Patton and the Third Armies Dash Across France to the Seine River

“Sometimes I get so obsessed with the tragedy and horror of seeing dead men that I can hardly stand it. But I guess there is nothing to do but keep going?”

These were the words of famed war reporter Ernie Pyle to describe the heavy losses that hit Allied lines against well-covered German forces during the deadly hedgerow fighting after the D-Day landings. Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force General Dwight D. Eisenhower watched his soldiers endure the horrific fighting in the hedgerow country of the French countryside. He sought a breakthrough to push his forces toward the French interior and quickly expand the twenty-mile-wide and fifty-mile-deep front lines that were precariously held by the Allies.

For much of the war, the Allies were concerned about the presence of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the commander of Army Group B. About six weeks after the Normandy landings, his car was strafed by Allied fighter planes, seriously wounding Rommel. Three days later, at Hitler’s “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters on the Eastern Front, German officers attempted to assassinate Hitler with a bomb and briefly moved to seize control of parts of the government in Berlin. Even as Hitler was targeted and initially believed by some conspirators to be dead, his armies continued to make the hedgerow fighting a deadly affair, with estimated casualties totaling more than 100,000 between both forces.

The British tried to penetrate the German lines through Operation GOODWOOD, where hundreds of tanks were put out of action or lost. Despite gaining several miles, the losses continued to mount, and the Allied timetable for conquering the rest of France was delayed by stiff Wehrmacht resistance. General Omar N. Bradley advocated using the air strength of Operation COBRA, a massive bombing operation designed to create a hole in the German lines. While American aircraft targeted enemy positions, some bombs fell on friendly forces, causing American casualties.

On August 1st, 1944, General George S. Patton was restored to operational command when the Third Army became active in the field against the Germans in France. With Allied armies struggling to break free of Normandy, Eisenhower expected this controversial figure to produce results, retaining him after the slapping incidents and the Knutsford controversy. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall gave Eisenhower the authority to fire Patton but warned him not to weaken his “fighting hand.” Marshall understood that the war was far from over and that Patton’s armored warfare skills could later be used against the Germans. Hitler defiantly ordered the Wehrmacht to slow and destroy Allied advances and supply lines and push Allied forces back toward the English Channel.

Patton pushed through the openings created by the massive bombing and advanced rapidly across open ground, aided by armored reconnaissance scouts searching for the enemy. The Third Army was composed of armored infantry, tanks and artillery, and they attacked in force. As Patton engaged the enemy, the Germans reeled under the pressure of the Third Army. As his forces moved quickly on the ground, Patton utilized P-51 and P-47 aircraft overhead to strike the enemy, protect his own forces and allow the advance to continue.

Within two weeks, Patton’s forces prevented enemy reinforcements from reaching Brittany and attacked toward the coast to open additional ports for Allied supplies. American forces advanced across French terrain so quickly that Eisenhower’s command had difficulty determining the location of some of Patton’s forces. The Germans offered only limited resistance in some areas against the spirited advances of American armor racing across French territory. Within the first two weeks of Patton’s successes, he proudly stated, “Third Army has advanced further and faster than any army in the history of the war.”

Patton’s next objective was to order his men quickly toward the Seine River, with his soldiers fighting to capture the cities of Dreux and Orléans. Outside Paris, the Germans struggled to slow the historic military advances of the Third Army, which was briefly held up by Bradley over concerns about lengthening supply lines. Patton’s forces went through and around enemy positions, where German troops could often muster only token resistance.

Eisenhower briefly ordered that his armies stop west of the Seine River to regroup, but his major subordinates advocated for a direct surge across eastern France and toward Germany. Given the speed of the offensive, Eisenhower relented on these original orders and eventually directed his armies eastward to trap and destroy German troops, trucks and armor.

Next week: The fall of Paris and Patton’s advances eastward.