of the Second World War.The operations aimed to occupy the Rhineland and secure a passage over the Rhine River. It was part of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's "broad front" strategy to occupy the entire west bank of the Rhine before its crossing. The Rhineland Offensive encompassed Operation Veritable, Operation Grenade, Operation Blockbuster, Operation Plunder and Operation Varsity. The 21st Army Group included the 9th US Army led
by General William H. Simpson; comprised of US XVI Corps, US XIII Corps; and US XIX Corps, which consisted of 12 divisions
all of which would be part of the overall force, including the US 12th Army Group headed by General Omar Bradley which would
be poised to commence offensive actions near the German defensive Siegfried Line.

By the middle of September 1944, the three Western Allied army groups; the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group (Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery) in the north, the United States U.S. 12th Army Group (Lieutenant General Omar Bradley) in the center, and the Franco-American 6th Army Group (Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers) in the south, formed a broad front under the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his headquarters SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force).

While Montgomery and Bradley each favored relatively direct thrusts into Germany (with Montgomery and Bradley each offering to be the spearhead of such an assault), General Eisenhower disagreed. Instead, he chose a "broad-front" strategy, which allowed the Allies to gain ground from the beaten Germans in all sectors, and allowed the advancing Allied forces to support each other.

The rapid advance through France had caused considerable logistical strain, made worse by the lack of any major port other than the relatively distant Cherbourg in western France. Although Antwerp was seen as the key to solving the Allied logistics problems, its port was not open to Allied shipping until the Scheldt estuary was clear of German forces. As the campaign progressed, all the belligerents, Allied as well as German, felt the effects of the lack of suitable replacements for front-line troops.
There were two major defensive obstacles to the Allies. The first was the natural barriers made by the rivers of eastern France. The second was the Siegfried Line, which fell under the command, along with all Wehrmacht forces in the west, of Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt.

The Rhine Rat Race
March 1945
On 4 May, the US Third Army under General George S. Patton entered Czechoslovakia. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the only political leader to advocate the liberation of Prague by the Western Allies. In a telegram to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Churchill said that "the liberation of Prague...by US troops might make the whole difference to the postwar situation of Czechoslovakia and might well influence that in nearby countries." Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, also wanted his forces to liberate the city and asked that the Americans stop at Plzeň, 50 miles (80 km) to the west. The Red Army was planning a major offensive into the Protectorate, starting on 7 May. Eisenhower, disinclined to accept American casualties or risk antagonizing the Soviet Union, acquiesced to the Soviet demands that the Red Army enter Prague.
This is an interesting footnote in history. The political aspect will be felt for decades to come.

The Allied forces consisted of the British 21st Army Group; the American 12th Army Group, including 9th US Army, 1st US
Army, 3rd US Army; and 7th US Army were all poised to head into the Siegfried Line; and so began the Rhine offensive.

Fighting on the Western Front seemed to stabilize, and the Allied advance stalled in front of the Siegfried Line (Westwall) and the southern reaches of the Rhine. The operation started in early September, the Americans began slow and bloody fighting through the Hurtgen Forest ("Passchendaele with tree bursts"—Hemingway) to breach the Line.

On March 5, as the First U.S. Army launched its attack, General Patton finally obtained Eisenhower’s authority to advance into the rest of the Rhineland Palatinate. Bradley told him to “take the Rhine on the run,” and on March 10, just three days after the Remagen bridge was captured by the First Army, Patton’s 4th Armored Division reached the river north of Koblenz. It had advanced 55 miles in less than 48 hours. On the 13th, Patton ordered his divisions across the Mosel and through the Hunsrück, a mountainous area to the east of Trier thought by SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) to be too difficult for armor. Nevertheless, by the 22nd he had eight divisions on the Rhine from Koblenz to Ludwigshafen.

With that, Patton’s campaign west of the Rhine was over. It had cost another 7,287 casualties, but the Third Army engineers were ready, and Patton, desperate to cross the great river before Monty, decided that his men should make a feint at Mainz and cross at once at Oppenheim. By daylight on the 23rd, six battalions were over the river for a loss of only 28 men killed and wounded, while other infantry and engineer units had crossed just to the north, at Nierstein, without opposition.

However, German forces became aware of the crossings and after heavy Luftwaffe raids on the Third Army pontoon bridges during the day, Patton called Bradley again that evening: “For God’s sake tell the world we’re across … I want the world to know Third Army made it before Monty.”
In fact, the world already knew. At Bradley’s headquarters that morning, Patton’s representative had announced that the Third Army had crossed the Rhine at 10 pm on March 22, “without benefit of aerial bombing, ground smoke, artillery preparation and airborne assistance.” This was a dig at Montgomery, who was using all these assets at that very moment to assist his crossing of the same river. On the very day that his troops crossed the Rhine, Patton issued General Order Number 70 to his Third Army and to his supporting XIX Tactical Air Command: “In the period from January 29 to March 22, 1945, you have wrested 6,484 square miles of territory from the enemy. You have taken 3,072 cities, towns, and villages, including among the former: Trier, Coblenz, Bingen, Worms, Mainz, Kaiserslautern, and Ludwigshafen.
You have captured 140,112 enemy soldiers and have killed or wounded an additional 99,000, thereby eliminating practically all of the German 7th and 1st Armies. History records no greater achievement in so limited a time … The world rings with your praises; better still General Marshall, General Eisenhower, and General Bradley have all personally commended you. The highest honor I have ever attained is that of having my name coupled with yours in these great events.” The following day George Patton crossed the Rhine on a pontoon bridge at Oppenheim. Halfway across he undid his trousers “to take a piss in the Rhine.

On the night of March 22, 1945, elements of the Third Army crossed the Rhine at the German town of Oppenheim. To their surprise, they were not opposed by enemy forces. Not wanting to compromise his army’s success with publicity, Patton telephoned Omar Bradley the following morning and uncharacteristically told him to keep it a secret. “Brad, don’t tell anyone, but I’m across.” A surprised Bradley responded, “Well, I’ll be damned. You mean across the Rhine?” “Sure am,” Patton replied, “I sneaked a division over last night. But there are so few Krauts around there they don’t know it yet. So don’t make any announcement—we’ll keep it a secret until we see how it goes.” For all the ground that Patton's Third Army the speed that this massive juggernaut had taken left
open huge pockets of German resistance. That meant subordinate divisions and the individual regiments had to endure large
casualties engaging stubborn German forces. This angered many of Patton's critics who thought he should have been conservative
enough to have elements of his units hold up the rear and stage enough forces to establish a rear guard.
Many of Patton's subordinate commanders shared some of those sentiments. They believed that a less vocal commanding general
or one that wasn't so hyper about achieving the objective so much, could have been done by any other level-headed general.

Plus with some of the Third Army units not having a reserve of fuel for the vehicles were often frustrated with the logistics and fuel
elements were further ahead and didn't want to stop or turn around for a precious moment to give the ones low on fuel, a fuel up.


In late August, the U.S. Third Army started to run low on fuel. This situation was caused by the rapid Allied advance through France, compounded by the shift of logistical priority to the northern forces to secure Antwerp. By 1 September 1944, with the last of its fuel, the Third Army managed one final push to capture key bridges over the Meuse River at Verdun and Commercy. Five days after that, however, the critical supply situation effectively caused the Third Army to grind to a halt, allowing previously routed German forces to regroup and the reinforcement of their strongholds in the area.

Soon after, the Third Army came up against Metz, part of the Maginot Line and one of Western Europe's most heavily fortified cities. The city could not be bypassed, as several of its forts had guns directed at Moselle crossing sites and the main roads in the area. It could also be used as a stronghold to organize a German counter-attack to the Third Army's rear.
In the following Battle of Metz, the Third Army, while victorious, took heavy casualties.

Following Metz, the Third Army continued eastwards to the Saar River and soon began their assault on the Siegfried Line.

Hürtgen Forest was seen as a possible location for incursions into the American flank, and the river dams in the area were a threat to the Allied advance downstream, so an assault to clear the area was started on 19 September 1944. The German defense was more stubborn than expected and the terrain was highly favorable to defense, largely negating the American advantages of numbers and quality of troops. The battle—expected to last a few weeks—continued until February 1945 and cost 33,000 casualties (from all causes).

