Truscott’s lead division, the 3rd Armored, went through the thin belt of enemy pillboxes beyond the river with a vengeance. Some endured their direct assault, but most were simply bypassed for the follow up infantry to clear. The Armor wanted to gain ground.
This sudden breakthrough near the town of Wurm would put an uncomfortable question to von Rundstedt that morning. All the infantry south of that point was on the Westwall, but it was being flanked. But while the 226th had fallen back in the north, refusing its flank, here the 48th Volksgrenadier Division was ordered to stand firm on their fortified line. It would mean that their artillery, supply echelons and rear area posts and HQs would be vulnerable to attack, but help was on the way.
* * *
The Americans had broken across the Wurm and sent swift armored task forces down the road to seize Linnich and Julich. They had to be stopped. The 8th Regiment was in the van of General Denkert’s 3rd Panzergrenadier Division, and it immediately moved to secure the line of the Roer River, pressing into a thin screen of woods that ran along the east bank near Linnich. Behind those woods, there was an arc of fortified positions, where several battalions of German heavy artillery had set up. They were already firing when the grenadiers dismounted and swept into the woods, evidence enough that the Americans were at hand.
The regiment had three battalions, of three companies and a 4th Schwere weapons company. PanzerJag and infantry gun companies were attached, and a full pioneer battalion of three companies was added. Two more batteries of six Wespe SPGs would add their weight to the already considerable punch of those four heavy gun battalions.
29th Panzergrenadier Regiment was next in the column, built the same way as the 8th, except instead of that pioneer battalion, it had two Sturm companies, the bridging unit, and one light pioneer company. Reaching the town of Tiltz, it took the left fork in the road to veer further south towards Julich. The it found only a small remnant of the Führer Begleit Brigade, the flak guns and a single company of the powerful VK-90 Lions. The infantry support had arrived just in time, because the Americans were reported to be very close. That was the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division, and it had arrived just in time to save Julich from being overrun.
It was clear now to von Rundstedt that the Americans were trying to pinch off two salients in the German front, one in the north at Roermond, the second in the center at Gielenkirchen. Both held large segments of the Westwall, and a large arc of good defensive woodland behind the Roermond position. The Americans were outflanking it, but he wanted to fight for that ground. The infantry holding it would be too slow if it tried to withdraw, and in his mind, it was just better off in its fortified positions.
General Poppe had his 1036th Regiment in reserve on his front, and so it was ordered north towards the breakthrough zone. Other divisions in the salient would also round up all their loose change, a few bicycle companies and mobile flak units, to try and prevent everything from being cut off. The American attack had pushed an alarming 18 kilometers to reach Dulken, which was just under 10 klicks from the large objective city of Munchen-Gladbach. But in that time, the Germans were slowly cobbling together a front to oppose them, though the line was thin in many places.
While 4th Armored seemed to be running out of steam, General Irwin’s 5th Infantry Division was making good inroads as it slowly forced the lines of the German 226th Division back, clearing half the Brachterwald forest in the process. There the troops came across empty ammo boxes, and other detritus from what looked like a big enemy assembly area that had been hidden in those woods. Five weeks earlier, they had been crowded with the heavy columns of Steiner’s I SS Panzerkorps, charged with storming across the Roer River, and on to Maastricht. Now the men of the 5th Infantry were walking in the deep tracked left in the soft earth by Lions and Tigers. Every yard gained threatened to create yet another pocket, trapping all the units in the Roermond Salient.
That was but one crisis point vexing von Rundstedt that day. Patton’s Operation Clipper was now creating yet another pocket from Gielenkirchen all the way south along the Westwall to the point where the fortified line split into the Scharnhorst and Schill Lines around Aachen. While 3rd Panzergrenadier Division had arrived in time to stop 3rd Armored and save Julich, it could not extend its lines far enough west to impede the other war chariot driving south, the 5th Armored.
