Navigation bar
  Home View PDF document Start Previous page
 4 of 35 
Next page End 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  

THE OPERATIONS OF THE 1ST BATTALION, 358TH INFANTRY,
(90TH INFANTRY DIVISION) AT FORT KOENIGSMACHER
(Personal experiences of a Heavy Weapons
Company Executive Officer)
INTRODUCTION
This monograph covers the operations of the 1st Battalion, 358th Infantry, 90th U. S. Division in
the assault and capture of Fort Koenigsmacher, one of the forts of the outer defenses of Metz, north of
Thionville, France.  The battalion was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel C. A. Lytle.
As a matter of introduction I would like to go back to Utah Beach on the Cherbourg Peninsula. 
It was at 10 o’clock in the morning on D-Day that the first elements of the 90th U.S. Division placed,
their feet on French soil.  It was here that the epic of the 90th will begin to unravel itself, until we reach
the action covered by this monograph.¹
The path ran as follows;
(Map A)
FORET DE MONT CASTRE, PERIERS and then the break out
of the Cherbourg peninsula.  The action following was the mad dash across France, passing through
AVRANCHES, MAYENNE, LE MANS and then north to ALENCON and CHAMBOIS to the part in
the Falaise pocket episode.  After this comparative brief diversion, the division then resumed the dash
across France, in conjunction with Patton’s Armor as a part of the XX Corps.²
This path followed the course of CHARTRES, FONTAINEBLEAU, REIMS and then
THIONVILLE.
(Map  A)
  The Germans at this point, in the 90th Division sector were forced across the
Moselle.  It was at this point, generally along the west bank of the Moselle, that the 90th Division was
ordered to halt and assume the attitude at aggressive defense.  The date was 12 September 1944.
This condition was caused to exist because of the extended supply lines created by General
Patton’s Third Army pursuit across France.³  Another reason for the halt was the factor of Fortress Metz
to the south of Thionville in the 5th Infantry Division sector.
4
After this thrust across France, the Germans in the Third U.S. Army sector, had moved back to a
strong defensive position which extended from Luxembourg, in the north, to the foothills of the Vosges
mountains, in the south.  The strongly fortified city of Metz was in the center of this defensive works,
Metz had a strong ring of 43 intercommunicating forts for its defense, as well as the high hills that
cradled the Moselle.
5
The Germans had reached the line at which they chose to fight.  The stronghold of Metz was to
be held at all cost.  The Corps’ Mission, however, was to reduce the Metz fortifications and capture the
city.  Something was going to have to give.
6
The assault of the fortifications in the city could not begin immediately due to the critical
situation existing with the supplies.  XX Corps had dangerously stretched its supply lines from the time
of the breakout of Normandy to this time.
7
Previous page Top Next page