To the Rhine?
For three months -- by counterattacks, by desperate delaying actions and by man-made floods -- the Germans had prevented General Eisenhower's armies from crossing the Roer River. Every once in a while, on clear days during those months, U.S. soldiers on the Roer's west bank could see the towers and chimneys of Cologne.
The great offensive across the Roer, scheduled for Feb. 10, had been postponed when the Germans loosed a flood from the dams in the Roer headwaters. Last week the river was falling, but it was still swift and turbulent and several feet above the normal level. At Dueren it was 50 to 60 yards wide, and the current was running at six to seven miles an hour.
Every day Lieut. General Courtney Hodges' First Army recovered further from its winter setback in the Ardennes.
Lieut. General William Simpson's Ninth Army was so fresh and fit that it was almost going stale. Its front was jam-packed with men and supplies. Every day the Germans were strengthening the maze of defenses between the Roer and the Rhine. The Russians were waiting. Eisen hower could not wait any longer.
By Boat & Bridge. At 2:45 a.m. the earth leaped to the thunder of thousands of guns. There were 240-mm monsters, Long Toms. 1055, 755. The guns of tanks and tank destroyers, flak artillery and captured German rockets joined the barrage. A quarter-million shells fell on the German positions. But some Germans lived to answer with mortars and artillery zeroed in on the river crossings.
At 3:30 the barrage lifted; the troops started across the dark, swirling water in rubber and wooden assault boats, ducks, alligators, amphibious tanks. Some boats were smashed by enemy fire, others by plastic mines floated downstream by the Germans, and still others were wrecked by iron spikes and barbed wire set under water. But many boats got safely across.
Some soldiers crossed on foot bridges. The night before, engineer patrols had sneaked steel cables across the river, and these had remained slack, submerged and undetected during the day. Now they were pulled taut, out of the water, and swaying foot bridges were strung across in a matter of minutes.
The Planes Came. With daylight came U.S. planes -- 1,300 in direct support, others chopping at Nazi rear communications. Juelich fell to the Ninth Army -- all but a 16th-Century citadel surrounded by a moat 20 feet deep and a wall 14 feet thick and 45 feet high. Next day the Ninth's 29th Division assaulted the cita del with 755 and flamethrowers. When the Yanks finally got in, they found a few German dead. The other defenders had run out, during the night, through a tunnel that led to the woods.
Dueren was tougher. The Germans bat tled the First Army from buildings, tow ers, tunnels, vaults. They fought viciously until their plight was hopeless, then sur rendered mildly. They were found hiding in brick kilns and under beds. One group, chased out of an electric plant, ran to an apartment house next door and resumed the battle there. Four Germans were captured in a pillbox on the sixth floor of a paper mill.
Feeble Defense. On the third day, Dueren (peacetime pop. 37,000) was in Yank hands. It was the second largest German town to fall in the west. * By then, vehicular bridges spanned the Roer, and supplies, guns, armor and troop reinforcements were flowing steadily across. The Ninth captured Steinstrass, 18 miles from Cologne, which had been a refitting center for German armor. The 84th and 102nd Infantry Divisions captured some enemy 88s with ammunition intact. In a night attack on Merzenich, the First Army took prisoners in their sleeping clothes.
The Nazi defense seemed feeble. Not until 19 hours after the first U.S. crossings did the Germans counterattack anywhere. Then they put on six attacks against the Ninth, of which the heaviest--a thrust by 30 or 40 tanks supported by self-propelled guns--was beaten off at Boslar. The German prisoners were a mixture: good soldiers in their 205, boys of 15 and 16, railroad battalions, Volksstuermer, air force ground personnel. On the whole, they were far from first-rate troops.
In two days, the Yanks took 4,000 prisoners. On the fourth day, they were within 10 1/2 miles of Cologne and had it under artillery fire. The rate of advance was much better than in last November's offensive on this sector, and U.S. casualties were pronounced lighter than expected.
Rundstedt's Move. In the south, General Patton's Third Army was hurling savage diversionary attacks between Bitburg and Prum, and against Trier in the Moselle Valley. General Patch's Seventh Army was attacking Forbach and Saarbruecken. In the north, General Crerar's First Canadian Army had taken Goch, and was throwing in an armored attack behind a five-hour artillery barrage. Between Crerar and Simpson, the British Second Army was waiting to jump off. Field Marshal von Rundstedt could hardly afford to weaken any of these sectors to strengthen the Cologne plain.
He might try for a stand on the little Erft River, which is less of an obstacle than the Roer, but which splits into several troublesome branches in front of Cologne (see map). He had shown how he could fight with substandard troops on river lines, in woods, and in his fearful maze of Rhineland fortifications--and what he had shown was very good. But there comes a point at which skill and tricks are swamped by power.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.