Bug Oliver’s 5th was on a rampage. It had swung around the ragged flank of the 48th Volksgrenadier Division, which was slowly being bent back under the weight of the US 36th Infantry Division. Now it had blasted through to make a deep incursion behind the enemy front, its advanced units driving all the way to Alsdorf, which was half way to the American occupied Aachen. Coming up to meet them, Lt. General Abrams was now poised to strike through the Westwall just south of Palenberg. No more than four kilometers separated the two American armored divisions.
Von Rundstedt got the news and cursed his on overreliance on those fortifications. He knew his infantry was vulnerable, and wanted to keep it in those bunkers as long as possible, but now big segments of the front were simply being flanked from the rear. The situation was slowly slipping from his careful grasp. His lines were creaking and crumbling everywhere under the intense pressure. In the breakthrough zones, regimental and division HQs were being put to flight, artillery positions were being overrun, supply trains shot to pieces. The action continued into the night of October 8th, and the dawn would push the situation to the edge of a disaster.
Guderian might have warned him of the danger, for he had been the architect of so many similar attacks throughout the war. The fast moving armored units could raise hell in the rear areas, and there was no way the slow moving infantry would escape their trap. The only remedy was a Panzer division with a strength to challenge and stop the American armor. Knowing this, Von Rundstedt had already summoned General Schwerin and his 116th Panzer Division from Koln. That night it would pass through Elsdorf on the road to Julich as OKW met to try and see what could be done.
“As soon as we relieve one pocket, two or three more are forming,” said Jodl, his frustration evident. “In my opinion, von Rundstedt’s strategy is failing. We must withdraw units in these exposed salients as soon as possible.”
“General Guderian?” Manstein looked to the gritty Panzer commander now for his opinion.
“Things looks a whole lot better while our Panzers were concentrated for Rhinelander . We had power, and we could attack in a convincing manner that forced the Allies to react. Now the shoe is on the other foot. They are creating these crisis points, pulling in our reserves piecemeal, and even then the situation goes from bad to worse. I must therefore agree with Jodl. Get the troops out of positions now being flanked by the enemy. Then get what little we still have left in reserve to a position where we can counterpunch.”
“If we order the evacuation of the Roermond Salient,” said Manstein, the road net through the woodland behind the city will prove difficult.”
“But those woods alone will also be an obstacle to the Americans. I still say we should get our infantry out. It is either that or they will be pocketed, and essentially lost, because we won’t have the strength to relieve them any more than we could save 2nd Army at Moscow.”
Guderian’s comparison was a bit overblown, for the number of troops lost in the Moscow pocket dwarfed those at stake here, but his point had been made well enough. At present, the Roermond Salient held only the 226th, 64th and 338th Infantry Divisions, with a few other smaller KGs. That did not seem so much to lose, but they all knew that if they could extricate the troops there, things would be better. It was really a disaster that would be measured in battalions rather than divisions as on the Ostfront , but it still mattered. The pocket south of Gielenkirchen might soon hold the 48th Volksgrenadier Division, Julich NCO Battalion, 6th Parachute Regiment and for or five more Festung MG Battalions.
“General Guderian, you will have to excuse me,” said Manstein. “While we fret over the fate of four or five infantry divis
ions here, I must now meet with Mödel and Steiner to see if we can safe thirty more on the Ostfront . So I will ask you to meet with von Rundstedt and resolve the matter here as best you can. If need be, order a general withdrawal behind the Rhine, and then blow all the bridges. In the meantime, it seems we are being driven right out of the Ukraine, and Belarus. The second battle for Poland will be starting sooner than we think.”
Manstein departed, and Guderian sent orders that all units should now seek safe ground to the east, which would precipitate a period of chaos as the retreats began. In one sense, particularly in the south below Gielenkirchen, it was almost too late. The American pincers were about to close. In the north, the retreat began with the 226th, moving through Swalmen on the roads east that led from that town, skirting the Empterwald to the north, and then ran down the eastern reaches of those woods. Everything would be making for the more open ground between Erklenz and Munchen-Gladbach. Most of the 64th and 338th Divisions were manning the western edge of the woods, so they would remain in their positions until Roermond was abandoned and that end of the line pulled back.
