The Colmar Pocket (French: Poche de Colmar; German: Brückenkopf Elsass) was the area held in central Alsace, France, by the German Nineteenth Army from November 1944 to February 1945, against the U.S. 6th Army Group (6th AG) during World War II. It was formed when 6th AG liberated southern and northern Alsace and adjacent eastern Lorraine, but could not clear central Alsace. During Operation Nordwind in December 1944, the 19th Army attacked north out of the Pocket in support of other German forces attacking south from the Saar into northern Alsace. In late January and early February 1945, the French First Army (reinforced by the U.S. XXI Corps) cleared the Pocket of German forces.
Background
A German bridgehead on the west bank of the Rhine 65 kilometres (40 mi) long and 50 kilometres (30 mi) deep was isolated in November 1944 when the German defenses in the Vosges Mountains collapsed under the pressure of an offensive by the U.S. 6th Army Group. General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny's French First Army forced the Belfort Gap and destroyed the German IV Luftwaffe Field Corps near the town of Burnhaupt in the southern Vosges Mountains. Soon afterwards, French forces reached the Rhine in the region north of the Swiss border between Mulhouse and Basel. Likewise, in the northern Vosges Mountains, the French 2nd Armored Division spearheaded a U.S. Seventh Army advance, forced the Saverne Gap, and drove to the Rhine, liberating Strasbourg on 23 November 1944. The effect of these two advances was to collapse the German presence in southern Alsace west of the Rhine to a semi-circular bridgehead centered on the town of Colmar that came to be known as the "Colmar Pocket".
German view
Apart from Normandy, the areas of France most bitterly defended by the Germans were Alsace and Lorraine. This occurred in part because the Allied surge across France in 1944 was slowed down by logistical difficulties as the Allies reached the easternmost extent of France, but the primary reason for the stout German defenses of these regions is that Alsace and Lorraine were claimed as part of Germany and would be defended as strongly as any other German soil. This perception informed Hitler's decisions of 24 November and 27 November 1944, that committed General Siegfried Rasp's 19th Army to a do-or-die defense of the region around Colmar. On 26 November, the Germans formed Army Group Oberrhein under the command of Heinrich Himmler and tasked his command with the defense of the front between the Bienwald and the Swiss border. Of prime importance to the German defense around Colmar were the bridges over the Rhine at Breisach and Chalampé, since it was over these bridges that supplies were delivered.
Allied limitations
The logistical crisis and heavy combat of autumn 1944 had dulled the fighting edge of Allied forces throughout northwestern Europe. Restricted logistical support imposed limits on the usage of artillery ammunition and the number of divisions the Allies could effectively employ in the front lines. Faulty forecasts for the numbers of infantry replacements needed prevented U.S. rifle companies from maintaining full strength.
On the part of the French, their replacement system was limited by the amount of training infrastructure they had been able to re-establish since reentering France in August 1944 and was further strained by a controversial French decision to "whiten" the French forces in Alsace by sending experienced Senegalese and other colonial troops—exhausted from fighting in Italy—to the south and replacing them with French Forces of the Interior (FFI) troops of varying quality and experience. While the FFI troops were capable of defensive operations, they had to undergo a steep learning curve in order to become effective at offensive operations, particularly where complex activities such as combined-arms operations were concerned.
At the close of November 1944, the French First Army deployed two kinds of units—highly experienced colonial units and "green" units that had recently received a large influx of FFI troops. Coupled with a supporting arms structure (artillery, engineers, etc.) that was weaker than that of other Allied field armies, the sag in French First Army troop proficiency allowed the Germans to hold the Colmar Pocket against an unsuccessful French offensive from 15–22 December 1944.
Allied force redeployments
On New Year's Day 1945, the Germans launched Unternehmen Nordwind (Operation "North Wind"), one objective of which was the recapture of Strasbourg. German troops of the 198th Infantry Division and the 106th Panzer Brigade attacked north out of the Colmar Pocket from 7–13 January. Although the defending French II Corps suffered some minor losses during this attack, the French held the front south of Strasbourg and frustrated German attempts to recapture the city. Following the failure of Nordwind, 6th Army Group was ordered to collapse the Colmar Pocket as part of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's plan for all Allied forces to close on the Rhine prior to invading Germany. Since the bulk of Allied troops surrounding the Colmar Pocket were French, this mission was assigned to the French First Army.
The U.S. 3rd Infantry Division had moved into the Vosges Mountains during mid-December to replace the worn-out U.S. 36th Infantry Division and so was already in place to support the reduction of the Colmar Pocket. Realizing the French would need the assistance of additional U.S. troops for the coming battle, General Jacob Devers, commander of 6th Army Group, arranged for the transfer of a U.S. division from another part of the front. The U.S. 28th Infantry Division duly arrived from the Ardennes front and took up position along the right flank of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division. With the 28th Division in the Kaysersberg Valley, the 3rd Division would be able to concentrate for an attack against two German divisions, the 708th (a Volksgrenadier division) and the 189th Infantry. Additionally, a U.S. armored division, the 10th, was scheduled to support the offensive, but as events developed, it was the U.S. 12th Armored Division that was eventually committed to the battle.
Weather and terrain
The winter of 1944–45 was uncommonly cold for northwestern Europe. In his History of the French First Army, General de Lattre described the weather in Alsace as "Siberian" with temperatures of -20 °C (-4 °F), strong winds, and over three feet (1 m) of snow.
The Alsatian Plain is flat and offers an attacker practically no cover other than occasional woods. The plain is also a drainage basin for the Rhine and is consequently cut by many streams and drainage canals with alluvium-coated bottoms, making them treacherous for vehicles to ford. Dotting the plain are small villages made up of sturdy masonry houses whose multi-storey construction offered defending troops a commanding view of the surrounding fields.
