Speed & Daring

The Germans, preoccupied with the Montgomery-Simpson threat in the north (see above}, let part of Lieut. General George S. Patton's dashing Third Army out of sight for a night along the Rhine last week. Using no chemical smoke, but combining the elements of speed and daring, the Third quietly jumped the barrier near Worms that night. It did not lose a man, did not draw a shot until the crossing had been made solid.

A less harried German command would have known better. In less than a fortnight Patton's Third and Lieut. General Alexander M. Patch's Seventh Army had cut to ribbons two good German armies in the Saar-Palatinate cleanup, and had taken 100,000 prisoners the Wehrmacht could not afford to lose. Now Patton posed an even more serious threat to the weakening foe. He was in position to strike into the Main River valley, to try to split northern and southern Germany, thus perhaps prevent the expected Nazi move to hole up in the Bavarian and Austrian Alps.

Patton lost no time in seizing his opportunity. The day after his crossing he struck boldly, dashed nearly 30 miles through and around Darmstadt, entered Frankfurt, the Reich's ninth city. More important, the Third seized a Main bridge south of Frankfurt, put another force along the river opposite Hanau, ten miles east of Frankfurt. If Patton were to be held back, the Germans would have to match his speed -- and they never had.

Horse v. Engine. The Third was also within a dozen miles of joining up with the right wing of Lieut. General Courtney H. Hodges' First, whose main forces had broken out in a swift armored drive aimed at the central German plain.

Patch's Seventh, without help of aircraft or artillery, hurdled the Rhine (the Germans reported that Yanks were in Karlsruhe). The French First Army was getting set to follow (Paris reported that it already had). There were no Germans left on the west side for the French and Patch's men to clean out. One reason was evident on a three-mile stretch of road in Patch's conquered area. There, mangled to shreds, was an enemy supply train of 400 vehicles. In the wreckage lay the carcasses of hundreds of horses, the bodies of scores of Germans who had ridden the wagons in a fatal race against U.S. tanks and trucks. In that incident the Germans' plight was starkly clear: they could not fight long without enough fuel for enough tanks, enough trucks, enough airplanes. The Allies had enough of everything.

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