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128-611: Logistics Operation Undertone , also known as the Saar-Palatinate Offensive , was a large assault by the U.S. Seventh , Third , and French First Armies of the Sixth and Twelfth Army Groups as part of the Allied invasion of Germany in March 1945 during World War II . A force of three corps was to attack abreast from Saarbrücken , Germany, along a 75-kilometre (47 mi) sector to
256-472: A battalion of the 103rd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe ) ran into a counterattack, but the reaction it prompted was more precautionary than forced. Having entered Uttenhoffen , northwest of Hagenau, the battalion encountered such intense small arms fire and shelling from self-propelled guns that the regimental commander authorized withdrawal. When German infantry soon after nightfall counterattacked with support from four self-propelled pieces,
384-641: A city agglomeration on the French border, surrounding the capital of Saarbrücken. See also List of places in Saarland . Saarland is divided into six districts ( German : Landkreise ): The following table shows the ten largest cities of Saarland: Saarland is the most religious state in Germany. The adherents of the Catholic Church comprise 56.8% of the population, organised in the two dioceses of Trier (comprising
512-605: A dense wood, the Pfaelzer Forest , the region was crossed literally by only one main highway, by a secondary highway close behind the Siegfried Line, and by a few minor roads and trails. The natural difficulties posed by these twisting, poorly surfaced routes already had been heightened by a mass of wrecked vehicles as American fighter pilots relentlessly preyed on hapless targets. Using the authority granted by Kesselring on 17 March to pull back units threatened with encirclement,
640-510: A glancing blow from Milburn's XXI Corps. Having recently given up the 559. Volksgrenadierdivision to the 7. Armee , Knieß had only two divisions, one of which was tied down holding Siegfried Line positions northwest of Saarbrücken. Southeast of the town, with boundaries roughly coterminous with those of Haislip's XV Corps, stood the XIII SS Korps ( SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Max Simon ) with three divisions. Extending
768-510: A joint drive to sweep the Saar-Palatinate . Assigned a target date of 15 March, the offensive was to begin only after the 21st Army Group had reached the Rhine. It was to be designed both to draw enemy units from the north and to provide an alternate line of attack across the Rhine should the principal Allied drive in the north fail. The main effort, SHAEF planners contemplated, was to be made by
896-536: A matter of logistics as of actual fighting before all divisions of the Seventh Army would be battling to break the concrete barrier into the Saar-Palatinate; but as more than one German commander noted with genuine concern, whether any real fight would develop for the Siegfried Line was not necessarily his to determine. That responsibility fell to those units, decimated and increasingly demoralized, which were opposing
1024-668: A matter of time. Yet just as had been the case in the zones of the XXI Corps and the XV Corps, it was less the hard fighting of the VI Corps that would determine when the Siegfried Line would be pierced than it was the rampaging thrusts of the Third Army's XX Corps in the German rear. The divisions of the VI Corps had been probing the pillbox belt less than 24 hours when Walker, leaving the task of gaining
1152-602: A point southeast of Hagenau , France. A narrow strip along the Rhine leading to the extreme northeastern corner of Alsace at Lauterbourg was to be cleared by a division of the French First Army under operational control of the Seventh Army. The Seventh Army's main effort was to be made in the center up the Kaiserslautern corridor. In approving the plan, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower asserted that
1280-420: A point southeast of Hagenau . A narrow strip along the Rhine leading to the extreme northeastern corner of Alsace at Lauterbourg was to be cleared by a division of the French First Army under operational control of the Seventh Army. The Seventh Army's main effort was to be made in the center up the Kaiserslautern corridor. In approving the plan, Eisenhower asserted that the objective was not only to clear
1408-425: A result, anti-Nazi groups agitated for the Saarland to remain under French administration. However, with most of the population being ethnically German, such views were considered suspect or even treasonous, and therefore found little support. When the original 15-year term was over, a plebiscite was held in the territory on 13 January 1935 in which 90.8 percent of those voting favoured rejoining Germany. Following
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#17328525243371536-604: A second position protected by a minefield. Disregarding the mines, Herrera also charged this position but stepped on a mine and lost both feet. Even that failed to check him. He brought the enemy under such accurate rifle fire that others of his platoon were able to bypass the minefield and take the Germans in flank. The 3d Algerian Division meanwhile got across the Moder with little enough trouble but then encountered intense house-to-house fighting. Despite good artillery support made possible by
1664-522: A series of strongpoints. On the corps left wing, the 42nd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Harry J. Collins ) overcame the added obstacle of attacking along the spine of the Lower Vosges by avoiding the roads and villages in the valleys and following the crests of the high ground. Pack mules—already proved in earlier fighting in the High Vosges—provided the means of supply. As with the 3rd Division,
1792-540: A seven-stepped letter "A," steps in yellow with the center in scarlet. On 8 November 1942, General Patton was in command of the Western Task Force (a temporary redesignation of I Armored Corps for tactical deception), the only all-American force landing for Operation Torch , code name for the Allied invasion of French North Africa . I Armored Corps then began to drive east which complemented British forces driving from
1920-535: A trio of men enjoying a beer, flanked by baby carriages, the slogan reading "Mutter schafft" (meaning "Mum's at work" in Saarlandish, but plays on the High German word Mutterschaft 'motherhood'); another depicts a trio of men at a bar, with one realizing his beer has been drunk by one of the others, the slogan reading "Kenner war's" (meaning "It was no one" [ Keiner war es ] in Saarlandish, but playing on
2048-449: A wide range of independence, threatened, however, by the French kings , who sought from the 17th century onwards to incorporate all the territories on the western side of the river Rhine . They invaded the area in 1635, 1676, 1679, and 1734, extending their realm to the river Saar and establishing the city and stronghold of Saarlouis in 1680. It was not the king of France but the armies of