The value of the battle has been disputed. Modern historians argue that the outcome was not worth the foreseeable losses, and in any case, the American tactics played into German hands. Operation Queen was a combined Allied air-ground offensive against the German forces at the Siegfried Line, which was conducted mainly by the combined effort of the U.S. Ninth and First Armies. The principal goal of the operation was to advance to the Roer River and to establish several bridgeheads over it, for a subsequent thrust into Germany to the Rhine River. Parts of this operation also included further fighting in the Hurtgen Forest. The offensive commenced on 16 November with one of the heaviest tactical air bombardments by the Western Allies of the war. Although the German forces were heavily outnumbered, the Allied advance was very slow. After four weeks of intensive fighting, the Allies reached the Roer but were not able to establish any bridgeheads over it. Fighting in the Hurtgen Forest also bogged down. The exhaustive fighting during Queen caused the Allied troops to suffer heavy casualties, and eventually, the Germans launched their own counteroffensive—Operation Wacht am Rhein—on 16 December, which would lead to the Battle of the Bulge.

Germany west of the Rhine
The pincer movement of the Canadian First Army, advancing from the Nijmegen area in Operation Veritable, and the U.S. Ninth Army, crossing the Roer in Operation Grenade, was planned to start on 8 February 1945, but it was delayed by two weeks when the Germans flooded the Roer valley by destroying the floodgates of two dams on the upper Roer (Rur Dam and Urft Dam). During the two weeks that the little river was flooded, Hitler did not allow Rundstedt to withdraw German forces behind the Rhine, arguing that it would only delay the inevitable fight. Hitler ordered him to fight where his forces stood.

By the time the water had subsided and the U.S. Ninth Army was able to cross the Roer on 23 February, other Allied forces were also close to the Rhine's west bank. The German divisions that had remained on the west bank of the Rhine were cut to pieces, and 280,000 men were taken prisoner. The stubborn German resistance had been costly; their total losses reached an estimated 400,000 men. The Allies crossed the Rhine at four points. One crossing was an opportunity taken by U.S. forces when the Germans failed to blow up the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen; another was a hasty assault; and two crossings were planned:

0- The U.S. First Army aggressively pursued the disintegrating German troops, and on 7 March they unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge across the Rhine River at Remagen. The 9th Armored Division quickly expanded the bridgehead into a full-scale crossing.
0- Bradley told General George S. Patton—whose U.S. Third Army had been fighting through the Palatinate—to "take the Rhine on the run". The Third Army did just that on the night of 22/23 March, crossing the river with a hasty assault south of Mainz at Oppenheim.
0- In the north, the Rhine is twice as wide, with a far higher volume of water than where the Americans crossed. Montgomery, commander of the 21st Army Group, decided it could be crossed safely only with a carefully prepared attack. In Operation Plunder he crossed the Rhine at Rees and Wesel on the night of 23/24 March, including the largest single drop airborne operation in history, Operation Varsity.
0- In the Allied 6th Army Group area, the U.S. Seventh Army assaulted across the Rhine in the area between Mannheim and Worms on 26 March. A fifth crossing on a smaller scale was later achieved by the French First Army at Speyer.

Back in October, the Americans decided that they could not just sit and let it fall in a slow siege, because it threatened the flanks of the. As it was the first major German city to face capture, Hitler ordered that the city be held at all costs. As a result, the city was taken, at a cost of 5,000 casualties on both sides, with an additional 5,600 German prisoners.

South of the American forces fought from September until mid-December to push the Germans out of Lorraine and from behind the Siegfried Line. The crossing of the and the capture of the fortress of proved difficult for the American troops in the face of German reinforcements, supply shortages, and unfavorable weather. During September and October, the Allied 6th Army Group fought a difficult campaign through the Vosges Mountains that was marked by dogged German resistance and slow advances. In November, however, the German front snapped under the pressure, resulting in sudden Allied advances that liberated, and, and placed Allied forces along the. The Germans managed to hold a large bridgehead (the ), on the western bank of the Rhine and centered around the city of. On 16 November the Allies started a large-scale autumn offensive called. With its main thrust again through the canal and link up with the airborne troops of the U.S. 101st.
If all went well XXX Corps would advance into Germany without any remaining major obstacles. XXX Corps was able to advance beyond six of the seven airborne-held bridges but was unable to link up with the troops near the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem.

The Battle of the Rhine was crucial for the advancement of the Allied advance into Germany and was planned by Monty (the king of set-piece operations) as a three-army assault, including an airborne assault, a five-thousand-gun artillery barrage, and Anglo-American bombers. Thousands of tons of supplies were brought forward including huge amounts of bridging equipment.

The Allied forces along this line were organized into three army groups. In the north, from the North Sea to a point about 10 miles (16 km) north of Cologne, was the 21st Army Group commanded by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery. Within the 21st Army Group, the Canadian First Army (under Harry Crerar) held the left flank of the Allied line, with the British Second Army (Miles C. Dempsey) in the center and the U.S. 9th Army (William Hood Simpson) to the south.
Holding the middle of the Allied line from the 9th Army's right flank to a point about 15 miles (24 km) south of Mainz was the 12th Army Group under the command of Lieutenant General Omar Bradley. Bradley had three American armies, the U.S. 1st Army (Courtney Hodges) on the left (north), the U.S. 3rd Army (George S. Patton) on the right (south), and the U.S. 15th Army (Leonard T. Gerow). Completing the Allied line to the Swiss border was the 6th Army Group commanded by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, with the U.S. 7th Army (Alexander Patch) in the north and the French 1st Army (Jean de Lattre de Tassigny) on the Allied right, and southernmost, flank.

The First Allied Airborne Army conducted Operation Varsity on the east bank of the Rhine in support of Operation Plunder, consisting of the U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps, the British 6th and the U.S. 17th Airborne Divisions.

Operation Grenade in February by Simpson's Ninth Army and Crerar's Canadians was also expected to prepare the ground attack.

From the onset of the campaign in the Rhine, the US 3rd Army under the leadership of General George Patton had hoped their
push toward Mannheim would get them further into the other vital German towns and on to Czechoslovakia once they engaged and defeated the German 1st Army. So Patton would initially convince Eisenhower to let him attack, two hundred miles to the south.
General Patton made this request because the normally cautious; and finicky Field Marshall of the British 21st Army Group
was still undecided about launching Operation Plunder, as the Rhine Offensive is known. The plan was to invade southern Germany's
Palatine region.
Patton's military ambitions for the assault are many, among them the devastation of all Wehrmacht forces guarding the heavily
fortified Siegfried Line. The Siegfried Line was a four-hundred-mile-long defensive array of eighteen thousand bunkers and inter-
locking rows of pyramid-shaped concrete antitank obstacles nicknamed "dragon's teeth". The Germans referred to it as the Westwall,
while the Americans continued to use "Siegfried", after similar systems of forts dating back to the First World War. Hitler built the
Westwall between 1936 and 1938, anticipating by almost a decade the day when some great army-in this case, that of George S.
Patton would attempt to invade the Fatherland.
Recently, elements of the 3rd US Army headed to the cities of Koblenz, Nierstein, and Mannheim; both crossing the Mosel, and Rhine Rivers, respectively. Meanwhile, the US 9th Army crossed the Roer River, and headed to the cities of Wesel, Cologne,
and met elements of the 8th Panzer Army, and 7th Army after crossing the Remagen Bridge, which was captured on March 7.

The Rhine was bridged by the 17th Armored Engineer Battalion, detached from the 2nd Armored Division. On the night of 23 March, Company E and C constructed two preliminary treadway rafts over the Rhine, south of Wesel and opposite Spellen (now part of the town of Voerde). In the morning, a bridge that could bear mechanized transport started at 9:45 am, and by 4:00 pm the first truck crossed the floating bridge. Over 1152 feet of M2 treadway and 93 pneumatic floats were used in the project, which required just six hours and fifteen minutes to complete, setting a record for the size of the bridge.

