Corps put a Treadway bridge across the swollen Seille at Longueville and a Class 40 bridge along the
Cheminot Road west of the river.
It was known that the German 17th SS Division was the real backbone of the defenses of Metz,
and the power that kept the Wehrmacht divisions fighting in line. A special patrol was sent out from this
German headquarters with the objective of getting behind XX Corps lines to find out to strength and
composition of the American troops. The patrol consisted of one SS lieutenant, one Wehrmacht
lieutenant, and one SS master sergeant. It had penetrated our lines approximately 15 km when it was
discovered by a road guard from an engineer battalion attached to the American 5th Infantry Division.
After two days of interrogation at lower levels, members of the captured patrol were brought to the XX
Corps prisoner of war enclosure where they gave the locations of the buildings, the hours of messing,
and a strength and status of supply of most of the troops in their area. Three days after this information
was passed on, these buildings became primary targets for the Allied Air Forces. At 1140 hours, during
the enemy's daily staff briefing his G-2, G-3 building was hit. Sixty-seven enlisted men and high
ranking German officers were killed. The Commanding General, who was late for the meeting, was
picked up later.
The penetration east of the Seille was a serious threat to the German escape and supply route and
the enemy knew it. Artillery fire from the forts in the area reached an intensity seldom encountered in
France. The town of Sanry-sur-Nied came in for a particularly heavy pounding. Corps infantry
elements held the high ground near the town and were making preparations to force a crossing.
Strong opposition was encountered from the German 45th Machine Gun Battalion while the
immense forts of the Groupe Fortifie Verdun harassed the attackers with fire from the heavy gun
batteries. In spite of this opposition the assault waves drove eastward from the river and seized
Cheminot. The objective was Louvigny which was to be taken in a surprise attack from the south.
Savage bursts of small arms fire from St. Jure, however, pinned down the leading elements and the
assault was delayed.
At1500 hours a surprise attack was launched from the cover of a ridge near Louvigny. The
Corps troops breasted of the ridge line in full view of the enemy and knocked out enemy machine gun
crews southeast of the town before they could swing the guns into action. The attacking companies
closed in quickly, swept through the town, and cleared it before the enemy was fully aware of the attack.
The town was occupied 1730 hours and an outpost front was extended to the railroad line on the east.
While Louvigny was being cleared, another battalion of infantry moved up to engage the
troublesome pocket in St. Jure, and, in a short, sharp skirmish captured the town and drove out the
remainder of the garrison.
Back at the river banks, XX Corps engineers were still hampered more by the record high waters
of the Moselle than by the ever present artillery barrage from the Metz forts. The river grew wider and
wider as the rain continued to fall. The engineers fought their own special kind of war against the
mighty forces of nature. Standing chest deep in the icy, racing waters of the Moselle, they laid pontoons
only to have their enemy, the river, turn them loose again.
A Bailey bridge could not be constructed immediately, but an infantry support Treadway bridge
was put across and reinforced to carry light traffic. Dismounted troops poured across and reinforced the
leading waves of the beachhead forces. Work on a 160 foot Bailey bridge was carried on under grave
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