2176-490: A work of the U.S. Army that is in the public domain. The material was extracted from Chapter XII, "The Saar-Palatinate", pp. 236–265. Anticipating early completion of operations to clear the west bank of the Rhine north of the Moselle , Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower on 13 February 1945 had told his two American army group commanders—Generals Omar Bradley and Jacob L. Devers —to begin planning for
2304-485: Is able to speak French, and it is compulsory at many schools. Saarbrücken is also home to a bilingual "Deutsch-Französisches Gymnasium " (German-French high school). In January 2014 the Saarland state government announced its aim of making the region fully bilingual in German and French by 2043. The Saar competed in the qualifying section of the 1954 FIFA World Cup , but failed after coming second to West Germany but ahead of Norway . It also competed as Saar in
2432-509: Is by far the smallest of the Flächenländer ("area-states"). It is less than one sixth the size of Schleswig-Holstein , the next smallest German state. One third of the land area of the Saarland is covered by forest, one of the highest percentages in Germany. The state is generally hilly; the highest mountain is the Dollberg with a height of 695.4 m (2,281 ft). Most inhabitants live in
2560-653: Is home to the Saarland University and the administrative headquarters of the Franco-German University . People in the Saarland speak Rhine Franconian (in the southeast, very similar to that dialect spoken in the western part of the Palatinate) and Moselle Franconian (in the northwest, very similar to that dialect spoken along the river Moselle and the cities of Trier or even in Luxembourg). Outside of
2688-518: Is normally composed with the words dääd (High German täte = "would do") or gänge ("would go") as auxiliary verbs: Isch dääd saan, dass... ("I would say that...") instead of the High German Ich würde sagen, dass... . Declension is rather different: Diphthongs are less common than in Standard German. This is because the Standard German diphthongs ei and au are each
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#17328525243372816-599: Is the remains of a fortress of refuge at Otzenhausen in the north of the Saarland. In the 1st century BC, the Roman Empire made the region part of its province of Belgica , and the Celtic population mixed with the Roman conquerors. The region became wealthy, which can still be seen in the remains of Roman villas and villages. Roman rule ended in the 5th century, when the Franks conquered
2944-421: Is the scorched earth." In Zweibrücken, with the entire business district razed, only about 5,000 people of a normal population of 37,000 remained, and they were hiding in cellars and caves. Fires burned uncontrolled, neither water nor fire-fighting equipment available to quench them. No local government existed. Thousands of released slave laborers and German soldiers who had changed into civilian clothes complicated
3072-537: Is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin , Bremen , and Hamburg , and the smallest in population apart from Bremen. Saarbrücken is the state capital and largest city; other cities include Neunkirchen and Saarlouis . Saarland is mainly surrounded by the department of Moselle ( Grand Est ) in France to the west and south and the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany to
3200-702: The Brenner Pass into Italy by 4 May, followed shortly by war's end on VE-Day , 8 May 1945. The predecessor of Seventh Army was the I Armored Corps , which was activated on 15 July 1940 at Fort Knox , Kentucky . With the goal of stopping German expansion in Europe and Africa, it was decided that the first operation for United States Army forces would be to assist the British in driving German forces from North Africa. On 15 January 1942, Major General George S. Patton Jr. assumed command of I Armored Corps and began planning for
3328-655: The British Eighth Army , commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery , Patton's rival. Patton commanded the Seventh Army until early 1944. The Seventh Army landed on several beaches in southern Sicily on 10 July 1943 and captured the Sicilian capital of Palermo on 22 July and, along with the British Eighth Army, captured Messina on 16 August. During the fighting, the elements of the Seventh Army killed or captured thousands of enemy soldiers, mainly Italians. During
3456-668: The European Coal and Steel Community , which led to the termination of the International Authority for the Ruhr (whose purpose was to regulate Ruhr coal and steel production and distribution). However, the Treaty sidestepped the issue of the Saar protectorate: an attached protocol stated Germany and France agreed the Treaty would have no bearing on their views of the status of the Saar. In 1948,
3584-670: The European Theater between 1942 and 1945. Originally the I Armored Corps under command of Lieutenant General George S. Patton , it made landfall at Morocco during Operation Torch as the Western Task Force , the first all-U.S. force to enter the European war. Following successful defeat of the Wehrmacht under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in North Africa, the I Armored Corps was redesignated
3712-679: The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 were fired on the heights of Spichern during the Battle of Spicheren , south of Saarbrücken . The Saar region became part of the German Empire which came into existence on 18 January 1871, during the course of the war. In 1921, the Saargebiet was occupied by Britain and France under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles . The occupied area included portions of
3840-620: The French Revolution who terminated the independence of the states in the region of the Saarland. After 1792 they conquered the region and made it part of the French Republic . While a strip in the west belonged to the Moselle department , the centre in 1798 became part of the Sarre department , and the east became part of the Mont-Tonnerre department . After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815,
3968-603: The German counteroffensive . On the army's right wing, Brooks's VI Corps—farthest of all from the Siegfried Line—first had to get across the Moder River , and one of Brooks's divisions faced the added difficulty of attacking astride the rugged Lower Vosges Mountains . Two German corps and part of a third were in the path of the impending American drive. At Saarbrücken, the left wing of General Knieß′ LXXXV Korps would receive
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4096-576: The Luftwaffe sent approximately 300 planes of various types—including jet-propelled Messerschmitt Me 262 —to attack the Third Army's columns, but to little avail. Casualties on the American side were minor. Anti-aircraft units—getting a rare opportunity to do the job for which they were trained—shot down 25 German planes. Pilots of the XIX Tactical Air Command claimed another eight. In the face of