The situation at Bruggen was very serious, as the Americans were threatening to cut the main escape route, so General Poppe ordered his 1036th Regiment of two battalions to move north and try to hold the door open. Before dawn on the 9th, the last mobile reserve aside from 2nd Panzer in the Monschau area, boarded trains in Bonn. The Führer Grenadier Brigade traveled under cover of dark, and Guderian called von Rundstedt to urge that it should be kept close to Schwerin’s 116th Panzer Division and be used to make a counterattack against the flank of the American penetration that was threatening to completely envelop the Gielenkirchen Pocket.
“As for 2nd Panzer,” he said, “I believe it should also move to rail depots and be prepared to move. I do not think the Americans will be attacking in the Monschau Gap any time soon.”
Von Rundstedt agreed to this, and orders went out to staff officers to find rolling stock, and send it to Manteuffel’s HQ at Mechernich. If he could get his way again, Guderian would want to move 2nd Panzer to join the 116th, and use Manteuffel to coordinate a counterattack. Rather than dividing the units and sending them to separate crisis points, he wanted them concentrated, and making a force capable of getting the Allies’ attention.
While these moves were being made behind the front, the chaos in the darkness only increased. The Americans were now “hell bent for leather,” and CCA of 5th Armored swept past Alsdorf and continued south to within 3 kilometers of Eschweiler before dawn. What Clipper Phase-I had failed to do was now ably accomplished by the main Phase-II attack. 48th Volksgrenadier Division was now completely surrounded, along with everything else that had been on the Westwall front north of Aachen….
* * *
“There is simply no time to do as you suggest,” said von Rundstedt. “The situation needs help—immediately. I have therefore ordered the Führer Grenadier Brigade to move to Erklenz. There’s been another breakthrough in that area, on the southern shoulder of the Roermond Salient. If we don’t stop it, everything in that salient will be in a pocket by mid-day.”
“And the 116th?” asked Guderian.
“It has reached Julich,” said von Rundstedt. “If we attack now towards Alsdorf, there is a chance we can save the troops being pocketed between Palenberg and Aachen. I cannot just leave that division idle while we wait for 2nd Panzer to make a rail move tonight. By that time, it will be too late.”
“Very well,” said Guderian. “I will tell Manteuffel to speed things up. The rain will give us license to move by day. In the meantime, Schwerin can make his attack. When 2nd Panzer arrives, we can make it stick.”
Hasso von Manteuffel was sometimes called “the little man” by his colleagues, because he was barely a whisker over five feet tall. But this little man could move mountains when he had to, and he had 90% of the 2nd Panzer Division on the trains by noon that day. It would only be a short 40 kilometer run up to Duren, which was the best place to disembark those troops, though the city had taken rough treatment from Allied bombers before the rains set in. It arrival there would mean Patton had no chance of continuing up the Stolberg Corridor, and now the deep lunge from the north by 5th Armored through Alsdorf was going to meet a strong counterattack before dusk.
The Americans, however, would double down, sending a regiment of the 36th infantry in the wake of 5th Armored to secure Alsdorf and reinforce that pincer. 1st infantry, pushing hard all the previous day, finally opened a hole northwest of Stolberg, and they would push a few companies through to link up with 5th Armored. That closed the pocket, trapping a force of about 15 battalions, about two divisions.
There was the reason Manstein had excused himself to leave the matter to Guderian and von Rundstedt, he had much bigger fish to fry on the Ostfront , where at that same moment, he was trying to save a force over ten times that size from encirclement by the Soviets.
Chapter 27
It was to be a case of so near, but yet so far for the Americans. On the afternoon of October 9th, 2nd Panzer detrained at Duren and took the roads towards Eschweiler, moving behind the 105th Panzer Brigade and Führer Begleit Brigade . Schwerin’s 116th had already started a blistering counterattack against the spearhead of 5th Armored, now it would be backed by the full weight of another good German Panzer Division. That would be enough to pry open the crocodile’s jaws, as the Germans fought to get troops out of that small pocket.