After the Rhine had been bridged, the 75th Infantry Division crossed on 24 March and the 35th Infantry Division crossed 25–26 March. Once the 8th Armored Division was across, the Ninth Army was able to break out of the bridgehead, push along the northern edge of the Ruhr Pocket, and link up on 1 April near Lippstadt with the First United States Army coming from the south, thus surrounding the German Army Group B under the command of Walter Model. Once the Allies seized the intact bridge across the Rhine at Remagen and established a large bridgehead on the river's east bank. They would continue with Operation Lumberjack, Operation Plunder, and Operation Undertone, German casualties during February–March 1945 are estimated at 400,000 men, including 280,000 men captured as prisoners of war.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Front, the Soviet Red Army (including the Polish Armed Forces in the East under Soviet command), had taken most of Poland, launched an offensive into East Prussia, and began their invasion into Eastern Germany in February 1945, and by March were within striking distance of Berlin. The initial advance into Romania, the First Jassy–Kishinev Offensive in April and May 1944 was a failure; the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive in August succeeded. The Red Army also pushed deep into Hungary (the Budapest Offensive) and eastern Czechoslovakia and temporarily halted at what is now the modern Germany–Poland border on the Oder–Neisse line. These rapid advances on the Eastern Front destroyed additional veteran German combat units and severely limited German Führer Adolf Hitler's ability to reinforce his Rhine defenses. With the Soviets at the door of Berlin, the Western Allies decided any attempt on their behalf to push that far east would be too costly, concentrating instead on mopping up resistance in the west German cities. Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally on 8 May, leaving the Western Allies in control of most of Germany.





Patton and The 761st Tank Battalion
"Come out fighting"

Campaigns and Parent Units: Third Army:
4th Armored Division (United States)
1st, 26th, 71st and 87th Infantry Divisions
17th Airborne Division (United States)
17th Armored Group

Seventh Army:
1st and 103rd Infantry Divisions

Ninth Army:
79th and 95th Infantry Divisions
XVI Corps

Army leaders hadn’t chosen just any tank battalion when they assigned the 761st Tank Battalion to lead Task Force Rhine with elements of the 103rd Infantry Division. The 761st was the first African-American tank unit to go into combat. By 1945, the tankers were steely and battle-hardened, but even before they landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, on October 10, 1944, they were some of the best-trained tankers in the Army.
Activated: 1942 - 1946 ( Segregated Unit )
1947 - 1955 ( Integrated Unit )

Immediately before and during World War II, U.S. military leaders had reservations about using African American soldiers in combat.[2] General Lesley J. McNair, the Army Ground Forces commander, successfully argued that "colored" units should be employed in combat. At McNair's suggestion, the U.S. Army began experimenting with segregated combat units in 1941; the program was supported by, and given national exposure in, Life magazine. The 761st was constituted on 15 March 1942, and activated on 1 April 1942, at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. The battalion began training in M5 Stuart light tanks. They learned to maneuver, mount, dismount, and maintain the vehicle's 37 mm main gun and .30 caliber machine guns. Final training was at Fort Hood, Texas, where they were upgraded to the M4 Sherman medium tank, which had a 75 mm main gun, two .30 caliber machine guns, a .50 caliber machine gun, and a two-inch smoke mortar.

The U.S. Army’s 761st was a Black tank battalion officially formed on 1 April 1942. The 761st Tank Battalion received a cadre of enlisted men from the African-American 758th Tank Battalion, itself formed in September 1941, plus 27 white officers and additional Black enlisted men from the Army’s Armored Force Replacement Training Center at Fort Knox, Kentucky. More men arrived in May, and three Black officers joined the battalion in July. The 761st would become a “separate tank battalion” commonly called a “bastard battalion,” an independent formation intended for infantry support. Initial training took place at Camp Claiborne, just outside Alexandria, Louisiana, the scene of a bloody confrontation in January 1942 between Black troops and white military, city and state police. The Alexandria police department described itself as the “Famous Alexandria N****r Killing Squad,” and worked hard to live up to the moniker Despite the hostile environment, training continued and the battalion received more Black officers. White officers were only required to remain with a Black unit for 18 months.
As a white officer commanding a Black unit in a segregated Army, on a post surrounded by angry racist civilians, Bates faced a tremendous challenge in maintaining morale. He insisted that his men pay close attention to their appearance, to the point of finding tailors to adjust their uniforms, always pressed before a man left post.

Finally in June 1944, immediately after the Allied invasion of Normandy, the battalion was alerted for movement to Europe. It departed New York in August, and after a brief stay in England, it drew new tanks and other vehicles and landed on Omaha Beach on 9 October 1944. George S. Patton, commanding the Third Army, had asked for a well-trained battalion to be assigned to him.
After the two-year training session in Texas, the 761st Tank Battalion received the order on 9 June 1944 for overseas movement three days after the D-Day landings in Normandy.
The battalion aboard the British troop carrier Esperance Bay from New York and arrived in Britain on 8 September 1944 and was initially assigned to the Ninth Army. After a brief deployment to England, the 761st landed in France via Omaha Beach on 10 October 1944. The unit arrived (with six White officers, thirty black officers, and 676 black enlisted men and was assigned to General George Patton's US Third Army at his request, attached to the 26th Infantry Division.

Before the division was part of the Third US Army it was assigned to III Corps of the U.S. Ninth Army, under Lieutenant General William Hood Simpson, part of the 12th Army Group, commanded by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley. It was shipped from the United States directly to France and was not sent through Britain. The 26th ID landed in France at Cherbourg and Utah Beach on 7 September 1944 but did not enter combat as a division until a month later. Elements were on patrol duty along the coast from Carteret to Siouville from 13 to 30 September. The 328th Infantry saw action with the 80th Infantry Division from 5 to 15 October. The division was then reassigned to the XII Corps of Lieutenant General George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army.

As the 761st was about to enter combat, General George S. Patton reviewed the battalion and made a speech to the men which offered a guarded vote of confidence in their abilities:

Men, you're the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the American Army. I would never have asked for you if you weren't good. I have nothing but the best in my Army. I don't care what color you are as long as you go up there and kill those Kraut sonsofbitches. Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you. Most of all your race is looking forward to your success.
Don't let them down and damn you, don't let me down! They say it is patriotic to die for your country. Well, let’s see how many patriots we can make out of those German sonsofbitches.

The division was then reassigned to the XII Corps of Lieutenant General George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army.[19] On 7 October, the 26th relieved the 4th Armored Division in the Salonnes-Moncourt-Canal du Rhine au Marne sector and maintained defensive positions. The division launched a limited objective attack on 22 October, in the Moncourt woods. On 8 November, the 26th then went on the offensive, along with the first Black tank Battalion, the 761st, who spearheaded the assault, the 26th Division took Dieuze on 20 November, advanced across the Saar River to Saar Union, and captured it on 2 December, after house-to-house fighting. Reaching Maginot fortifications on 5 December, it regrouped, entering Sarreguemines on 8 December.


There were many parallels among the commanding generals of the time: General George Marshal, chief of staff of the US Army
probably would have had many reservations for colored troops fighting, but was focused more on the total planning of the army
operations; General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied commander would have been very hesitant about the idea
of including colored troops in battle, being he was so occupied with balancing the British and American allied forces in their
perspective campaigns; and General Lesley J. McNair, the Army Ground Forces commander, successfully argued that "colored" units should be employed in combat. At McNair's suggestion, the U.S. Army began experimenting with segregated combat units in 1941; the program was supported by, and given national exposure in, Life magazine. his doubts about using black men in combat.

General Patton could be seen at times as a hypocrite, as when he once said “Who the fuck asked for color?” He responded to a War Department missive informing him that only a Colored (the official term in 1944) tank battalion was available. “I asked for tankers.” But once he made time to visit the unit; Patton visited the 761st Tank Battalion, drawn up in battalion formation just east of Nancy, France. Patton then climbed on one of the Shermans and harangued gunner Ellsworth McConnell, an 18-year-old New Yorker who had enlisted at 16 by lying about his age – despite standing only 5-foot-7 and weighing 140 pounds.

“Listen, boy,” the general shrieked, “I want you to shoot every goddamn thing you see – church steeples, water towers, houses, old ladies, children, haystacks – every goddamn thing you see. This is war! You hear me, boy?”

“Sir,” Bates’ driver, Cpl. Howard Richardson, softly addressed the battalion commander so as not to draw Patton’s attention, “That old man is crazy.”

During World War II, the United States government did not genuinely desire the inclusion and acceptance of African-American soldiers onto the battlefields. Only after factors such as attrition and political pressure did the United States forces begin to include black units in meaningful roles in the fight against the Axis powers.