4224-562: The Saar -Palatinate but to establish bridgeheads with forces of the Sixth Army Group over the Rhine between Mainz and Mannheim . The U.S. Third Army of the 12th Army Group was to be limited to diversionary attacks across the Moselle to protect the Sixth Army Group's left flank. Eisenhower approved on 8 March, the same day that General George S. Patton obtained approval from General Bradley for
4352-580: The Saar Protectorate on 17 December 1947. After the 1955 Saar Statute referendum , it joined the Federal Republic of Germany as a state on 1 January 1957. Saarland used its own currency, the Saar franc , and postage stamps issued specially for the territory until 1959. The region of the Saarland was settled by the Celtic tribes of Treveri and Mediomatrici . The most impressive relic of their time
4480-470: The Sixth Army Group 's Seventh Army , which was to be augmented by transferring one armored and three infantry divisions from the U.S. Third Army . During the first week of March, Devers at Sixth Army Group approved a plan (Operation UNDERTONE) prepared by General Alexander Patch ′s Seventh Army. A force of three corps was to attack abreast from Saarbrücken along a 75-kilometre (47 mi) sector to
4608-415: The invasion of southern France . The invasion was originally given the code name of "Operation Anvil", but was changed to " Operation Dragoon " before the landing. In March 1944, Major General Alexander Patch , a highly experienced and competent commander, was assigned to command the Seventh Army, which moved to Naples , Italy , the following July. On 15 August 1944, elements of the Seventh Army assaulted
4736-441: The post-alveolar fricative as in frisch 'fresh', causing High German minimal pairs such as Kirche 'church' and Kirsche 'cherry' to be pronounced in the same way. French has had a considerable influence on the vocabulary, although the pronunciation of imported French words is usually quite different from their originals. Popular examples include Trottwaa (from trottoir ), Fissääl (from ficelle ), and
4864-508: The 1. Armee ′s Foertsch authorized withdrawal by stages of his westernmost troops, those of Knieß′ LXXXV Korps . Over a period of three days, units of the corps were to peel back from west to east, redeploying to block the main highway leading northeast through the Kaiserslautern Gap. Unfortunately for Foertsch's plan, the principal threat to the Kaiserslautern Gap came not from west or southwest but from northwest where Walker's XX Corps
4992-528: The 10th Armored Division's drive, the word to the westernmost units of the XC Korps to begin falling back went out late on the 20th, and when the 42nd Division—in the mountains on the left wing of the VI Corps—launched a full-scale assault against the Siegfried Line late the next day, the attack struck a vacuum. Soon after dawn the next morning, 22 March, a regiment of the 42nd cut the secondary highway through
5120-553: The 23rd, the 14th Armored broke through the Siegfried Line at Steinfeld and began its advance on Germersheim . Seventh United States Army The Seventh Army was a United States army created during World War II that evolved into the United States Army Europe (USAREUR) during the 1950s and 1960s. It served in North Africa and Italy in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and France and Germany in
5248-490: The 7. Armee actually had left the XIII SS Korps the stronger. In addition to two Volksgrenadier divisions, Simon's corps had the 17th SS Panzergrenadierdivision , at this point not much more than a proud name, but a unit possessing considerably more tanks and other armored vehicles than were to be found in the entire adjacent corps. The American main effort thus aimed at the stronger German units, though at this stage of
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5376-599: The Allied forces coming south from Normandy . In the process, the Seventh Army had liberated Marseilles , Lyon , Toulon and all of Southern France. The Seventh Army then assaulted the German forces in the Vosges Mountains and broke into the Alsatian Plain . During the Battle of the Bulge in late December, it extended its flanks to take over much of the area that had been the responsibility of U.S. Third Army then under
5504-495: The American units of the VI Corps and reached the Lauter along a 10 mi (16 km) front, de Lattre had no difficulty pressing his ambition on the Sixth Army Group commander, Devers. Using the 3rd Algerian Division and a combat group from the 5th French Armored Division , again to be attached to the VI Corps, the French (organized as Task Force ( Groupement ) de Monsabert) were to continue northward some 19 km (12 mi) beyond
5632-501: The French government established Saarland University under the auspices of the University of Nancy . It is the principal university in the state, the other being Saarland University of Applied Sciences [ de ] (HTW Saar). The Saarland was headed by a military governor from 30 August 1945: Gilbert Yves Edmond Grandval (1904–1981), who remained, on 1 January 1948, as High Commissioner , and from January 1952 – June 1955 as
5760-520: The German frontier, scarcely more than a stone's throw from the outposts of the Siegfried Line, and the 100th Division, relieved at Bitche by a follow-up infantry division, had begun to come abreast. Fighter-bombers of the XII Tactical Air Command again were out in force. Even though the Germans appeared to be falling back by design, in reality they intended a deliberate defense. Although corps commanders had begged to be allowed to withdraw into
5888-517: The German frontier. Then an infantry battalion from the 17. SS Panzergrenadierdivision , supported by nine assault guns, struck back. The Germans quickly isolated the American infantrymen but could not force them from the village. Supported by a platoon of tank destroyers and the regimental antitank company organized as a bazooka brigade, another of the 7th Infantry's battalions counterattacked. The men knocked out four multiple-barrel 20 mm (0.79 in) FlaKwagen s and seven assault guns and freed
6016-416: The Germans were fighting no more than a delaying action increased everywhere except, again, on the two flanks. It seemed particularly apparent in the zone of the XV Corps, where all three attacking divisions improved on their first day's gains. Mines, demolitions, and strongpoints usually protected by a tank or an assault gun were the main obstacles. By nightfall, both the 3rd and 45th Divisions were well across
6144-399: The High German word Kenner 'connoisseur', translating to "It was a connoisseur"); a third shows an empty beer crate in outer space, the text reading "All" (meaning "empty" in Saarlandish, but playing on the same High German word meaning "outer space"). The French language has a special standing in Saarland due to its geographical proximity to France. Today, a part of the population