So, for the second time in as many months, Von der Heydt and his 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment would be waiting to be rescued, but a good number of the companies in other units that had been cut off there would not make it to safe ground.
In the north, the German infantry flowed through the Elmpterwald where Steiner had once had five SS Panzer Divisions. Not a man among those retreating imagined that they would be dragging themselves over the fallen trees, through the mud and rain, in a desperate attempt to escape. Yet as the retreating forces moved east, they began to bunch up and form a great mass of men, horses and light equipment. 30% of them would escape from the Roermond Salient. Von Rundstedt’s timely commitment of the Führer Grenadier Brigade to Erklenz had put enough pressure on the American southern pincer to slow it down, and in that interval, those trapped soldiers squeezed out of their dilemma.
It was the closest thing to a Falaise Pocket moment in the West front thus far, but it showed the increasingly desperate German situation there. As in the north against the British, all the German mobile reserves in this sector had now been pulled back into combat. Over the next days, a decision would have to be made on where and how to rebuild the front, but first the American storm had to abate.
Two days of hard fighting had shattered the Germans defense along the Westwall, and now the Germans would have to use their near magical art of collecting elements of shattered units and building Kampfgruppes capable of being deployed to fight again. The Panzer Divisions were all still in good order, but the infantry had been badly cut up, with divisions missing two or three battalions, and their remaining troops in a jumble of retreating columns heading east.
This setback was nothing the army had not seen, and dealt with, a hundred times before, and on scales much greater than this front. It was where the experience, skill and organizational ability of the German army continued to salvage one failing situation after another. Sharply checked by Manteuffel’s counterattack, Patton now had to meet with Simpson to determine how to proceed.
“They’ve thrown a couple Panzer Divisions at us, but it won’t do them any good,” said Patton. “We’ll stop them from relieving that pocket. How is it on your watch?”
“We’ve got them on the run,” said Simpson. “They’re trying to get east over the Roer, and I think they may try to hold there. It will take some planning to make an assault over the river, but so far, so good. I’ve got Roermond, and we’re sweeping them right out of the woodland beyond. We’ve cleared the road from Roermond to Dulken, and so I’m going to start running th
ings that way. We’re already north of the Roer there, and so there’s no water obstacle. I want to push on east through Viersen and flank Munchen-Gladbach from the north.”
“Do you have enough force?”
“Yes sir. 104th, 5th and 44th Infantry are already over the Meuse and I’ll be able to concentrate 4th Armored as soon as that infantry comes up to relieve them. They’re in trouble, and they damn well know it.”
“Alright,” said Patton. “I’ll hold those two Panzer Divisions by the nose in the south, and you give ‘em a good boot in the ass.”
It would be Creighton Abrams and his Provisional Armored Division that would deliver the straw that would break the camel’s back. The heavy armor division had broken through at Palenberg and pushed due east to Julich. That night, the engineers threw up three Treadway bridges over the Roer, which had now receded and was no more than 100 feet wide at that point. Abrams would push across, attacking the overstretched lines of 3rd Panzergrenadier Division and he busted right through. East of that position, the Germans had nothing at all between the Roer and the Rhine.
By dawn on the 10th of October, it became apparent to the Germans that neither pocket could be relieved. Even in the north, a bold overnight thrust by 4th Armored Cav pushed south to stop the evacuation of troops that had been in the Roermond Salient. Several battalions had already escaped, but the bulk of all three divisions would be trapped, the 64th, 226th and 338th. In the southern pocket, Von der Heydt would not make it out this time. He and his regiment would end up in the pocket, embattled, still resolute, but doomed to end their war within a week’s time as the lines of the 4th and 35th US Infantry Divisions tightened around them like a boa constrictor.
Rhinelander (Kirov Series Book 40) Page 22