The men of the battalion were unaware of Patton’s sentiments. They were proud that the legendary general had taken the time to address their relatively small group, and his words made them proud to be part of his army. The phrase they repeated most among themselves was ‘nothing but the best’: After the varied hardships of their training, he had acknowledged them, had specifically requested them, and they were there - as they had long wanted to be – to fight.”. The 761st was heralded as an extremely effective, courageous, and successful battle unit. After all, they were ready to fight and it wasn't long before they got their chance.

The battalion first saw combat on 7 November 1944, fighting through towns such as Moyenvic, and Vic-sur-Seille, often at the leading edge of the advance. The fighting that the 761st engaged in at Morville-lès-Vic was fierce. The unit endured 183 days of continuous operational employment.

The 761st Tank Battalion suffered 156 casualties in November 1944; 24 men killed, 81 wounded, and 44 non-battle losses. The unit also lost 14 tanks evacuated and another 20 damaged in combat. In December, the battalion was rushed to the aid of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne. As part of the effort to drive the Germans from the vicinity of Bastogne, the battalion fought to capture the municipality of Tillet [fr], less than 15 km west of the town, in early January 1945. Supporting the elements of the 87th Infantry Division with just eleven tanks, the battalion took control of the city from the 113th Panzer Brigade through 2 days of combat, losing
9 tanks in the process.

After the Battle of the Bulge, the unit opened the way for the U.S. 4th Armored Division into Germany during an action that breached the Siegfried Line. The 761st smashed through dozens of German cities and towns in their rapid advance through the Reich. In the final days of the war in Europe, the 761st was one of the first American units to reach Steyr, Austria, at the Enns River, where they met with the 1st Ukrainian Front of the Soviet Red Army. On 4 May 1945, the 761st, along with the 71st Infantry Division, liberated the Gunskirchen concentration camp; the German guards had fled not long before.


However, like most American military officers of the era, Patton expressed his doubts about using black men in combat. On returning to headquarters following the review, he remarked, "They gave a good first impression, but I have no faith in the inherent fighting ability of the race." He only put this sentiment aside and accepted the 761st when he desperately needed all the ground power he could get. Even after the war, Patton was not inclined to reform his perception of black soldiers. In War As I Knew It, he relates the interaction described above, and comments, "Individually they were good soldiers, but I expressed my belief at the time, and have never found the necessity of changing it, that a colored soldier cannot think fast enough to fight in armor."
Carlo D'Este explained that "on the one hand he could and did admire the toughness and courage" of some black soldiers, but his writings can also be frequently read as "disdaining them and their officers because they were not part of his social order."

Historian Hugh Cole pointed out that Patton was also the first American military leader to integrate rifle companies "when manpower got tight." Retired NBA Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, co-author of Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes, agreed that although Patton was a bigot the fact remains that he did lend his name to the advancement of blacks in the military at the time, unlike most other military officers (Patton did prevent a black soldier from being lynched while serving as commander of a fort in El Paso before the war). Most of the veterans of the 761st that Abdul-Jabbar interviewed stated they were proud to have served under a general widely considered one of the most brilliant and feared Allied military leaders of World War II.

Being as it may, General Patton was smart enough to use racist bias against itself as a military strategy. This happened
during the Battle of the Bulge, German soldiers who had raided American warehouses were reported to have disguised themselves as Americans guarding checkpoints to ambush American soldiers. Patton solved this problem by ordering black soldiers, including the 761st, to guard the checkpoints, and gave the order to shoot any White soldiers at the checkpoints who acted suspiciously.
This idea of General Patton worked to perfection, because there were no 'Colored' Germans there was no chance of any
infiltration into the 761st. As seen in the 1970's movie "The Battle of the Bulge" a company of English-speaking German
soldiers wearing stolen American uniforms manned various check-points and caused all kinds of confusion.

General Patton would rather take some credit for contributing to African American Soldiers getting their chance to prove they
can serve in a combat capacity, and be used in service to the contribution to the war effort. Unlike his contemporaries, General
Patton didn't have reservations about black troops under his command; neither was he worried about any criticism for having
a colored unit under his command. Many other commanding generals may have their reservations about including
a "colored battalion" in their division. But, on the other hand, one particular general was assigned as commanding general
of the 9th Division "Buffalo Soldiers"; Major General Edwin Almond. General Almond wasn't particularly pleased
being a commanding general of an entire colored division. This particular colored unit was primarily assigned to the Mediterranean
to fight in North Apennines and Italy in the Serchio sector in the Italy Campaign.
Some contemporary historians believe that reports of the poor combat performance of the 92nd Infantry Division were motivated by the racism of senior officers and used to discredit the ability of black soldiers to perform in combat to the black public, instead of examining and remedying institutional deficiencies within the Army itself when it came to recruiting, training, and leading black soldiers. But some military leaders, like General Patton, would never tolerate such racism at the expense of demoralizing
the combat effectiveness of the unit.


At Patton's command, the Third Army romps through the Palatinate which Col. Abe Abrams of the Fourth Armored Division
calls the "Rhine Rat Race". They travel with ample supplies of metal decking and pontoons, allowing them to build temporary
bridges across the Rhine- it is hoped, well ahead of Montgomery and his 21st Army Group. American armored divisions have already
crossed the Rhine, in the city of Remagen, eighty-six miles of Trier.

The incredulous Americans could not believe that the bridge remained intact, and crossed immediately. And while they were not
able to advance beyond a small toehold on the Rhine's eastern shore, the symbolism of the Allied achievement struck fear into
the minds of the Nazi high command that Adolph Hitler ordered the firing squad executions of the four officers he considered
responsible for not having destroyed the bridge.
The Allies still held the bridge but could not advance farther without the assistance of a greater fighting force.
"Ninth Armored Division of the Third Corps got a bridge intact over the Rhine at Remagen," General Patton writes in his journal
on March 7th.
Sgt John Mims drives General Patton in his signature open-air jeep with its three-star flags over the wheel wells. The snows of
the cruel subzero winter are melting at last. Patton and Mims pass the carcasses of cattle's frozen legs up as the road winds
through Luxembourg and into Germany. Hulks of destroyed Sherman M-4s litter the countryside- so many tanks, in fact, that
Patton makes a mental note to investigate which type of enemy round defeated each of them. This is Patton's way of helping
the US Army build better armor for fighting the next inevitable war.
It is a conflict that Patton believes will be fought soon. The Third US Army is still a powerful force; it was poised to wheel north
to capture Berlin, just as they made the hard right turn for Bastogne until Eisenhower stopped them.
But, before that Third US Army barreled to Hersfeld, engaging the German 7th Army, defeating them, and rushing through
Nuremberg, before pushing on to Austria.
Patton believed that letting the Russians have Berlin was folly; this was what he told Eisenhower a few days ago. Patton believes
American forces should not only take Berlin but keep on pushing as far east as possible. In time, the entire world will know
that he was right.

By then; however, it will be too late. The Russians have already pushed through Austria, engaging the German's 6th Army, and
the 6th Panzer Army defeated them near Vienna and is now approaching Fortress Berlin from the south and east.
Soon they will take total control of Eastern Europe- a stranglehold they will maintain for the next fifty years.
Millions of civilian refugees are fleeing toward the American lines only to be turned back. More than half a million German soldiers
have raised their hands in surrender so they won't have to face the Russians. In fact, so many German soldiers are surrendering
that the Allies are no longer accepting prisoners of war because it is impossible to house and feed so many. When the men of
the once-feared Eleventh Panzer Division attempt to quit the war, the Third US Army will accept them as prisoners only under
the condition that they bring their own food.

But the war isn't over yet. For the first time in recent memory, the Third US Army is not ordered to go on the defensive. In fact, the
opposite is true. General Patton has just been given an additional three armored divisions so he can spearhead the final American
attacks of the war in southern Germany.

As Patton sits down after a long afternoon going on his plans while entertaining a classmate of his, General Hughes, they are
approached by a waiter who hands Hughes a copy of The 'Stars and Stripes'. General Hughes starts to read the headlines
and starts to grin. Patton looks at him inquiring about what is amusing him. He hands the newspaper to Patton who then
looks at the paper's headlines and grins proudly. All those around him who have already read the news await
his response. He exclaims "Well, I be goddamned". President Harry Truman had just nominated him for the rank
of four-star general.


