The Colmar Pocket – “The Forgotten Campaign”
Courtesy www.ibiblio.org
Courtesy www.ibiblio.org
"The Battle of the Bulge" is known by many as this was a famous battle with huge losses on both sides. However, only a few people know of the "The Colmar Pocket" during the Allied Alsace Campaign to free this part of France from the Nazis. Both were very related in the German's scheme.
The "Battle of the Bulge" was an operation, when the Germans tried in a last attempt to broke through the Allied lines and gained a very dangerous amount of territory.
The Colmar Pocket, however was the result of the French 1st Army's incapability to push the Germans back across the Rhine River. The US 7th Army was on the left flank of the French. The French, with their zone of operation went up to the Swiss border, were also the most southerly located Force.
Part of the Seventh Army's was Patton's 3rd Army. By the end of November 1944, the 7th and the 3rd US Army pushed the Germans back across the Rhine and behind its own borders. The only remaining German units west of the Rhine in the southern region were around the Alsace city of Colmar, in the French sector. This so called “Pocket” were 35 to 40 miles west of the Rhine. This German position were a serious threat to the rear of the Allies to the north and had to be destroyed.
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