6272-548: The Lauter River, thereby gaining limited Rhine River frontage inside Germany. The subsequent French advance pushed through the Bienwald , a large forested expanse just north of the Lauter through which bunkers, trenches, and other obstacles of the Siegfried Line were emplaced. In the ensuing clash, elements of the German 257th Volksgrenadier and 905th Infantry Training Divisions were forced to retreat northward in fighting dominated by
6400-538: The North African campaign onward, the regiments of the 3rd Division (Maj. Gen. John W. O'Daniel ) were making the main effort in the center of the XV Corps in the direction of Zweibrücken and the Kaiserslautern corridor. Although a company of supporting tanks ran into a dense minefield, disabling four tanks and stopping the others, a battalion of the 7th Infantry fought its way into the village of Uttweiler, just across
6528-435: The Pfaelzer Forest and cut the escape routes; and a third from the fighter bombers of the XII Tactical Air Command. It was the last that was most apparent to the rank and file of the retreating Germans. Since speed was imperative, the men had to move by day as well as by night, virtually inviting attack from the air. Since almost everybody, including the troops of the motorized 17. SS Panzergrenadierdivision , had to use either
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#17328525243376656-408: The Pfaelzer Forest was in keeping with the pattern almost everywhere. So long a target of both artillery and aircraft, the drab towns and cities in and close to the Siegfried Line were a shambles. "It is difficult to describe the destruction," wrote the 45th Division commander, General Frederick. "Scarcely a man-made thing exists in our wake; it is even difficult to find buildings suitable for CP's: this
6784-473: The Pfaelzer Forest. A column of the 10th Armored had moved astride the main highway through the woods and emerged on the Rhine flatlands at Landau. Any Germans who got out of the forest would have to do so by threading a way off the roads individually or in small groups. By nightfall of 22 March, the Germans west of the Rhine could measure the time left to them in hours. In the Siegfried Line on either side of Wissembourg, Petersen's XC Korps continued to fight in
6912-417: The Prussian Rhine Province and the Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate . In practice the region was administered by France. In 1920, this was formalized by a 15-year mandate by the League of Nations . In 1933, a considerable number of communists and other political opponents of Nazism fled to the Saar, as it was the only part of Germany that remained outside national administration following the First World War. As
7040-422: The Rhine to the 12th Armored Division and of actually capturing Kaiserslautern to an infantry unit, turned the 10th Armored Division south and southeast into the Pfaelzer Forest. By nightfall of 20 March, two of the 10th Armored's columns stood only a few hundred yards from the main highway through the forest, one almost at the city of Pirmasens on the western edge, the other not far from the eastern edge. A third
7168-424: The Saarland in a half-hearted offensive, occupying some villages and meeting little resistance, before withdrawing. After 8 April 1940 Bürckel's title was changed again to Reichskommissar für die Saarpfalz (Reich Commissioner for the Saar Palatinate); finally, after 11 March 1941, Bürckel was made Reichsstatthalter in der Westmark (Reich Governor of the Western Borderland). He died on 28 September 1944 and
7296-444: The Saarland, either alone or in coalition , since the accession of the state to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957. After the 2022 state elections the previous Grand Coalition between the CDU and SPD, the two largest parties in the Landtag, was replaced by an SPD majority government, the only single-party majority government of any German state, led by minister-president Anke Rehlinger . The gross domestic product (GDP) of
7424-650: The Saarland, specifically the Rhine-Franconian variant spoken in the state capital Saarbrücken is generally considered to be the Saarland dialect. The two dialect regions are mainly separated by the das / dat isogloss; in the northwestern portion of the state, including cities such as Saarlouis, standard German das is pronounced with a final [t] instead of an [s] . In general, both dialects are an integral part of Saarland identity. Both dialects, particularly in their respective Saarland flavour, share many characteristic features, some of which will be explained below. Women and girls are often referred to using
7552-418: The Seventh Army after fighting across France with the Third Army. A third corps, the XXI (Maj. Gen. Frank W. Milburn ), was relatively new, having joined the army in January. As the Seventh Army offensive began, the basic question was how stubbornly the Germans would defend before falling back on the Siegfried Line. Only Milburn's XXI Corps—on the Seventh Army's left wing, near Saarbrücken—was fairly close to
7680-543: The Seventh Army had advanced over 1,000 miles and for varying times had commanded 24 U.S. and Allied divisions, including the 3rd , 36th , 42nd , 44th , 45th , 63rd , 70th , 100th , and 103rd Infantry Divisions . The Seventh Army was inactivated in March 1946, in Germany, reactivated for a short time at Atlanta, Georgia , then inactivated again. It was reactivated by the United States European Command (EUCOM) with headquarters at Patch Barracks , Stuttgart -Vaihingen, Germany, on 24 November 1950 and assigned to command
7808-418: The Seventh Army on 10 July 1943 while at sea en route to the Allied invasion of Sicily as the spearhead of Operation Husky . After the conquests of Palermo and Messina the Seventh Army prepared for the invasion of France by its Mediterranean coast as the lead element of Operation Dragoon in August 1944. It then drove a retreating German army north and then east toward the Alsace , being absorbed into
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#17328525243377936-490: The Seventh went into the Saar , assaulted the Siegfried Line , and reached the River Rhine during the first week of March, 1945. In a lead role in Operation Undertone , the Seventh Army fought its way across the Rhine into Germany, captured Nuremberg and then Munich . Finally it crossed the Brenner Pass and made contact with Lieutenant General Lucian Truscott 's U.S. Fifth Army at Vipiteno – once again on Italian soil. In less than nine months of continuous fighting,
8064-414: The Siegfried Line even before the American offensive began, General Foertsch at 1. Armee and General Hausser at Army Group G had been impelled to deny the entreaties. The new Commander-in-Chief West— Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring —remained as faithful as his predecessor to the Hitler-imposed maxim of no withdrawal anywhere unless forced. As events developed, no formal order to pull back into