Four-Stars for the General, and the Liberation of Western Czechoslovakia

An important fact was that slots for a four-star general can be politically motivated. The Congress of 1944 had ratified the
military budget to that the main military leaders of the United States would be comparable to the ranks of the other Allied
countries. So, when it was announced that the allocations for five-star flag officers were approved and sent to the President
Franklin Roosevelt before he died; seniority was given to top military leaders like Admiral Leachy his special military advisor,
General Marshall, and Admiral King, respectively Chief of Staff of the Army, and Chief of Naval Operations.
Admiral Leachy and Admiral King were promoted to the five-star rank of Fleet Admirals; General Marshall, General Eisenhower
and then later on, a month later, General Hap Arnold, the Chief of Army Air Services was promoted to General of the Army.

However, two days later in the Philippines General MacArthur was also promoted to General of the Army. These special promotions
would lead to a plethora of promotions for the four-star rank of general. General Mark Clark, commander of the 5th Army, General
Omar Bradley, commander of the 12th Army Group; and against Eisenhower's preference, Devers was promoted to general on 8 March 1945, ahead of Spaatz, Bradley, and Patton, remaining the second-highest ranking American officer in Europe, after Eisenhower. Now, take in mind those four-star ranks that were available weren't given to everyone who was deserving; nor were
the allocations for those promotions free. There were still those in Congress who still wanted General Patton dismissed from the
military.
It seemed ever since the article printed by NBC correspondent Drew Pearson about the 'Slapping Incidents", and Patton's
own shenanigans that changed the perceptions of those who read about him, not wanting him to have more prestige.
Plus, many general officers at the division levels were not able to have any more than brigadier rank, if they were already.
There were still many brigadier generals in charge of divisions and major generals in charge of army corps; normally a three-star
rank is required at the army corps level, and then if the allocations are available the division commanders are assigned as a
major general. As of October of 1944, Third US Army consisted of two army corps, and nine divisions; all of them were major
generals. although Walton Walker would achieve three-star rank by the war's end and achieve prominence for a while during
the Korean Conflict as commander of 8th US Army.

Notwithstanding, many Army group leaders were three-star generals, hoping they get promoted to four-star rank before the war in Europe ended.

Though not proven, there may have been a cabal of upset officers who were promised much by the Supreme Allied Commander in ways of positions, and Army slots only to feel slotted that 'outsiders' like Patton, Patch, and Simpson were given consideration for four-star after Bradley, and Jacob Devers, but at the same time Lesley McNair, the Army Ground Forces Commander who was
a three-star general was snubbed, and would later retire at that same rank.

There was also a belief that senior military officials wanted Patton to be silenced. For the onset of Operation Cobra, and/or the
planned invasion of Normandy, Patton wasn't selected when the 7th Army was taken from him. He still could have been included in
the planning at some level. Eisenhower was pressed to contain him and later put Bradley in charge of the 1st Army as the commander
for the Normandy landings. Also, after leaving Patton behind to cause a diversion for the German defenders, then forming the 12th
Army Group and only including Patton because he (Eisenhower) selected him for command of the 3rd US Army. In the 1970's
movie "Patton" Patton was furious at not getting allocations for fuel for his tanks and trucks because the priority was for Montgomery.
Patton asked, "If you don't want me to command, why did you pick me?"
That was a statement that Patton really said.
It wasn't just General Patton who felt he had been screwed. When the Supreme Allied Commander wants to please the British military
leaders more so than their American counterparts, many commanders in the field felt that 'Ike' was acting more as an ally than an
American commander.

Bradley was far from happy to see Monty being given not only the main role but also a complete U.S. army. With two-thirds of the Allied Expeditionary Force now made up of American troops, he had wanted, not surprisingly, the main effort to be made by American troops under American command. Indeed, he envisaged all four U.S. armies driving into central Germany with the British, Canadian, and French armies being relegated to flank protection. He was bitterly disappointed when his plea fell on deaf ears.

Inevitably, Patton was furious when he was told that his Third U.S. Army was to adopt a posture of “aggressive defense,” while Monty’s 21st Army Group launched a major offensive. On February 4, he wrote to his wife, Beatrice, telling her that if she heard he was on the defensive, “It was not the enemy who put me there. I don’t see much future for me in this war. There are too many safety-first people running it.”
Patton was certainly not going to be defeated by the safety-first people, and he chose to view the order to adopt a posture of aggressive defense as meaning that he could “keep moving towards the Rhine with a low profile.” He told his staff that the Third Army was going to carry out an “armored reconnaissance,” but that it would be done with seven divisions and that the initial objectives were Prüm, Bitburg, and the vital city of Trier on the Mosel River. Furthermore, he told his commanders to make sure that their units were always fully committed so that they could not be removed from his command and placed in Eisenhower’s new theater reserve.

On February 10, Bradley telephoned Patton to tell him that Ike was transferring divisions from the 12th Army Group to General Bill Simpson’s Ninth U.S. Army. The latter was now, of course, part of Monty’s army group. Patton replied that as the oldest and most experienced serving general in the theater, he was damned if he would release any of his divisions or go onto the defensive, and that he would resign rather than comply with such orders. He had no intention of really resigning, but he withdrew his threat anyway when Bradley suggested that he owed too much to his troops to even consider it. Nevertheless, in early February Patton lost the 17th Airborne and 95th Infantry Divisions to Simpson and Monty.
The area in which the Third Army was operating during February 1945, the Eifel, is hilly, heavily forested, and bisected by three fast- flowing rivers, which at that time were swollen by the snow and rains of the worst winter in 38 years. Patton wrote later, “The crossing of … these rivers was a magnificent feat of arms.”
The campaign, carried out in appalling conditions, cost a total of 42,217 battle casualties and a staggering 20,790 nonbattle casualties, but it was eventually successful. By March 1, Patton’s troops had captured Prüm and Bitburg; Trier fell a day later. Ike’s headquarters had estimated that it would take four divisions to capture the former
Roman provincial capital of Trier, but Patton was able to send a message saying, “Have taken Trier with two divisions. Do you want me to give it back?”

In the meanwhile, the Russian forces presented a serious problem to the advancement of the American operation with their success and speed of their advance: unless they broke through to the North German plain within a few weeks, Stalin would almost certainly seize control of virtually the whole of Germany, including its Baltic and North Sea ports.

The Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Dwight D. Eisenhower, issued his outline plan for the first phase of the advance into Germany on the last day of 1944. It called first for the destruction of the German forces west of the Rhine, following which Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s 21st Army Group (British and Canadian) was to make the main drive to the North German Plain, north of the Ruhr, while General Omar Bradley’s 12th Army Group (American and French) made a complementary, but secondary, attack from the Mainz–Frankfurt area northeast to Kassel.
The overall objective of the plan was to effect “a massive double envelopment of the Ruhr to be followed by a great thrust to join up with the Russians.”
After studying it, Monty concluded that it did all he wanted: it put the weight in the north and put the Ninth American Army under his command. Even more amazingly, it gave him the power of decision in the event of disagreement with Bradley on the boundary between the 12th and 21st Army Groups.
Ike’s detailed plan for the Rhineland campaign, which was to precede the thrust into Germany proper, saw Monty’s 21st Army Group, with the Ninth U.S. Army under command, seizing the west bank of the Rhine from Nijmegen to Düsseldorf. During this phase, Bradley’s 12th Army Group was to maintain an aggressive defense. Then, while Monty prepared to cross the lower Rhine, Bradley was to secure the river from Düsseldorf to Köln, following which General George S. Patton’s Third Army would “take up the ball” and thrust eastward from Prüm to Koblenz. At the same time, the Third and Seventh U.S. Armies would be responsible for securing crossings over the Rhine between Mainz and Karlsruhe for the forces destined to carry out the thrust south of the Ruhr.

