During that period between World War I and World War II, when Germany was no longer in control of the Alsace and Lorraine regions and the French controlled the fortifications within the Maginot Line, the Germans constructed another defensive belt of fortifications east of the Saar River on German soil, which became known as the Siegfried line.
The French were firmly in control of the Maginot Line at the outset of World War II in 1939. Unfortunately for the French, the Germans bypassed the fixed fortifications of the Maginot Line and invaded France through Belgium. The original fortifications, completed before 1870, consisted of an inner ring of fifteen forts and an outer perimeter of twenty-eight steel and concrete bastions built by the Germans in 1912. In 1941, the Germans improved and modernized the installations.
The Third Army had attempted to take Metz by frontal assault in September but was unsuccessful. Metz could not be captured by a normal assault; Patton’s ultimate plan of attack, encirclement, could not be immediately implemented due to lack of supplies. Consequently, Patton’s Third Army was stopped at Metz from mid-September through the beginning of November.
During this halt, the 712th was engaged in indirect firing on the various fortifications situated in the countryside surrounding Metz. There were no smart bombs or laser guided bombs in World War II, but Dad seemed to have acquired a certain degree of accuracy and proficiency in hitting targets. Dad told me about one incident when the 75-mm gun on his tank was being used for artillery fire.
We couldn’t go any further. We were out of gas and short on ammunition anyway.
We were doing indirect firing into Metz. The forward (infantry artillery) spotter told me the settings for firing. I set my gun, and he told me what coordinates to set it. After the first shot he radioed back and said, “Up 400.” After that shell he said, “OK, down 200.” (After that shell hit) he said “Boy that one went right through the window.” It went into a mess hall, the Germans had a hell of a meal that night.
Although Dad received no credit by name for his accomplishment, his feat nevertheless received a certain degree of notoriety. The History of the 712th Tank Battalion records the event as follows:
October was a month of nibbling – at the Metz bastion – and waiting – for more gas, for more ammo, for warmer clothing. Fall weather had set in and with it incessant rain. The roads became mucky; the fields in which the tankers did their indirect firing became big seas of mud. Firing used up 24 hours a day and all crew members became experts with the Azimuth Indicators and Gunner’s Quadrants which though inexact did not prevent one gunner from putting a shell through a window when the forward observer called for it.”7
The 90th Infantry Division Newspaper, The Sniper, gives the following account of the incident.
Citadel Metz became the target of the 712th guns when for a period of three weeks the Battalion assumed its secondary role as reinforcing artillery; this artillery group hurled 2400 rounds daily into enemy defenses. Jokingly a forward observer requested a shell lobbed into a window at 4,000 yards; the gunner complied and hit the window.
Dad recounted another incident that he remembered from the time spent around Metz.
When we were close to Metz, the population, the children would come out with pots and pans and cans and take the leavings off of the American soldiers’ mess kits to get something to eat. They never had anything to eat at that time. I gave a little girl an orange, she didn’t know what to do with it. They never had oranges in France then. Everything was imported from Spain. That’s where the oranges grew and they couldn’t get anything from Spain because Spain was not in the Axis powers. So she didn’t know what to do with it. So I showed her what to do with it, and she ran home with it to her family.
That same little girl, a blonde headed little girl, was about six when we got there and she couldn’t speak a word of English and by the time we left she could talk in English.
In a letter home to Mom, dated October 17, 1944, Dad writes about this little girl.
…there is a little girl around here and we were talking to her. Darling don’t worry she is only 6 years old. Anyway she speaks French and German, mostly German … we were talking to her that is a few things we could pick out and a few things she could say in English. Anyway she was telling us how they made the little kids dance for Hitler and how they had to give the Hitler salute until their arms were sore. She said they had to do that in the snow and after Hitler passed they would pick up snow and throw it. I guess after he was out of sight. Isn’t that a shame to make a little child do that? She said she did that since she was about four.
In a letter dated October 27, 1944, Dad again writes about the plight of small children during war.
