Patton's Pawns: The 94th US Infantry Division at the Siegfried Line

13. The Race for the Rhine

The relief of the 94th Infantry Division by the 26th was about halfway complete when XX Corps intervened on March 8 with orders to stop. General Walker appeared at the joint divisional headquarters in Saarburg at 1245 the next day with fresh orders from General Patton calling for an all-out push to the Rhine. It was an undertaking in which the 94th would have to play a major part. With Trier secure, Patton was determined to get troops across the Rhine in what he saw as a race with Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch of the Seventh Army and Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, although troops of Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges of the First Army had already seized the bridge at Remagen the day before and crossed over to the east bank. After a considerable reshuf®e of the troops on the ground, XX Corps was eventually lined up with the 94th Infantry Division on the left, Maj. Gen. Horace L. McBride’s 80th in the center, and the 26th on the right. The XX Corps’ plan of attack called for a push east to the Nahe River, where the corps would turn northeast up the river valley and head for Mainz-Kastel. On the left of the 94th Infantry, the 3rd Cavalry Group would cover the corps’ northern ®ank. Right of the 94th Infantry, in a parallel move, the 80th Infantry would cover the advance’s southern ®ank, while the 26th Infantry pushed south to roll up the Siegfried Line along the Saar River.1 Within the 94th Infantry Division, the advance would be made with the 302nd Infantry on the left and the 301st on the right. These two regiments would pass through the 376th, who were holding the line and 13 The Race for the Rhine would then become the divisional reserve. The axis of both attacking regiments converged on Hermeskeil. The attack was launched at 0300 on March 13 with a ¤fteen-minute preparation by thirty-one battalions of corps and divisional ¤eld artillery. The terrain was dif¤cult, consisting of high, ¤r-covered hills with deep valleys and ravines, which the seriously depleted German units could defend only in isolated instances, and so often could easily be bypassed. The mopping up could be left for the reserve companies and battalions to do in daylight. By the third day the 302nd Infantry had moved to within three miles of Hermeskeil, and shortly after midnight General Walker ordered the 10th Armored Division to move off before daylight and pass through the 94th Infantry Division and head for the Nahe River, some twenty-¤ve miles away. When General Eisenhower visited Patton’s headquarters in the late morning of March 16, Patton asked for more armor, and Eisenhower agreed to the release of the 12th Armored Division to augment XX Corps the next day. Hermeskeil, the 94th’s primary objective, was taken that same morning . Now that the infantry had broken the crust of the German resistance in the hilly, densely wooded terrain of the Scharzwälder Hochwald, the 12th Armored Division pushed forward to take over the lead, heading eastward for the Kaiserslautern Gap, while farther south the 10th Armored Division headed for Kaiserslautern itself, taking the 301st Infantry along with it. The speed of the advance accelerated to a rapid pace, with the men of the 94th Infantry riding the tanks of the 10th and 12th Armored and any other vehicles at hand, getting off only to clear the points of opposition as they were encountered. The collapse of the German defense is demonstrated by the 94th’s haul of prisoners on March 14, 15, and 16, which amounted to 344, 341, and more than 700 respectively. Thereafter the numbers of enemy soldiers who surrendered were between 3,000 and 3,500 a day. The 301st Infantry was released by the 10th Armored on March 17, but because of a lack of transport they were stuck in Hermeskeil until March 19. After having cleared several areas of bypassed pockets of German troops, the regiment rejoined the 94th on March 22. The sheer speed of the advance brought its own problems, including heavy congestion on the few roads. Every available vehicle was pressed into service to carry forward the infantry, thus creating a fuel crisis that was met by the quartermaster truck companies bringing fuel forward and returning Race for the Rhine / 291 laden...