By this time in late 1945, Adolf Hitler’s armies were almost exhausted. With most of Poland in Soviet hands and the Ruhr in ruins
from Allied air attacks, the replenishment of fuel, ammunition, and weapon stocks had almost come to a halt, and coal and steel production had been reduced to a fifth of what it had been only six months earlier.
On the Eastern Front, the Soviet winter offensive had reached a line less than 100 miles from Berlin, and although in the West the Siegfried Line was still basically intact and the Rhine had yet to be crossed, it was clear that with American divisions arriving in Europe at the rate of one a week it was only a matter of time before the Third
Reich collapsed in chaos and disaster. Still, Hitler refused to consider surrender. He was delusional. He would gather his generals
and plot strategies for moving one combat group after another that didn't exist anymore to move in for re-enforcement for one
of his armies or to move in to defend Berlin. The generals would all look on in astonishment; Army Group H was up near the Nether-
lands, Army Group B was in western Germany south of Frankfurt; and Army Group G was south of Karlsruhe near the West Wall.
There was no other army other than the ones engaging the Russians to come and defend Berlin other than what was left in the city.


By 10 March, the Rhine had reached all sectors of Ninth Army's front. It was not until after 20 March that Ninth Army units first crossed the Rhine itself (Operation Flashpoint). However, after doing so, the Army quickly struck east around the north of the Ruhr. An enormous pocket soon formed containing the German Army Group B under Walter Model. By 4 April, the Ninth Army had reached the Weser and was switched back to the 12th Army Group.

The end was now clearly in sight, and as part of the Ninth Army, along with the newly arrived Fifteenth Army, reduced the enormous Ruhr Pocket, other elements reached the Elbe on 12 April. On 2 May 1945, the whole Ninth Army's front reached the agreed demarcation point with the Russians, and the advance ceased. Around 7 May 1945, the Ninth Army accepted around 100,000 prisoners from the German Twelfth Army under General Walther Wenck, and the German Ninth Army (Germany) under General Theodor Busse.

Third Army soldiers pile out of a half-track to search for a German sniper. As German resistance began to crumble, the American found themselves fighting lone snipers and children with antitank weapons.
On March 5, General Courtney Hodges’s First U.S. Army finally went on the offensive. Köln fell on the 6th, and to everyone’s amazement, by 4 pm on the 7th a bridge had been secured over the Rhine, roughly halfway between Köln and Koblenz—the Ludendorff railway bridge at Remagen. “We were quite happy over it, but just a little envious,” wrote Patton later.
American bravery and initiative had ensured that the bridge, although prepared for demolition, was secured intact. But the euphoria soon disappeared the following day when, sadly for Bradley, Eisenhower gave orders that to provide the necessary number of divisions to Simpson’s Ninth Army for Monty’s northern push, no more than four were to be committed at Remagen and that for the time being at least the bridgehead was to be held but not developed.
This, in fact, also made sense tactically since beyond the bridge for about 12 miles were heavily forested mountains crossed by poor roads, making further advance against any kind of determined resistance extremely difficult. Even so, by the 17th, when the bridge finally collapsed, there were six American divisions in a bridgehead 10 miles deep and 30 miles wide.

Liberation of western Czechoslovakia during World War II:

Although Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower originally ordered Patton's troops to move to the mountainous region between Austria and Bavaria, they were able to advance to Czechoslovakia. Eisenhower and his Soviet counterpart, General Aleksei I. Antonov, agreed to stop the US forces on a line that included the Czech cities of Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), Plzeň, and České Budějovice.

Here are some events that took place during Patton's Third Army's liberation of Czechoslovakia:
May 4, 1945
The 2nd Infantry Division crossed into Czechoslovakia, which had been under Nazi rule since 1939.
May 6, 1945
Tanks from the 16th Armored Division entered Pilsen and liberated the city by the afternoon.
Konstantantinovy Lazne.

Allied Forces Race Toward The Finish Line


Patton's Third Army set up command posts for several divisions in this spa town in the western Czech Republic. The town was also a major handling point for 50,000 German prisoners of war.
The city of Pilsen honored Patton with a foundation stone and statue during the 60th-anniversary commemoration of the liberation. When the builder, Jaroslav Bocker, was revealed to have collaborated with Communist secret police during the Cold War, the city canceled the statue. The town of Dysina, a few miles from Pilsen, instead accepted the statue and unveiled it in front of the General George S. Patton Primary School on May 7, 2005. The statue symbolizes freedom of speech, thought, and opinion
At the beginning of May 1945 fighting was still going on in Prague. The Czech lands were one of the last places in Europe where people were dying even after the official end of hostilities between the German Army and the Allies on May 8. There was a last-minute uprising in the Czech capital and the US 3rd Army was only some 80 kilometers (or about 50 miles) away, near the western city of Plzeň.
“Soon it was clear that the Alpine Fortress was just one big myth and the US troops could quite easily advance to Czechoslovakia. Eisenhower, urged by Churchill, sent another dispatch to General Antonov.

“Unfortunately, he decided to ASK about the possibility of Americans pushing forward to the logical line given by the rivers the Vltava and the Elbe, instead of simply ANNOUNCING that that was going to happen.

“General Antonov replied the next day, May 5, by protesting that the Prague Operation of the Red Army has already started, the US and Soviet armies could accidentally clash with resulting friendly fire, etc.

“However, we now know that he was misleading Eisenhower. Soviet troops were at that time only beginning to take up positions on the move towards Prague around Dresden. In fact, the operation did not start until May 7.”

Meanwhile, the Czechoslovak resistance started a last-minute uprising in the still occupied Prague. They called for help via the airwaves of Czechoslovak Radio in Prague. And the Americans were hesitant, says Vít Smetana.

“Even as late as on May 7 there was a possibility that the Americans could send an armored task force to help the insurgents in Prague.

“But then it was decided that a mission would be sent under the command of Colonel Pratt to the German military headquarters of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia that was located in Eastern Bohemia.

“The main purpose of the mission was to inform the Germans that an armistice had been signed and that all military activity on the part of German troops should cease.

“Twelve vehicles went from Plzeň to Prague and then to Velichovka spa near Hradec Králové. On the night from May 7 to 8 they arrived in Prague and were welcomed as liberators.

“However, this was only a negotiating unit with a single purpose: to make sure that the Germans were aware of the unconditional surrender of the German high command and that there was no need to go on fighting.”

There was at least one other US military mission to Prague, says Igor Lukeš, a professor of history at Boston University:

“The commander of the Czech section of the American intelligence organization OSS ordered two of his men to take a Jeep and drive to Karlovy Vary.

“Lieutenant Eugene Fodor and his deputy, Sergeant Kurt Taub, had orders to go there, find out what was going on in the city and return to Pilsen.

“They accomplished this part of their mission easily, finding out that the city was full of German refugees and soldiers whose only wish was to become American POWs and get away from the Red Army.”


The Raid on Hammelburg
Task Force Baum, also known as the Hammelburg raid was a secret and controversial World War II task force set up by U.S. Army General George S. Patton and commanded by Capt. Abraham Baum in late March 1945. Baum was given the task of penetrating 50 miles (80 km) behind German lines and liberating the POWs in camp Oflag XIII-B, near Hammelburg. Controversy surrounds the true reasons behind the mission, which most likely was to liberate Patton's son-in-law, John K. Waters, taken captive in Tunisia in 1943.

Task force organization
The 4th Armored Division came under 3rd U.S. Army, assigned to the XII Corps under the command of Major General Hugh Gaffey

Company A, 10th Armored Infantry Battalion (Capt. Robert F. Lange) – 4 officers and 169 men mounted in 15 M3A1 half-tracks
Company C, 37th Tank Battalion (1st Lt. William J. Nutto) – 3 officers and 56 men mounted in 10 M4A3, M4A3E2, and M4A1 medium tanks, and 4 support vehicles
3rd Platoon, Company D, 37th Tank Battalion (2nd Lt. William G. Weaver, Jr.) – 1 officer and 18 men mounted in 5 M5A1 light tanks
Command & Support Element, 10th Armored Infantry Battalion – 3 officers and 60 men mounted in one light tank, 12 half-tracks, and 10 other vehicles
Altogether the force numbered 11 officers and 303 men, 16 tanks, 28 half-tracks, and 13 other vehicles.