8192-423: The Siegfried Line on either side of Wissembourg . There, Petersen's XC Korps was charged with holding the fortifications and denying access to the flatlands along the Rhine. In the Seventh Army's original plan, the attached 3rd Algerian Division on the right wing of the VI Corps along the Rhine was to have been pinched out after it reached the Lauter River at the German frontier. The planners had not reckoned with
8320-412: The Siegfried Line, while other units were as much as 32 km (20 mi) away. Making the army's main effort in the center, Haislip's XV Corps faced what looked like a particularly troublesome obstacle in the town of Bitche . Surrounded by fortresses of the French Maginot Line , Bitche had been taken from the Germans in December after a hard struggle, only to be relinquished in the withdrawal forced by
8448-441: The Third Army that overran German lines of communication, Operation Undertone cleared Wehrmacht defenses and pushed to the Rhine in the area of Karlsruhe within 10 days. General Devers' victory—along with a rapid advance by the U.S. Third Army—completed the advance of Allied armies to the west bank of the Rhine along its entire length within Germany. The bulk of the text in this article is taken directly from The Last Offensive ,
8576-418: The U.S. position on detaching the Saar from Germany: "The United States does not feel that it can deny to France, which has been invaded three times by Germany in 70 years, its claim to the Saar territory". The Saar and Ruhr areas were historically a central location for coal mining. This attracted the steel industry, which is essential for the production of munitions. The Treaty of Paris (1951) established
8704-406: The advance of Walker's troops that all worthwhile objectives in Milburn's sector beyond the Siegfried Line already had fallen. Milburn and his XXI Corps had achieved a penetration but had no place to go. Patch seized on the situation to provide a boost for his army's main effort, the attack of the XV Corps through Zweibrücken toward the Kaiserslautern Gap. In two days of hammering at XIII SS Korps ,
8832-404: The army fed into jump-off positions. This meant to Patch that the Seventh Army could not attack before the target date, 15 March. All along the Moselle, from Koblenz to Trier, the German 7. Armee on 17 March was in peril, if not from direct attack, then from the flanking thrust against the right wing of the 1. Armee by General Walton Walker ′s XX Corps . Collapse of the 7. Armee clearly
8960-401: The aspirations of the French and their First Army commander, General Jean de Lattre . Assured of support from the provisional head of the French state, General Charles de Gaulle , de Lattre was determined to acquire a zone along the Rhine north of the Lauter in order to assure a Rhine crossing site for the final drive into Germany. As the Algerians matched and sometimes exceeded the strides of
9088-436: The battalion pulled back another few hundred yards to better positions on the edge of a copse. In the sector of the 36th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. John E. Dahlquist ), the day's fighting produced a heroic performance by a rifleman of the 142d Infantry , Pfc. Silvestre S. Herrera . After making a one-man charge that carried a German strongpoint and took eight prisoners, Herrera and his platoon were pinned down by fire from
9216-607: The beaches of southern France in the St. Tropez and St. Raphael area. On 15 September, the Seventh was put under the field control of the 6th Army Group , under Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers . The 6th Army Group also included the French First Army . Within one month, the Seventh Army, which by then employed three American divisions , five French divisions and the 1st Airborne Task Force , had advanced 400 miles north and joined with
9344-515: The besieged battalion. On the Seventh Army's right wing, pointed toward the Wissembourg Gap, divisions of Brooks's VI Corps experienced, with the exception of the 3rd Algerian Division, much the same type of opposition. Although all four attacking divisions had to overcome the initial obstacle of a river, either the Moder or a tributary, they accomplished the job quickly with predawn assaults. The Germans were too thinly stretched to do more than man
9472-557: The city. The fact that the 63rd Division early hit the Siegfried Line provided ready explanation for the stanch opposition there. The other was on the extreme right wing where an attached 3rd Algerian Infantry Division (3e Division d'Infanterie d'Algerie ) was to clear the expanse of flatland between Hagenau and the Rhine. There an urban area closely backing the Moder River defensive line and flat ground affording superb fields of fire for dug-in automatic weapons accounted in large measure for
9600-570: The command of Patton, which allowed the Third to relieve surrounded American forces besieged at Bastogne . In mid-January 1945, the Seventh engaged in pitched battle seeking to regain ground lost to Germany's Operation Nordwind New Year's offensive. Along with the French First Army, the Seventh went on the offensive in February 1945 and eliminated the Colmar Pocket . After capturing the city of Strasbourg ,
9728-563: The commander of the United States Seventh Army was "dual hatted" as the Commanding General, United States Army Europe . Saarland Saarland ( German: [ˈzaːʁ̞lant] , Luxembourgish: [ˈzaːlɑnt] ; French : Sarre [saʁ] ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of 2,570 km (990 sq mi) and population of 990,509 in 2018, it
9856-466: The commanders of the two armies—Third and Seventh—to deal directly with each other rather than through their respective army group headquarters. Facing the undented fortifications of the Siegfried Line, the Seventh Army commander planned a set-piece attack, preceded by an extensive program of aerial bombardment. Before the attack could begin, supplies had to be accumulated, division and corps boundaries adjusted, some units shuffled, and new divisions joining
9984-412: The day, but early in the evening the defense collapsed. General Franz Beyer 's LXXX Korps , transferred from the 7. Armee to plug the hole from the north alongside the Rhine, had hardly anything left to prevent the 12th Armored Division from driving southward from Ludwigshafen toward Speyer . By nightfall of the 22nd, a column of the 12th Armored stood only 10 km (6.2 mi) from Speyer, and on
10112-466: The divisions of the XV Corps still had opened no hole through the Siegfried Line for armored exploitation. Send a combat command, Patch directed the XV Corps commander, Haislip, to move through the 63rd Division's gap and come in on the rear of the Siegfried Line defenders facing the XV Corps. That the Americans would exploit the withdrawal was too obvious to escape the 1. Armee commander, Foertsch. During
10240-419: The effect of opening a path through the Siegfried Line for the left wing of the U.S. Seventh Army. Despite a stubborn rear guard, the 63rd Division of Milburn's XXI Corps broke through the main belt of fortifications near St. Ingbert late on 19 March. Had events moved according to plan, Milburn then would have sent an armored column northward to link with Walker's XX Corps near St. Wendel ; but so swift had been