Darling I just came back from chow. We had a pretty good meal. We had Spam, potatoes, gravy, relish, pears, bread, butter and jam and coffee. Doesn’t that sound pretty good, Love?
[…]
I hope and pray this war ends soon, so we can be together and maybe the rest of the world can live in peace. Darling I saw something today when I was coming from chow that really made my heart ache. There was a bunch of little kids with cans asking for the food we had left over in our mess kit. So you can imagine how hard food is to get over here. When the Germans left, they took everything with them. So now the poor people over here have to go without.
Darling I may be way over here fighting. But there is still plenty to thank God for and we can be plenty thankful to be Americans. Darling maybe some of those people at home that are always crying about things being rationed should read this.
Patton’s troops would again be on the move in November, but not before November 8. Meanwhile, November 7, 1944, was Election Day in the United States. Franklin Roosevelt was running for an unprecedented fourth term as President. I asked Dad if the members of the armed forces were allowed to vote in the election during war. He said that he didn’t know if any of the soldiers in the rear were allowed to vote but neither he nor anyone else he knew on the front line voted, they were all too busy preparing for battle. On that election day, bullets, not ballots, were distributed to the front line troops of the 712th Tank Battalion.
CHAPTER 9
The Mud of Lorraine
It’s not the size of the man in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the man.
President Theodore Roosevelt
Patton was ready to have another try at Metz after the port of Antwerp had finally been secured and the flow of supplies to the Third Army began to increase. Despite continuous heavy rain and no air support because of the weather, the Third Army began its offensive on November 8, 1944. The assault plan called for an attack south of Metz by the 5th Infantry Division and a simultaneous attack north of Metz by the 90th Infantry Division,1 including the 712th Tank Battalion.
The plan of attack on Metz was a pincer movement around the city with the two divisions linking up on the east side of Metz, thereby encircling it. Meanwhile the 95th Division would by-pass the outer ring of forts and destroy or capture the main garrison of German troops within the City of Metz.
The First Moselle Crossing
In order to accomplish this military maneuver, the 90th and the 712th had to cross the Moselle River. Being from New Orleans, and living a block away from the Mississippi River levee, my visions of what constitutes a river is somewhat skewed. When Dad and I crossed the Moselle River, it appeared to me to be no wider than a canal; it was well within its banks of no more than 350 feet in width. However, this was not the situation in November, 1944. The incessant rain in 1944 had caused the river to overflow its banks and at spots it was over 800 yards wide. The rain made even the preparations rough, the going was slow because of deep mud everywhere. “Day after day the rain poured down. Trucks, bringing vital supplies into the assembly area by night were sunk to the axles in a clutching sea of mud.”2
Red Ball Express Truck in the mud. (US National Archives)
The 712th Tank Battalion had moved into its staging positions in the village of Evange. B
Company tanks, attached to the 359th Regiment, had the left flank of the attack with the planned crossing at Malling. C Company, assigned to the 358th Regiment, had the right flank of the attack with a crossing at Cattenom. The tanks assisted in the preparatory artillery barrage prior to the attack.
The main obstacle on the east side of the Moselle River was Fort Koenigsmacher, one of the fortifications within the Fortress Metz complex, which was approximately 5 miles northeast of the City of Thionville.
The infantry crossed in boats on November 8, while the 712th waited for the engineers to complete construction of the bridges on the overrun banks of the river. The Germans on the east side of the river was the enemy, but the swollen river was more of an enemy for the engineers. It was estimated that it would take several more days to install the bridge.
