Patton renews attack on Metz

8th November 1944: An unexpected break in the weather helps the US Third Army during their new attack on the interlocking fortified positions

Bombs from a P-47 fighter-bomber of the XIX Tactical Air Command explode atop Fort Driant in the Metz ring of fortifications, September 27, 1944

Although the bomb craters look impressive, the walls of Fort Driant were barely dented by American air power.

The town of Metz lies on the French-German border and had lain within both countries at different times during the preceding century. Both countries had heavily fortified it. The Germans had occupied it in 1940 when it reverted back to German territory. Now, Hitler saw it as a fortress city to be defended to the death, a major obstacle to the Allied advance into Germany.

Miserable autumn weather forced many in Patton’s Third Army to seek shelter - even if that shelter was only a muddy foxhole under canvas. The 26th Division alone reported 3,000 cases of trench foot during the November offensive.

The discharge of over seven hundred guns sounded like the slamming of so many heavy doors in an empty house

After the U.S. Third Army had raced across France they had suffered a frustrating time as the Allied supply lines stretched out and they lacked the fuel and the ammunition to push forward. Once they were ready to go again they faced another frustration - the wet climate of north west Europe's winters. The scene was set for a miserable and bloody confrontation, one that would continue to frustrate the Army commander, George S. Patton¹:

I woke up at 0300 on the morning of November 8, 1944, and it was raining very hard. I tried to go to sleep, but finding it impossible, got up and started to read Rommel’s book, Infantry Attacks.