On March 23, after gaining his first bridgeheads over the Rhine, Patton wrote to his wife, “I am scared by my good luck. This operation is stupendous.” But alas, his luck was about to run out, at least temporarily, in what became known as the Hammelburg raid.
Patton’s son-in-law, Lt. Col. John Waters, had been captured a;in North Africa in February 1943. It seems that Patton learned on or shortly before March 23 that Waters was being held in a German prison camp, Oflag XIIIB, three miles south of Hammelburg and some 60 miles east of Frankfurt. How he found out remains a mystery. The camp held some 1,230 Americans and about 3,000 Serbian officers, former members of the Royal Yugoslav Army. This would turn out to be another of Patton's biggest blunders. What made this blunder more personal was that Patton's son-inlaw Col. John Waters who was captured and incarerated
in Hammelburg, would later be released asked "How did you know where I was?" And also, because he considered the rescue a horrible waste of American lives. Thiry-two Americans had been killed.
and almost three hundred more wounded or taken prisoner. In addition, sixteen tanks, twenty-eight halftracks, twelve jeeps, and a medical vehicle was destroyed.
The way it started was shortly after the Rhine crossing Patton received word that a German town of Hammelburg held three hundred U.S. soldiers-many of them officers. Its location was
sixty long miles from Patton' army. Once his staff was assembled, Patton went over his plans for the rescue; he didn't seek, nor did he ask for permission from higher command (12th Army Group)
to proceed. Instead he went ahead on or around 26 March 1945 to take a task force into Oflag XIIIB, as the camp was known. The staff determined they needed at least thirty-five hundred men
to liberate the POW camp, rather than sending a mere three hundred.
One of the officers, Lt. Col. Abe Abrams, who Patton held in high esteem and a officer who would eventually rise to four-star rank during the Vietnam War; and eventually chief of staff
of the U.S. Army thought the mission so foolish that he turned it down. When another officer turned down command of the mission, it was given to Capt. Abraham J. Baum, the twice-wounded
twenty-year old son of a Brooklyn blouse maker. However, Baum and his rescue force were already exhausted from the Rhine crossing.
The POW camp was known as Hammelburg, located just 1.8 miles (3 km) south from its namesake town, was originally used as a military training ground before World War I and again before World War II. It was converted into two separate POW camps during the second war; Stalag XIII-C for Allied enlisted men and Oflag XIII-B for Allied officers. By the time the men from Schubin arrived at Oflag XIII-B, the numbers in the officer camp swelled to over 1,400, though it was by far less than the estimated 5,000-man population in the enlisted men's camp by that time.

Conditions at the camp were miserable for both the prisoners and their guards. The winter of 1944 was considered one of the coldest on record. The seven 5-room buildings each were crowded with two hundred men. One small room was to house 40 prisoners on bunk beds, while coal was rationed out to heat the furnaces at a rate of just 48 briquettes per stove every 3 days. Although some men were able to scavenge for wood nearby, it still was not enough to keep the soldiers warm. The average temperature in the rooms at any time was estimated to be 20 °F (−7 °C).

Food was just as scarce as heat. Initially, the men in camps were given a diet of 1,700 calories (7,100 kJ) a day, well below the 2,000 calories recommended daily allowance for men doing no work. This was cut even more as supplies ran low and the camp population increased, until an estimated 1,070 calories (4,480 kJ) were distributed daily. Many men in the camp suffered dramatic weight loss of more than 50 pounds (23 kilograms) and atrophy of muscles because of the lack of food and subsequent immobility. Dysentery due to unsterile conditions and utensils further weakened many men in the camp.
General Patton assigned the mission to Combat Command B (CCB), 4th Armored Division, commanded by Lt. Col. Creighton Abrams. Abrams wanted to use his entire combat command (two battalions and supporting artillery) but was overruled, and instead one company of medium tanks, a platoon of light tanks and one company of armored infantry were assigned to the task force. The tank battalion commander tabbed to command the mission was ill and suggested that Baum, the battalion S-3, instead lead the task force, which set out on late evening of 26 March.

On the evening of 26 March, the task force reached Aschaffenburg, and ecountered heavy fire that disabled several vehicles, including one of the Sherman tanks. It took until early the next morning to break through the bridgehead just past the German lines. The largest problem facing the force going into the mission was a lack of maps—15 for 57 vehicles—and lack of knowledge of the exact location of the camp, which would have to be obtained through questioning of the locals en route. This slowed the task force considerably, forcing it to take on more fire than anticipated.

Nearing Höllrich in the black of night, Task Force Baum encountered a German ambush laid by veteran soldiers of the German Infantry Combat School in Hammelburg (nearly 100 NCOs in officer training). The first tank was hit by a German panzerfaust, abandoned, and captured. Then, a German drove this tank into a garden and a second answered the radio calls in English to lure more tanks into the ambush. The Germans used their Sherman prize with good effect against the other U.S. tanks. Four American Sherman tanks were destroyed.

Baum gave the order to move out shortly after dawn on 28 March. Just as the column started up, they immediately came under fire from all directions. Germans, having surrounded the hill during the night, opened fire on the first sign of mobilization. Knowing there was no way of fending off the attack, Baum ordered every man for himself. The battle lasted mere minutes before the survivors who hadn't escaped into the woods were lined up as fresh POWs. Baum managed to escape with two soldiers into the nearby woods, as did a number of American POWs from the camp. Baum was Jewish and discarded his dog tags, believing he would be shot on sight if identified. And due to the fact that half of Baum's forces made it to Hammelburg in fighting shape, with less vehicles than they started out with Baum quickly realized the camp contained far more than the 300 officers they were originally planning to liberate. They were in a tough situation. The first tank was hit by a German panzerfaust, abandoned, and captured. Then, a German drove this tank into a garden and a second answered the radio calls in English to lure more tanks into the ambush. The Germans used their Sherman prize with good effect against the other U.S. tanks. Four American Sherman tanks were destroyed

The remnants of the task force regrouped again after pulling back to a quiet area near Hill 427 in the early morning hours. Without enough fuel to make it back across the line, the task force waited for daylight to travel with visibility to maximize the distance they could travel. Colonel Goode, knowing most of the men would be unable to travel across the line on their own, advised that most of the walking wounded should head back to the Oflag. Baum gave the order to move out shortly after dawn on 28 March. Just as the column started up, they immediately came under fire from all directions. Germans, having surrounded the hill during the night, opened fire on the first sign of mobilization. Knowing there was no way of fending off the attack, Baum ordered every man for himself. The battle lasted mere minutes before the survivors who hadn't escaped into the woods were lined up as fresh POWs. Baum managed to escape with two soldiers into the nearby woods, as did a number of American POWs from the camp. Baum was Jewish and discarded his dog tags, believing he would be shot on sight if identified.

One of the units sent were elements of Headquarters Company's Reconnaissance Platoons were also assigned to the Task Force. The platoon leader, Ist Lieutenant Norman Hoffner, went along with three of his squads. The reconnaissance squad had a Jeep with a .30 cal. machine gun. Some of the Jeeps were also fitted with steel plates as protection against small arms fire. The squad consisted of three soldiers who were under the command of a Corporal or Sergeant. Lieutenant Hoffner had been a squad leader in this platoon before he received a battlefield commission. Another member of the platoon was Private Irvin Solotoff, whose mother language was German. He was assigned to Captain Baum as an interpreter and did not want to go on this mission. "It was planned that the 4th Armored Division should have a rest, then we received orders for this mission. We had been in continuous combat for three months and some of my comrades were angry about the new orders.

While driving the lead vehicle, at the edge of Hoellrich, Lieutenant Nutto´s driver immediately stopped the tank after it crashed into a German road block, which was set up between two houses.
Suddenly he heard a dull "FUMMP" and could see the Panzerfaust projectile flying towards his tank. The projectile hit the turret a foot below the top of the roof. The driver, who looked out his hatch was killed immediately. The explosion was not very loud. Lieutenant Nutto was pushed out of the commanders cupola by the gunner and landed on the road. He felt like to be kicked by a mule. He was wounded and had a shock. At least one other crew member was killed too, because he landed beside a motionless body. A little while German soldiers came closer to the tank. One German Officer cadets clambered into the drivers compartment, started the tank and drove in from the road into an orchard near route 27. A German officer asked him, if he is a Negro - Nutto´s face was black all over. Later he was brought in a stable to receive medical care.