Rafts ferrying 5 Company B tanks across swollen Mosselle River. (90th photograph)
The subsequent 5 days were anxious and frustrating ones for the tankers. Already the 712th-90th team had become ‘blood-brothers’ and yet one half of that team was fighting to the very utmost while the other half – the tanks – was unable to assist. […] The situation on the other side finally reached such a critical stage that supporting armor became essential if it were to be retained and exploited. So on 13 Nov. at 1400 a B Co. platoon pulled down to the river bank and under an elaborate smoke screen ferried across on rafts, with shells plopping in the waters all around them. The fire power of these 5 Shermans could not begin to compete in value to the morale boost they gave to the exhausted doughs. Both this platoon and C Co. tanks which came over shortly afterwards were greeted with cheers and tears. All armor fanned out to support all forward troops and in a short time the atmosphere was changed from overall feeling of last ditch retention of position to aggressive offense. Meanwhile work on the bridge continued despite adversities and success at last came to the dogged engineers. By evening of 14 Nov. the entire Battalion was across the pontoon bridge, along with great quantities of supplies.3
Dad was in one of those first five B Company tanks that made the crossing on the raft. The crossing by the 90th and the 712th was such an arduous task that both Patton and Brigadier Gen. James Van Fleet commended the troops.
Copies of Gen. Van Fleet’s congratulatory remarks and Patton’s commendation were later distributed to the troops. Patton stated that Moselle crossing by the 90th Div was one that “will ever rank as one of the epic river crossings of history.”
The Oudrennes Mine Field
Later on the afternoon of November 13, just before dusk, one platoon of three tanks, including Dad’s, made an advance with infantry from the 359th Regiment on the left into a wooded area called Reitholtz Woods in order to close a gap that had been created between the 359th and the 357th in the vicinity of the village of Oudrennes. Dad described what happened.
We were advancing and we entered a mine field. My tank struck a mine and blew off one of the tracks. The infantry was walking along beside us. One of the infantry stepped on a mine and had his leg blown off. I could not get out to help him because we were under orders not to get out of the tank because it was too dangerous; if we tried to get out and help him we would probably step on a mine also. It was night and I could hear him crying. I yelled at him to put a tourniquet on his leg. We were ordered to stay put until the engineers could clear the mine field at daylight.
Dad listened to the infantryman most of the night and yelled words of encouragement to him telling him everything would be alright. When daylight came Dad no longer heard the infantryman. His tank was pulled out of the mine field but Dad never discovered whether the infantryman was rescued or whether he died in that field.
The 359th had been given the mission of clearing the woods between Oudrenne and Kerling but shortly after the attack began, the regiment was stopped by mine fields on all sides. Capt. Colby of the 90th described that evening and night.
(Companies) E and F attacked southeast into the woods, but soon lost three tanks in an extension of the same mine field. The companies continued into the woods without the tanks, but just at dark became involved in an anti-personnel mine field containing 16,000 of the vicious little wooden Schu mines […] The battalion tried to pick its way through the mine field, but soon had too many casualties. Every time a man stepped on one of the mines, his foot was blown off above the ankle.
The battalion medical section performed especially bravely […] every litter man in the battalion squad became a casualty. In two separate instances, two-man litter teams carrying a wounded soldier stepped on a Schu mine, seriously injuring both litter bearers and killing the soldier on the litter.4
By November 15, the 90th Infantry Division and the 712th had cleared this obstacle. On this date all previously assigned objectives had been scrapped and B Company and the 359th Regiment of the 90th were ordered to proceed, from Oudrennes/Kerling area, with utmost speed south toward the towns of Conde-Northen and Les Estang. The purpose of the rapid advance was to close the pincer and link up with the 5th Infantry Division, thus, cutting off all German escape routes from Metz.