10368-539: The end approved the plan. He and Bradley agreed on a new boundary that afforded the Third Army a good road leading northeast from Saarlautern to headwaters of the Nahe River, some 56 km (35 mi) northeast of Saarlautern, thence along the valley of the Nahe to the Rhine at Bingen . This boundary gave the Third Army responsibility for clearing the northwestern third of the Saar-Palatinate. Bradley and Devers also authorized
10496-425: The fighter-bombers and the mediums and heavies of the 8th Air Force . The latter hit Siegfried Line fortifications and industrial targets in cities such as Zweibrücken and Kaiserslautern. The weather was clear, enabling the aircraft to strike at a variety of targets, limited only by range and bomb-carrying capacity. Among the German casualties were the operations officers of two of the three XC Korps divisions. Of
10624-457: The first of two French ambassadors, his successor being Éric de Carbonnel (1910–1965) until 1956. Saarland, however, was allowed a regional administration very early, consecutively headed by: In 1954, France and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) developed a detailed plan called the Saarstatut (Saar Statute) to establish an independent Saarland. It was signed as an agreement between
10752-500: The following year. From that time forward the Seventh Army has been the headquarters for all Army units under the European Command . Its major subordinate elements were the V Corps and VII Corps (Inactivated 1992.) From 1 December 1966 to present, the commander of Seventh Army has been "dual hatted" as Commanding General, United States Army Europe . The Seventh Army was deactivated on 17 April 2010. Note - Starting in 1966,
10880-462: The forested terrain. The adjustment meant that the Siegfried Line assault by the four American divisions of the VI Corps was to be concentrated in a zone less than 32 km (20 mi) wide. Since the German XC Korps had only the remnants of two volksgrenadier divisions and an infantry training division to defend against both Americans and French, a breakthrough of the fortifications was but
11008-744: The formerly Prussian part of Saarland) and Speyer (for the smaller eastern formerly Palatine part). 17.5% of the Saarlandic population adhere to the Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD), organised in the two Landeskirchen named Evangelical Church in the Rhineland and Evangelical Church of the Palatinate , both following the same former territorial partition. 25.7% are not affiliated with one of these churches. Saarland has
11136-416: The fortifications ever emerged above corps level. Beginning the night of 16 March, commanders facing the U.S. XV Corps simply did the obvious, ordering their units to seek refuge in the Siegfried Line whenever American pressure grew so great that withdrawal or annihilation became the only alternatives. The next day, commanders facing the U.S. VI Corps adopted the same procedure. It became at that point as much
11264-542: The fortifications while Patton's forces took them from the rear. The Seventh Army numbered among its ranks several relatively inexperienced units but retained a flavoring of long-term veterans. The VI Corps (Maj. Gen. Edward H. Brooks ), for example, and three divisions—the 3rd, 36th, and 45th—had fought at length in the Mediterranean theater, including the Anzio beachhead. The XV Corps (Maj. Gen. Wade H. Haislip ) had joined
11392-673: The ground and service forces of United States Army Europe (USAREUR). For over a decade the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra performed in support of the United States Army's cultural diplomacy initiatives throughout Germany and Europe in the aftermath of World War II (1952–1962). On 30 November 1966, the Seventh Army was relocated from Patch Barracks to Heidelberg . Following French disagreements with certain NATO policies, United States European Command relocated from Paris
11520-528: The heavy industrialization that grew as a result. Saarland was first established as a distinct political entity in 1920 after World War I as the Territory of the Saar Basin , which was occupied and governed by France under a League of Nations mandate . Saarland was returned to Nazi Germany in the 1935 Saar status referendum . Following World War II in Europe , the territory was occupied by France then became
11648-457: The highest concentration of Roman Catholics of any German state, and is the only state in which Catholics form an absolute majority (over 50%). Except for the periods between 1985 and 1999, as well as since 2022 – when the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) has held a majority of seats in the Landtag (state diet) – the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has governed
11776-489: The imperative or greeting aalleh! (from allez! ). The English sentence "My house is green" is pronounced almost the same in the Rhine Franconian variant: Mei Haus is grien . The main difference lies in the pronunciation of the ⟨r⟩ sound. Regional beer brewer Karlsberg has taken advantage of the Saarlandish dialect to create clever advertising for its staple product, UrPils. Examples include
11904-545: The invasion of North Africa. On 6 March 1943, following the defeat of the U.S. II Corps by the German Afrika Korps , commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel , at the Battle of Kasserine Pass , Patton replaced Major General Lloyd Fredendall as Commanding General of the II Corps and was promoted to lieutenant general. The Seventh Army arm patch was approved on 23 June 1943: On a blue isosceles triangular background,
12032-469: The issue for military government officials. In more than one city, particularly Homburg, looting and pillage were rampant. Running the gantlet of American fighter aircraft through the Pfaelzer Forest, the amorphous mass of retreating Germans faced still a fourth American threat—Brooks's VI Corps, which had followed closely the German withdrawal from northeastern Alsace and on 19 March had begun to assault
12160-560: The line to the Rhine was the XC Korps ( General der Infanterie Erich Petersen ) with two volksgrenadier divisions and remnants of an infantry training division. Although the Germans worried most about a breakthrough in the sector of Petersen's XC Korps into the Wissembourg Gap rather than through Simon's XIII SS Korps into the Kaiserslautern corridor, the shifts and countershifts made in preceding weeks to salvage reinforcements for
12288-472: The main east–west highway through the forest or the secondary road close behind the Siegfried Line, American fighter pilots had only to aim their bombs, their cannon, and their machine guns in the general direction of those roads to be assured of hitting some target. An acute gasoline shortage added to the German difficulties. Almost every foot of the two roads soon became clogged with abandoned, damaged, or wrecked vehicles, guns, and equipment. The destruction in
