I recently discovered a third cousin once removed in my Jennings line served in the 5th Infantry Division during World War II as did my father-in-law, Peter Charles Dagutis. Sadly, my cousin Haskins Thomas Farrar, died near Metz. So I asked my brother, amateur World War II historian, to write a post about the battle for Metz, providing context for my father-in-law's wartime experience and the death of my cousin.
Over to John.....
As Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Western Euorpe General Dwight D. Eisenhower's mission was to "undertake operations aimed at the
heart of Germany and the destruction of her armed forces.” He intended to approach Germany along a broad
front, taking advantage of all of the historic invasion routes between France
and Germany. One of those invasion
routes was the swath of open terrain between the Ardennes and Vosges
Mountains. Situated along the northern
edge of the invasion route the city of Metz had been a kind of gatekeeper since
ancient times and was unsurprisingly one of the most heavily fortified cities
in Europe. In all its long history Metz
had never fallen to direct assault. Its
fortifications included a line of eleven forts constructed by the French prior
to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 that lay in a ring approximately 2½ miles
outside the city. The German defenders
of World War II used this “inner ring” as infantry strongpoints. An outer ring of eight, more modern
forts—built by the Germans before the First World War—formed a line some six
miles from the city. Among the
fortications was the impressive Fort Driant, which housed five 150mm guns and
was protected by a deep, dry moat and covered by infantry trenches, machine gun
nests and barbed wire fences. The guns
of the fort commanded a large sector of the Moselle Valley.
Eisenhower entrusted the advance past Metz and into Germany
to Lieutenant-General George S. Patton, Jr.’s US Third Army. The difficulty of Patton’s mission was
three-fold: his army had to cross the
Upper Moselle River, reduce or bypass the forts and finally capture the city of
Metz. The American effort to take Metz began
on 6 September, 1944 with the unconventional tactic of using 7th
Armored Division as a kind of reconnaissance-in-force to probe for crossing
sites over the Moselle both north and south of Metz. They reached the Moselle the next day and
were soon followed by two infantry divisions, the 90th being
directed toward Thionville north of Metz and the 5th toward Metz
itself. Despite turning back a German
counter-attack the Americans could not get across the Moselle in the Thionville
sector due to deadly shellfire from several German forts. Closer to Metz 5th Infantry
Division, along with elements of 7th Armored Division, managed to
establish a bridgehead at Dornot, but the guns of Forts Driant and Blaise
prevented the building of a bridge so the crossing had to be abandoned. Another bridgehead was achieved on 6
September farther north at Amanvillers and a bridge was successfully erected
that night. A breakout was not to be,
however; gunfire from Fort Driant destroyed both the treadway and pontoon
bridges and determined resistance from German panzers denied all attempts by
American armored units to breakout of the bridgehead. Although Patton felt the German reserves were
thin and a breakthrough imminent if he could just keep the pressure on, by
mid-September it was obvious a set piece battle would be required to defeat the
defenses of Metz.
Another
major effort against Metz would have to wait until supplies could be
stockpiled. In the meantime, Patton
initiated what he called a “pecking campaign” to reduce several forts southwest
of Metz, particularly the troublesome Fort Driant, whose guns had been so
effective in turning back the attempt to cross the Upper Moselle in early
September. Taking the fort would unlock
an avenue directly into Metz via the valley of the Moselle. The task of taking Fort Driant fell to 5th
Infantry Division, which launched its attack on 3 October behind one of the
most concentrated artillery bombardments of the war. For all of its intensity the shelling proved
ineffective, for nearby German forts returned the fire, catching American
infantry in their assembly areas.
Although the Americans reached the fort and gained entry the following
day via a ventilator shaft, the fort’s defenders fought back skillfully in
savage subterranean gun duels. The
underground battle raged for several days but the Americans failed to breach
any of the fortified casemates. By
sweeping the exterior of the fort with artillery and machine gun fire the
Germans denied American reinforcements from entering the battle and eventually gained
the upper hand. Patton finally decided
the fort could not be defeated and called off the operation; the last American
troops withdrew the night of 12-13 October.
The final battle for Metz began on 8 November. Patton prepared an envelopment of Metz by
concentric attacks from north and south.
90th Infantry Division crossed the Moselle just north of
Thionville. The combination of German
artillery and rising flood waters frustrated all attempts to erect bridges
until the second night, but the defending Germans could not take advantage of
the precarious American situation because they were not expecting an attack so
soon after the torrential downpours of the previous few days. By the time panzers were able to mount a
counter-attack the Americans were secure enough in their bridgehead to turn the
enemy tanks back just short of the bridge.
After Forts Koenigsmacker and Metrich had been reduced 10th
Armored Division was committed as the northern encircling pincer and from 15
November they began picking their way carefully over muddy roads to the
southeast toward the Nied river.
Meanwhile, 5th Infantry Division had crossed the Seille
southwest of Metz and skirted round the city to cut its eastern
approaches. They met troops from 90th
Infantry Division at Pont Marais on 19 November to encircle Metz.
Despite
Hitler’s decree to hold Metz until the last, the Germans withdrew most of their
forces out of the closing jaws of Patton’s pincers, leaving only a volksgrenadier division to garrison Metz. 95th Infantry Division closed on
Metz proper from Maizieres-les-Metz while 5th Infantry Division
invested the city from the southeast.
American troops entered the city on 11/18/44 after Nazi officials and
many German civilians had been evacuated.
Firefights erupted throughout the city as the American infantry rooted
out the last pockets of German resistance.
The garrison commander gave himself up on 21 November, thus ending the struggle for the city proper.
The outlying forts, which had been contained but not assaulted, were
gradually smoked out over the next several weeks; Fort Jeanne d’Arc was the
last to capitulate on 13 December.
Some
historians have made much of the fact that Patton was perhaps too keen to
capture Metz, that the lure of going down in history as the city’s first captor
led him to direct too much attention upon the city. Was it even necessary to capture Metz or
could Patton have ensured the security of his northern flank by merely masking the city? Patton believed it was necessary, thinking it
unwise to leave the dangerous enemy concentration around Metz on his flank
while transiting the invasion route into Germany. An interesting opinion was offered by the
Germans themselves in their post-war appreciation of the campaign in
Europe. Although they respected Patton
as the Allies’ most aggressive general, they criticize his handling of the
Lorraine campaign, particularly noting the failure of American forces to
concentrate at a single point. Patton
directed his two corps toward separate objectives (Metz and Nancy), preventing
them from gaining overwhelming superiority at any one sector. Had Patton concentrated his corps for a
single thrust at either Metz or Nancy, the Germans believed he would have
easily broken through. The fact that
Patton did not concentrate everything on Metz (when his enemy expected him to)
would tend to discount the theory the city held a kind of vainglorious
attraction for him. Those that fell in
the long, bloody battle for Metz gave their lives for a legitimate and
necessary military objective, one of many such objectives on the road to
ridding the world of Hitler’s evil regime.
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For other World War II guest posts written by my brother, visit War Stories.
