A MARATHON AT SPRINT SPEED
Tanks wheeled east. Nantes, on the Loire, was taken Aug. 10 by CC A after an 80-mile march from Lorient. Four days later, CC A had pushed 153 miles to St. Calais, refueled, and six hours later stood before Orleans. By dark, the combat command reached Ormes and captured the airport.
Next morning CC A cracked into Orleans, then turned it over to the 35th Inf. Div.
When 4th Armd. came under XII Corps Aug. 15, Lorient was left to the 6th Armd. Div. CC B began its longest continuous march. The columns drove east 264 miles in 34 hours before halting at Prunay, south of Vendome.
A small task force, with the mission of destroying bridges, engaged in something like a naval battle along the gentle valley of the Loire River. The column, commanded by Maj. Edward Bautz, Dumont, N. J., was moving on the north bank near Amboise when it spied a German column on the opposite bank. The 4th opened fire with everything from tommyguns to 755. Germans, trapped between high ground and the river, suffered heavy losses.
Assembled near Orleans, the division resumed its drive east Aug. 21. The same afternoon, CC A sped into the heart of Sens to secure a crossing of the Yonne River. Five railroad trains, 50 carloads of diesel oil and 300 tons of food were seized.
Fourth Armd., as south flank and spearhead of Third Army, now was far east and south of Paris. Tankers had outflanked the French capital and sealed off German forces south of the Loire.
Historic river barriers, moats of France, were falling quickly to armor. CC B captured Courtenay, then moved on Montargis from the east. Evacuation of the city was forced Aug. 23, Without pausing, the division secured a bridgehead across the Seine at Troyes three days later after a savage fight.
Armored vehicles, commanded by Lt. Col. Arthur L. West, Stillwater, Okla., spread in open desert formation and charged down a three and a half mile slope under heavy fire. An SS brigade and supporting troops totaling 3000 Germans were routed and a Nazi general captured.
Three days later, CC A stormed across the Marne River to capture Vitry Le Francois. Chalons-sur-Marne, St. Dizier and Ligny fell. Light tanks racing through torrential rain led an attack into Commercy, captured the bridge across the Meuse and the high ground opposite the river. This country meant more trouble for engineers. The 24th Armd. Engr. Bn. fought, sweated to keep columns rolling.
Fourth Armd. finally stopped—not for blown bridges or 88’s—but for gasoline. The division had been burning captured fuel and gasoline delivered by transport planes. Maps and shells also had been flown to the outfit. When the overall gasoline supply problem became critical, higher headquarters halted the drive. The division had run a marathon at sprint speed. In the seven weeks since Normandy, the 4th had thrown a 700-mile right hook across the heart of France.
...Germans are frightened by your superior equipment, frightened by your more skillful tactics, and above all frightened by your magnificent courage and will to win. Since the beginning of your historic drive through Orleans to the east, the Fourth Armored Division has met its assigned tasks with the greatest distinction. The manner in which it seized successfully the towns of Sens, Troyes, Vitry Le Francois and Commercy and assisted in the capture of Montargis and Chalons-sur-Marne, was conspicuous evidence of its courage, its high state of combat efficiency, and the aggressive spirit of its leaders. In the establishing, defending and enlarging of our bridgehead across the Moselle, all members of the division have conducted themselves in a manner of which they may well be proud...
—MAJ. GEN. MANTON S. EDDY, COMMANDING XII CORPS,
1N A LETTER TO MA]. GEN. JOHN S. WOOD, THEN COMMANDING 4TH ARMD. DIV.
There was the cold, swift-running Moselle-River with the Wehrmacht waiting in its "winter line" on the east bank. With two tremenduous blows, the 4th smashed across it in mid-September of 1944.
Mediums of the 8th Tank Bn. rumbled into the Moselle Valley at Bayon, south of Nancy on Sept. 11. CC B was to make a crossing with the 55th Inf. Div.
The bridges were gone as well as the canal paralleling it on the west. First Lt. William C. Marshall, Newark, N.J., didn't wait for treadway spans. He wheeled his medium tank platoon to the canal's edge, fired 75’s into the opposite bank to break it down, then threw logs into the mud and trickle. Gunning his tank, Lt. Marshall roared down the 20-foot canal and labored triumphantly through to the other bank. He towed others of his platoon when they bogged down.
Five tanks raced downstream until the river split into three fordable channels. Water surged to the turrets as tanks plunged across the river. Climbing the bank, tankers roared ahead to smash German infantry and guns pressing back the thin bridgehead.
Two days later, CC A passed through the 80th Inf. Div. and crossed the Moselle north of Nancy at Dieu-louard. Troop D, 25th Cav. fought a bloody duel with anti-tank guns and infantry to lead the way.
Fourth Armd. was loose again. Two steel columns tore into Lorraine to form a pincers about Nancy. The city fell as Germans fled east.
CC A, then commanded by Col. Clarke, punched through and rampaged behind enemy lines to Aulnois, Lemoncourt, Fresnes, Arracourt and Einville. More than 100 German tanks were destroyed, 1903 prisoners taken, as many killed. Rear echelon of a Panzer Grenadier division was caught at Arracourt and wiped out.
CC B, south jaw of the pincers, gouged northeast to Chateau Salins over streams and canals. The 24th Engrs., supported by the 995th Engr. Treadway Bridge Co., floated a 168-foot bridge over the Moselle at Bayon and a 180-foot bridge over the Meurthe at Mont.
Halted by command once more to permit infantry to catch up, the 4th stopped in the Arracourt area to protect the Nancy bridgehead.
In three weeks of furious combat after crossing the Moselle, fast-shooting tankers destroyed 281 German tanks. The mammoth German Mark V tanks were knocked off by the score. The division hurled back two Panzer Brigades and a panzer division all supported by grenadiers bent on ripping apart the bridgehead.
Germans attacked in fog and rain Sept. 19, and extremely bitter fighting occurred the next four days. The first morning, more than 40 German tanks attacked from the southeast toward Moyenvic. Stopped by the 57th, the panzers swung south in groups. They drove into the right flank of CC A. Co. C’s 1st and 2nd platoons of the 704th TD Bn. charged out to meet them.
A crew commanded by Sgt. Henry R. Hartman, Wallingford. Conn., knocked out six tanks with its 76mm gun. The two TD platoons destroyed 15 tanks while losing three TDs. Battered panzers withdrew, only to attack the-next day from the south. A task force from the 37th and the 10th blasted them back. In four days, the 37th destroyed 55 Panthers, lost 14 tanks. Meanwhile, Reserve Command beat off an armored attack on Luneville.
More Panthers crept under cover of fog to the 25th's bivouac near Juvelize Sept. 22. Although hopelessly outgunned, the squadron's light tank company fought the massive Mark Vs. Seven light tanks were hit, but TDs and Shermans smashed the enemy.
On the Xanrey-Moncel line, CC B threw back infantry and tank assaults supported by a heavy artillery preparation. Twenty-one German tanks were destroyed and 300 infantrymen killed as planes, tanks, artillery and armored infantry plastered the Germans.
Tank attacks dwindled, but the 4th continued bagging several Panthers daily. Fighting flared a week later at Hill 318. Tenth Inf. took the hill with air and artillery support, destroying 23 more tanks. The Moselle bridgehead was secure.
After 87 days of combat, the division was relieved by the 26th Inf. Div. Oct. 12. Four months before, the 4th had gone into battle confident but untried. It emerged a proud veteran with a distinguished record.