12416-476: The momentum of the 3rd Division's advance picked up accordingly. The German problem was to get the survivors of both the LXXXV Korps and the XIII SS Korps through the Pfaelzer Forest despite three dire threats: one from the closely following troops of the U.S. Seventh Army; another from the 10th Armored Division of Walker's XX Corps, which at Kaiserslautern was in a position to swing south and southeast through
12544-553: The more difficult fighting. Elsewhere, local engagements sometimes were vicious and costly but usually were short-lived. Anti-personnel and anti-tank mines abounded. German artillery fire seldom was more than moderate and in most cases could better be classified as light or sporadic. That was attributable in part to a campaign of interdiction for several days preceding the attack by planes of the XII Tactical Air Command (Brig. Gen. Glenn O. Barcus) and by D-day strikes by both
12672-438: The neuter pronoun es , with the pronunciation being something like Ähs : Ähs hat mir's gesaat ( ' it told me so', instead of ' she told me so'; vs. High German: Sie hat es mir gesagt ). This stems from the word Mädchen (girl) being neuter ( es is correct when referring to words like Mädchen but would not be used by itself in reference to a woman). The subjunctive in Rhine Franconian
12800-614: The newly created Sixth United States Army Group in mid-September. In January 1945 it repelled a fierce but brief enemy counter-offensive in the Colmar Pocket south of Strasbourg during the German Operation Nordwind , then completed its reduction of the region by mid-March. In a lead role in Operation Undertone launched 15 March, the Seventh Army fought its way across the Rhine into Germany, capturing Nuremberg and then Munich . Elements reached Austria and crossed
12928-469: The night of the 19th, he extended the authority to withdraw to the west wing of the XIII SS Korps . Thus, hardly had the American combat command begun to move early on 20 March to exploit the 63rd Division's penetration when the 45th Division of the XV Corps also advanced past the last pillboxes of the Siegfried Line near Zweibrücken. During the night of the 20th, the rest of the SS korps also began to pull back, and
13056-509: The north and east; it also shares a small border about 8 kilometres (5 miles) long with the canton of Remich in Luxembourg to the northwest. Having long been a relatively small part of the long-contested territories along the Franco-German linguistic border, Saarland first gained specific economic and strategic importance in the nineteenth century due to the wealth of its coal deposits and
13184-434: The north and the east. It is named after the river Saar , a tributary of the Moselle (itself a tributary of the Rhine ), which runs through the state from the south to the northwest. Saarland is about the same size as neighboring Luxembourg with Luxembourg being 2,586sq km (998 sq mi) and Saarland at 2,570sq km (990sq mi. Within Germany, it is slightly larger than the combined area of the three city-states , But Saarland
13312-596: The objective was not only to clear the Saar - Palatinate but to establish bridgeheads with forces of the Sixth Army Group over the Rhine between Mainz and Mannheim . The U.S. Third Army of the Twelfth Army Group was to be limited to diversionary attacks across the Moselle to protect the Sixth Army Group's left flank. Opposing commanders were U.S. General Jacob L. Devers , commanding U.S. Sixth Army Group, and German SS General Paul Hausser , commanding German Army Group G . Significantly assisted by operations of
13440-501: The onrush of U.S. Third Army troops from west and northwest into the German rear. As the breakthrough of Walker's XX Corps developed in the direction of Kaiserslautern, concern had mounted in the 1. Armee lest those units in the Siegfried Line around Saarbrücken and Zweibrücken be trapped. Once Kaiserslautern fell, the only routes of withdrawal left to those troops led through the Haardt Mountains south of Kaiserslautern. Covered by
13568-474: The operation the Seventh and Eighth Armies came under the command of the 15th Army Group , under General Sir Harold Alexander . The headquarters of the Seventh Army remained relatively inactive at Palermo, Sicily, and Algiers until January 1944, when Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark , then commanding the U.S. Fifth Army on the Italian Front , was assigned as commander and the Seventh Army began planning for
13696-480: The outskirts of the fortress town of Bitche. Perhaps aided by the fact that they had done the same job before in December, they gained dominating positions on the fortified hills around the town, leaving no doubt that they would clear the entire objective in short order the next day, 16 March. The only counterattack to cause appreciable concern hit a battalion of the 3rd Division ′s 7th Infantry . Veterans of combat from
13824-501: The past, coal mining was an important branch of industry. However, the last coal mine in Saarland closed in 2012, ending 250 years of coal mining history in the region. The decision to close the mines was motivated by safety concerns about earthquakes in the region. The unemployment rate stood at 5.8% in October 2018 and was higher than the national average but below the EU28 average. Saarland
13952-467: The pillboxes in a manner that belied the futility of their mission. The 14th Armored Division (Maj. Gen. Albert C. Smith) attacked into the Wissembourg Gap on 20 March and then fought Germans of the XC Corps over the possession of Steinfeld for the next two days. Both at Neustadt and at Landau, remnants of two divisions of the XIII SS Korps , including the 17. SS Panzergrenadierdivision , had held through
14080-479: The plan prepared by the Third Army staff for a major attack across the Moselle. The 12th Army Group commander in turn promoted the plan with Eisenhower. Noting that the Germans had given no indication of withdrawing from the Siegfried Line in front of the Seventh Army and that Patch thus might be in for a long, costly campaign, Bradley suggested that the Third Army jump the Moselle near Koblenz , sweep south along
14208-535: The referendum Josef Bürckel was appointed on 1 March 1935 as the German Reich 's commissioner for reintegration ( Reichskommissar für die Rückgliederung des Saarlandes ). Once the reincorporation was accomplished, on 17 June 1936 his title was changed to Reichskommissar für das Saarland (Reich Commissioner for the Saarland). In September 1939, in response to the German invasion of Poland , French forces invaded
14336-692: The region was divided again. Most of it became part of the Prussian Rhine Province . Another part in the east, corresponding to the present Saarpfalz district, was allocated to the Kingdom of Bavaria . A small part in the northeast was ruled by the Duke of Oldenburg . On 31 July 1870, the French Emperor Napoleon III ordered an invasion across the River Saar to seize Saarbrücken. The first shots of