Battle
Initial French attack against the south flank of the Colmar Pocket
General Émile Béthouart's French I Corps (French: Ier Corps d'Armée) attacked on 20 January 1945. The 2nd and 4th Moroccan Divisions had as their initial objective Ensisheim (47°51′59″N 07°21′11″E / 47.86639°N 7.35306°E). The 9th Colonial Division conducted secondary attacks on the right flank of the corps, north of Mulhouse. In support were tanks of the French 1st Armored Division. Attacking in a snowstorm, the French I Corps initially achieved tactical surprise against its opponent, General Erich Abraham's LXIII. Armeekorps. The attack of the French I Corps slowed through the night as German counterattacks began. The difficult weather and terrain coupled with a German defense in depth stymied the French I Corps advance and severely limited its success. The French attack, however, succeeded in drawing German mobile reserves (the 106th Panzer Brigade and the 654th Heavy Antitank Battalion) and the German 2nd Mountain Division south. However, even this limited success was not without significant cost: one brigade of the French 1st Armored Division, Combat Command 1 (CC1), lost 36 of some 50 medium tanks to land mines. Losses in other tank units were similar.
Unlike most of the terrain on the Alsatian Plain, the terrain the French I Corps fought in was hemmed in by woodlands and urban areas, and so ground was won only slowly in January after the first day of the attack. The 4th Moroccan Mountain Division was able to push only some two miles (3 km) to the northeast in the direction of Cernay (47°48′36″N 07°10′37.2″E / 47.81000°N 7.177000°E). On the 4th Division's right flank and to the southeast, the 2nd Moroccan Infantry Division enjoyed greater success, pushing almost four miles (6 km) to the northeast in the direction of Wittelsheim (47°48′00″N 07°14′06″E / 47.80000°N 7.23500°E). On the right flank and starting from the city of Mulhouse, the 9th Colonial Division also pushed 3–4 miles (5–6 km) through the suburbs of Mulhouse and the woods north of the city, with CC1 taking Richwiller (47°46′48″N 07°16′55.2″E / 47.78000°N 7.282000°E) and the 6th Colonial Infantry Regiment liberating Wittenheim (47°48′18″N 07°20′16.8″E / 47.80500°N 7.338000°E). On 24 January, a German armored counterattack near Richwiller was repulsed by the French colonial troops, with the Germans losing 15 tanks and tank destroyers. Overall, the gains of the French I Corps were greater in the western part (right flank) of its sector of the front, but the Germans in large part succeeded in stalemating the corps' advance.
Allied attack in the north
General Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert's II e Corps d'Armée launched its attack on 22–23 January. The attacking units were the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division and the French 1st Infantry Marching Division. South of the 3rd Division, the U.S. 28th Infantry Division defended its sector of the front. In reserve was the French 2nd Armored Division.
Push to the Colmar Canal and the battle for Jebsheim
General John W. O'Daniel's 3rd U.S. Infantry Division attacked to the southeast on 22 January, aiming to cross the Ill River, bypass the city of Colmar to the north, and open a path for the tanks of the French 5th Armored Division to drive on the railway bridge supplying the Germans in the Colmar Pocket at Neuf-Brisach.
The division's 7th Infantry Regiment pushed to the south, clearing the region between the Fecht and Ill Rivers. During the clearing operations of the 7th Infantry, Private First Class Jose F. Valdez sacrificed himself at a small railway station near Rosenkranz (48°07′49.22″N 07°21′22.32″E / 48.1303389°N 7.3562000°E) to cover the withdrawal of other members of his squad and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. The 30th Infantry Regiment moved southeast, crossed the Ill River north of the timber bridge at the Maison Rouge farm, and moved south early on 23 January, capturing the Maison Rouge bridge (48°09′03.6″N 07°25′22.8″E / 48.151000°N 7.423000°E). The 30th Infantry then moved south into the Riedwihr Woods (French: Bois de Riedwihr), toward the towns of Riedwihr (48°07′26.4″N 07°26′42″E / 48.124000°N 7.44500°E) and Holtzwihr (48°06′36″N 07°25′30″E / 48.11000°N 7.42500°E).
The bridge at Maison Rouge proved unable to support U.S. tanks (the bridge collapsed under the weight of a tank), and so the 30th Infantry had only minimal antitank capability (bazookas and three 57 mm anti-tank guns) when they were counter-attacked late in the afternoon by German infantry and heavy tank destroyers of the 708th Volksgrenadier Division and 280th Assault Gun Battalion. Without cover and unable to dig foxholes because of the frozen terrain, the 30th Infantry was forced to withdraw, taking heavy casualties when the withdrawal assumed the character of a rout. The 30th Infantry reformed on the west bank of the Ill but was out of action for three days while it reorganized.
On 25 January, the U.S. 15th Infantry Regiment followed the course of the 30th Infantry and recaptured the bridge at Maison Rouge. A German counterattack, again supported by heavy tank destroyers, overran an exposed rifle company of the 15th Infantry around 08:00 but was unable to drive on the bridge because of U.S. defensive fire. Later in the day, U.S. engineers erected a bridge over the Ill north of Maison Rouge, and a battalion of the 15th Infantry supported by tanks attacked to the south, finally securing the bridgehead. Over the next two days, the 15th Infantry pushed south toward the towns of Riedwihr and Holtzwihr, entering the Riedwihr Woods. German counterattacks were common, but the U.S. troops were able to parry them with support from tanks and tank destroyers.