The Colmar Pocket of World War II
The U.S. 75th Infantry Division after the Battle of the Bulge
With the Bulge secured, the 75th Infantry Division assists in the elimination of the Colmar Pocket in eastern France, before returning to Holland and entering Germany.
The Colmar Pocket
After the ‘Bulgebusters’ participated in driving the German Ardennes Offensive back to the Siegfried Line, the 75th moved to Ribeauville in Alsace-Lorraine on January 28th. The German hold of the Colmar region was a menace to French pride. The 75th was to help remove the Germans from French soil. They were assigned to the XXI Corps along with the 3rd Infantry Division, 28th Infantry Division, and 5th French Armored Division, under French First Army operations, and under the Seventh United States Army for administration and supply. The assignment of the XXI Corps was to take the walled city of Neuf-Brisach and block German escape across the Rhine River. The 75th Division was to cover the flank of the 3rd Infantry Division as it pushed south along the Rhine.
The XXI Corps’ battles took place in forests and towns which provided the only cover from excellent artillery observation points in the surrounding mountains. At the start of the operation, and in addition to enemy artillery, snow became an obstacle the attackers faced; up to a foot of snow covered the plains of the pocket with heavier amounts in the mountain regions. By the time the battle was in its concluding phases, a mid-winter thaw began to cause flooding. Fortunately for the Allied forces, the mud caused by the floods did not hamper armored operations, as the tanks sank down to a bed of gravel about 8 inches below the topsoil.
The 75th crossed the Colmar Canal on February 1st at Andolsheim. With the 3rd Infantry Division advancing on Neuf-Brisach, the 75th advanced on Wolfgantzen. The 75th Divisions 291st Infantry Regiment fought through the Forest Domaniale, encountering heavy opposition including reinforced concrete dugouts. On February 5th the 291st‘s Company C, moved down the canal hitting Wolfgantzen from the north as Company A hit from the west with armored support, securing the town. The division had also secured Hettenschlag. Both towns were defended by elements of the German 305th Volksgrenadier Regiment and the German 198th Division. The 75th would reach the Rhine-Rhone Canal, south of Neuf-Brisach, on February 6th, as the 3rd Infantry captured Neuf-Brisach. The next day the 75th would enter town of Colmar and arrive at the Rhine River; after the French had secured the town with a screening operation performed by elements of the 75th. Sergeant Clyde L. Dodson of Company I, 290th Infantry Regiment, would lead the first patrol to Rhine River.
French First Army Commander, General Delattre de Tassigny, sent a message to the American units who assisted in the Colmar operation. In part the message read, “Thanks to you, my beloved American comrades, who had brought us your courage and who have spared nothing to help us — neither your arms nor your blood... The German has been driven from the sacred soil of France. He will never return.”
Major General Ray E. Porter, commander of the division, relayed his thoughts about the operation in his farewell letter in June 1945, “I met you first near the end of those bitter cold and hard fought days in the Ardennes…Since then you have constantly improved your skill in the art of war…In the Colmar Pocket, where you saw war in its ugliest aspects, you performed excellently under the French First Army.”
Moving again on February 11th, the division relocated to the Luneville area for some rest, although that would not last long. Orders arrived and the men were on their way back to Holland, arriving by February 18th. This move set the division for entry into Germany, and into the Ruhr industrial region, to assist in the elimination of yet another pocket of enemy resistance – The Ruhr Pocket.
Additional Sources:
Stanton, Captain Shelby L., World War II Order of Battle: An Encyclopedic Reference to U.S. Army Ground Forces from Battalion through Division 1939-1946 (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1984 and 2006)
MacDonald, Charles B., The Last Offensive: United States Army in World War II, The European Theater of Operations (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1995)