14464-428: The result of a merger of two Middle High German vowels – however, these mergers did not take place in the Saarland, and only one of the two merged vowels is pronounced as a diphthong. The front rounded vowels ö , ü , and eu are replaced by e , i , and ei respectively. Both the Rhine Franconian and Moselle Franconian dialects (and Luxembourgish ) have merged the palatal fricative sound as in ich with
14592-504: The river. Aided by searchlights, they bypassed strongpoints, leaving them for reserves to take out later. As night came, the 45th Division had driven almost 5 km (3.1 mi) beyond the Blies to match a rate of advance that was general everywhere except in the pillbox belt near Saarbrücken and on the flatlands near the Rhine. On the right wing of the XV Corps, men of the 100th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Withers A. Burress ) drove quickly to
14720-601: The state was €35.4 billion in 2018, accounting for 1.1% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €32,800 or 109% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 93% of the EU average. The GDP per capita was the second lowest of all states in West Germany. Important income sources are the automobile industry, steel industry, ceramic industry and computer science and information systems industry. In
14848-645: The territory. For the next 1,300 years the region shared the history of the Kingdom of the Franks , the Carolingian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire . The region of the Saarland was divided into several small territories, some of which were ruled by sovereigns of adjoining regions. Most important of the local rulers were the counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken . Within the Holy Roman Empire these territories gained
14976-537: The two countries on 23 October 1954 as one of the Paris Pacts , but a plebiscite held on 23 October 1955 rejected it by 67.7%. On 27 October 1956, the Saar Treaty declared that Saarland should be allowed to join West Germany, which it did on 1 January 1957. This was the last significant international border change in Europe until the fall of Communism over 30 years later. The Saarland's unification with West Germany
15104-463: The units of the outsized (six divisions) XV Corps, only a regiment of the 45th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Robert T. Frederick ) faced a water obstacle at the start. That regiment had to cross the Blies River at a site upstream from where the Blies turns northeast to meander up the Kaiserslautern corridor. Yet even before dawn men of the regiment had penetrated the enemy's main line of defense beyond
15232-488: The unlimited visibility of a clear day, grazing fire from automatic weapons prevented the Algerians from crossing a stretch of open ground facing the buildings of a former French Army frontier post. A welter of mines and two counterattacks, the latter repulsed in both cases by artillery fire, added to the problems. As night fell, no Algerian unit had advanced more than 1.6 kilometres. On the second day, 16 March, indications that
15360-420: The war strength in regard to German divisions was but a relative term. As Patch's Seventh Army attacked before daylight on 15 March, the apparent answer on German intentions was quick to come. Only in two places could the resistance be called determined. One was on the left wing, where the 63rd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Louis E. Hibbs) sought to bypass Saarbrücken on the east and cut German escape routes from
15488-439: The west bank of the Rhine to cut the enemy's supply lines, and at the same time press from its previously established Saar-Moselle bridgehead near Trier to come at the Siegfried Line fortifications from the rear. Eisenhower approved the plan without qualification. Although Devers was briefly reluctant to endorse Third Army operations south of the Moselle lest the two forces become entangled with their converging thrusts, he too in
15616-567: The west. The result was that Axis forces were trapped in Tunisia and were forced to surrender in May 1943. After succeeding in North Africa, Patton, now promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General , became commander of the newly formed Seventh Army, which was formed at midnight on 10 July 1943 by the redesignation of the I Armored Corps. The Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, was conducted in conjunction with
15744-409: Was but a question of time. Soon the German 1. Armee , too, would be in dire straits, for the U.S. Seventh Army two days earlier, on 15 March, had launched a drive against General Hermann Foertsch ′s army along a 110 km (68 mi) front from the vicinity of Saarlautern southeastward to the Rhine. Even if that offensive failed to penetrate the Siegfried Line, it might tie the 1. Armee troops to
15872-410: Was nearing Neustadt , farther north beyond the fringe of the forest. The 12th Armored meanwhile was approaching the Rhine near Ludwigshafen . Not only were the withdrawal routes through the Pfaelzer Forest about to be compromised but a swift strike down the Rhine plain from Neustadt and Ludwigshafen against the last escape sites for crossing the Rhine appeared in the offing. In desperation, on 20 March
16000-410: Was pouring unchecked through General Walther Hahm 's LXXXII Korps . The 10th Armored Division ′s arrival at Kaiserslautern itself on 20 March meant not only that the gap was compromised by a force well in the rear of Knieß′' formations but also that the only way out for both Knieß′ troops and those of the adjacent XIII SS Korps was through the Pfaelzer Forest. As Knieß′ withdrawal progressed, it had
16128-571: Was sometimes referred to as the Kleine Wiedervereinigung ('little reunification', in contrast with the post-Cold War reunification with the GDR ). After unification, the Saar franc remained as the territory's currency until West Germany's Deutsche Mark replaced it on 7 July 1959. The Saar Treaty established that French, not English as in the rest of West Germany, should remain the first foreign language taught in Saarland schools; this provision
16256-422: Was still largely followed after it was no longer binding. Since 1971, Saarland has been a member of SaarLorLux , a euroregion created from Saarland, Lorraine , Luxembourg , Rhineland Palatinate , and Wallonia . The state borders France (department of Moselle , which forms part of the region of Grand Est ) to the south and west, Luxembourg ( Grevenmacher District ) to the west and Rhineland-Palatinate to
16384-631: Was succeeded by Willi Stöhr , who remained in office until the region fell to advancing American forces in March 1945. After World War II , the Saarland came under French occupation again and became the Saar Protectorate . France did not annex the Saar or expel the local German population, in contrast to the fate of the territories which were merged by Poland and the USSR. In his speech " Restatement of Policy on Germany ", made in Stuttgart on 6 September 1946, United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes stated
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