The German unit in the area was The 272nd Volksgrenadier Division, commanded by Generalmajor (Brigadier General) Eugen König, a very decorated general of Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany.
This particular unit, the Volksgrenadier divisions had lower manpower at 10,000 men vs. the older division structure of 16,000 men and the reliance on large numbers defensive weapons including the new Sturmgewehr 44 ("assault rifle model 1944"), a radical departure from the bolt action Mauser model 98 rifle.
Even without this imposing weapon the German forces in the area outnumbered the American task force. German scouts observed the the "enemy task force" coming from Hessdorf, about three hours ago and assembled around the Reussenberg Farm. The siting was received by the superior officer, Colonel Hoppe who contacted Captain Rose at the Reussenburg OP to organize an attack.
They were able to estimated the strength of the American force to be about 6 tanks, and 25 halftracks.
With this situation report, Major Eggemann decided to make a frontal attack at once. He ordered Lientenant Demmel to deploy a raiding patrol, to attack along the road from the Northern Camp towards the Reussenberg. The raiding patrol had to prevent enemy outbreak towards Camp Hammelburg. Further Lieutenant Demmel had to deploy to strong anti-tank squads at the northern road intersections. The mission was to attack from the north in case the main attack would fail. Lieutenant Demmel had to lead two strong companies as reserve near the command post of Colonel Hoppe. Major Eggemann and Captain Köhl accompanied by Lieutenant Hülsken, Commpany Commander of the Tank Destroyer Company, moved after the briefing to the east side of the Michelsberg, north of Bonnland. Both Tank Destroyer Officers were briefed as to the enemy situation. Major Eggemann reconnoitered with them the best positions for the tank destroyers. Major Eggemann´s attack plan was to assemble the tank destroyers on the east side of the Michelsberg. Further he wanted a barrage from all weapons on the enemy position. After the barrage, the tank destroyers were to advance with accompanying infantry. They had to intercept all attempts of the Americans to break out. After the break in, they had to take the Americans as prisoners.
After engaging the American forces, the Germans seemingly broke off the attack; the were sizing up the strengths and weakness, and to make
sure that was the only attack group. They only had to move out in ambush positions and await the Americans to return.
It was late in the afternoon when the American tanks had arrived in sight of the camp. Some of the guards in the camp put up resistance, though many of them fled or surrendered. The Serbian section of the camp received the brunt of American fire as it approached—likely due to the gray uniforms they wore, making them appear as Germans to the advancing columns. General Gunther von Goeckel, the camp commandant, called for Colonel John K. Waters to try to arrange a truce. Waters agreed to act as intermediary. Waters and several men, including one German officer, volunteered to exit the camp to notify the Americans of the mistake. While approaching the American column, an uninformed German soldier putting up resistance shot Waters in the buttocks before the German officer could explain the situation. He was taken back and treated for his wounds by Serbian doctors interned in the camp.
The task force left the camp at 8 pm local time to cross back across the German lines. By then, further complications had surfaced. There was no moon out that night, so only artificial light could be used for navigation, which could be spotted easily by the growing number of German troops in the area. Only one reconnaissance jeep was able to scout ahead of the column to find an escape route. Sometimes the tanks had to be turned off entirely to avoid detection by a growing German encirclement. The battle could be described as total chaos; Tank against tank, hand-to-hand combat, tanks burning. . . . Feldwebel Brockmann shot at a Sherman with a Panzerfaust, but the warhead fell off in mid-air, rendering it useless. He was immediately killed by the tank . . . loud noise of duels between men armed with Panzerfausts and tanks . . . burning and exploding tanks, men falling everywhere. . . . My people shot up a Sherman, which started to burn. One of the crewmembers tumbled out and staggered beside his burning tank. I screamed don’t shoot! He is defenseless! Then I ordered someone to bring him to safety before the tank explodes.
Baum was shot in the groin while trying to flee back to allied lines and captured by the Volkssturm. He joined Waters in the Serbian hospital at the Hammelburg camp, which was liberated by the 14th Armored Division on 6 April — just 9 days after the failed liberation by Task Force Baum. Ironically, the failure of the task force did help set Waters free sooner: had he not been shot he would have been marched off to a camp farther into Germany with the rest of the POWs. Patton was alleged to have offered Baum a Medal of Honor for a successful completion of the mission. As a Medal of Honor warrants an investigation into the events behind the awarding of it, which Patton would not have wanted, Baum received a Distinguished Service Cross. Patton awarded it to him personally.
Quite how the TF was meant to carry back some 1,200 released American prisoners remains a mystery—the total seating capacity of the vehicles was well under 500. Be that as it may, the basic plan was relatively simple. CCB would cross the Main River and make a hole in the German defenses, following which TF Baum would drive flat out for the camp. It was hoped that the raiding party would be safely back behind U.S. lines in less than 24 hours.
A furious General Eisenhower reprimanded Patton for the incident. While Patton admitted the failure of the mission, he defended his actions due to fear that retreating Germans might kill the prisoners in the camp. The Malmedy massacre during the Battle of the Bulge and the Stalag Luft III murders showed that the Germans were more than capable of the intentional killing of POWs. According to Patton, the mistake was sending a force too small to perform the mission, saying, "I can say this, that throughout the campaign in Europe I know of no error I made except that of failing to send a combat command to take Hammelburg".
Love him or hate him, Patton cuts a singular figure in military history, and left a long, complicated legacy for historians, soldiers, and history buffs to consider. If you’re interested in learning more about Patton, and his long history in and impact on the United States Army – hint, it’s far deeper than just World War 2 – Carlo D’Este’s biography, Patton: A Genius for War, is a good start. D’Este begins with Patton’s early life and family and moves through his decades at a pace that makes this long book seem far shorter. To tell a story of a man whose ambition was matched by his audacity and creativity and drive, this clearly a picture of a compelling, complicated man.
When Patton held a press conference on VE Day, during which he forcibly expressed his views on the Soviets. He pointed to a map of Central Europe and said, “What the tin-soldier politicians in Washington and Paris have managed to do today is … to kick hell out of one bastard and at the same time forced us to help establish a second one as evil or more evil than the first … This day we have missed another date with our destiny, and this time we’ll need Almighty God’s constant help if we’re to live in the same world with Stalin and his murdering cutthroats.”
Later that day in a farewell meeting with Cornelius Ryan and another correspondent, he confirmed his views on this subject. “You cannot lay [sic] down with a diseased jackal. Neither can you do business with the Russians … I just couldn’t stand being around and taking any lip from those SOBs.”
General George S. Patton took no great pleasure in the events of VE Day. He already knew that despite his lobbying of many influential figures in Washington, he had no hope of being assigned to the Pacific Theater. As he put it to his III Corps commander, Maj. Gen. James Van Fleet, “There is already a star [MacArthur] in that theater and you can only have one star in a show.”

Patton was also depressed because he knew there would be a rapid reduction in the strength of the U.S. Army in Europe, and he believed this was inviting disaster. On May 7, he had pleaded with the visiting Under Secretary of War, Robert Patterson, “Let’s keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened and present a picture of force and strength to these people [the Soviets]. This is the only language they understand and respect. If you fail to do this, then I would like to say to you that we have had a victory over the Germans and have disarmed them, but have lost the war.”

When Patterson told him that he did not understand the “big picture,” but asked Patton what he would do about the Russians, he allegedly replied that he would keep the U.S. Army in Europe intact, delineate the border with the Soviets, and if they did not withdraw behind it “push them back across it …We did not come over here to acquire jurisdiction over either the people or their countries. We came to give them back the right to govern themselves. We must either finish the job now—while we are here and ready—or later in less favorable circumstances.”

Needless to say, such ideas were totally unacceptable to the politicians in Washington—and indeed to most of the American soldiers in Europe. All they wanted to do was to go home.
In December 1945, less than a year after the defeat of the Nazis, Patton was killed in an automobile accident in Germany.

Acknowledgement
I like to thank everyone that encouraged me to write, and this is my second book. Look for a forthcoming third book in the near future. I want to mention Karen Traviss, Dan Browne, and Troy Denning;
some of my favorite authors. Also, I like to mention some of my peers and leaders, SFC Terry Cornwell; as well as Timothy Charles, Sonny Wright, and Michael Lane; all of whom were in the thick of things while I stationed at a police station in Anbar Province near Blue Diamond. There are so many stories that took place, I couldn't include them all. Thanks to SFC Refugio Reyes for showing me the ropes; and my friend Stephen Robinson who told me I should write a book. My manager, and co-workers at Mojave Arts and Gifts; and all my family members, my step-son Rashawn, and niece Danielle, and my beautiful wife, Renee. They had to endure my deployments, and my suffering from PTSD, and traumatic brain injury I endured over there. I hope you find this story interesting.