Mussy L’Eveque
As the 90th and the 712th raced southward toward their rendezvous with the 5th Division in order to close the jaws of the pincers, “one after another of the escape highways leading out of the doomed city of Metz were cut. Enemy convoys, desperately attempting to squeeze through the ever narrowing gamut were met with concentrated artillery fire, small arms and mortar.”5
Two and one-half miles north of the town of Conde-Northen lies the village of Mussy L’Eveque. On November 18, 1944, just outside of that village, Dad again displayed his accuracy and proficiency as a tank gunner. He received the Bronze Star for his heroic achievement on that day. Dad’s Bronze Star commendation letter states:
For heroic achievement on 18 November 1944 in the vicinity of Mussy L’Eveque, France. During an attack on the town, a platoon of tanks in support of infantry troops encountered a convoy of five enemy vehicles. Corporal Gruntz, Gunner, from his exposed position in the lead tank, fired his tank gun so effectively and accurately upon the convoy that all five vehicles were immobilized and 17 enemy were taken prisoner. The courageous and efficient action of Corporal Gruntz in disrupting the enemy column enabled the infantry to advance and accomplish its mission.
Dad and I drove in and around Mussy L’Eveque as he explained the events that day in 1944.
We came over the top of the rise, right back there on top of the hill over there, we came from another town back there that we occupied the day before that was deserted when we went through there. It was in the afternoon, getting kind of late.
We were in a field. We were out in the open just like right here. We came over a hill and the infantry had penetrated down to the road here. The Germans were coming down this road here. They were going in this direction (pointing northeast). The lieutenant said there are some vehicles going down the road. My tank was exposed and that’s when I fired and knocked them out. I fired over the infantry’s head, that’s why it (the Bronze Star commendation) said I had accurate firing. I hit the first vehicle, then I hit the last one than I hit the other three. I knocked them out and we captured seventeen prisoners.
I did see one of the German soldiers; he had his hand shot off, his right hand was off right above the wrist. I still remember that.
Gruntz awarded Bronze Star.
Dad said he felt a little pity and sorrow for that wounded German.
The poor bastards were just trying to get home.
(The vehicles were) supply vehicles, some of them were horse drawn. Somebody told me they had a gang of wrist watches and all the loot they were taking back to Germany. But I never got any of that. It was just something that had to be done. We just kept on going, because we couldn’t stop so we went over the road and on to the next town.
The records of the 712th Tank Battalion noted the rapid advance of B Company tanks from Oudrennes, stating.
B Company rolled forward so quickly and with
such effectiveness that the (Germans) had no time to blow prepared demolitions on bridges and overpasses. […] they crossed the Nied River and took position at Conde-Northen squarely athwart the major escape route. Here they intercepted a fleeing column and annihilated it.6
The next day, the 712th and the 90th Division made contact with the 735th Tank Battalion and the 5th Infantry Division and the operation was over. Metz had not been conquered by assault since the year 471. In previous wars, armies laid siege to Metz and occupied it only after it capitulated. The United States Third Army did what no army had done in over 1,500 years.
Dad was unaware his actions on that November day had merited a Bronze Star. “I never knew anybody paid any attention to it. That wasn’t the first time things like that happened.” His actions were noticed by an infantry officer and reported up the line, Dad’s commendation was issued almost two months later, on January 6, 1945. Dad indicated there were plenty of other actions by members of the 712th that were worthy of commendation but went unnoticed.
The 712th seemed to always be on the move and its After Action Reports were always sparse. This fact was recognized many years after the war when an Armor Memorial Park honoring the armored units of World War II was dedicated outside of the Patton Museum in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Among the memorial obelisks is one for the 712th Tank Battalion. In addition to listing all of the members of the 712th killed in action there is a plaque which lists all of the 712th Battle Honors and Awards. The individual awards of the battalion include two Distinguished Service Crosses, fifty-six Silver Stars, 362 Bronze Stars and 498 Purple Hearts. But this memorial goes further and states:
This plaque also honors those men whose acts of bravery under fire were not officially recorded and rewarded in combat, valor was commonplace among soldiers who asked only to serve in trust and honor with honorable men, doing all that was asked of them at any price. Often they were numbered among our casualties and details of their heroic deeds, obscured by subsequent fighting were lost to after action reports. Their exemplary acts of courage and devotion to duty are forever enshrined in this monument. We accord them their rightful place among the honored in battle.
A Tank Gunner's Story: Gunner Gruntz of the 712th Tank Battalion Page 15