escape routes east of the city, just west of Boulay, and was assembled with an all-around offense
awaiting the clearance of Metz.
"During the day, 5th Division troops mopped up around Fort Privat and threw a ring around Fort
Quelleu. On the 20th a strong force moved across the Seille, cleared part of the town, and captured the
railroad yards. That afternoon, the 95th Division pushed more troops across the Moselle into the heart
of Metz under heavy harassing fire from Forts Driant and San Quentin."
As more and more Corps columns moved into the city, they encountered stiffening resistance
from pockets of German troops personally directed by General Kittel, commander of the Metz Garrison.
The barracks area northwest of Metz proper was swarming with snipers and machine guns.
Throughout 20th of November, mopping up of the "die hard" resistance continued, as several
linkups were made by Corps columns driving into the center of the city from all directions. Remnants of
the once powerful Metz garrison were driven into the ever smaller pocket formed by the barracks and
military buildings on the islands in the Moselle River. There, encouraged by the presence of General
Kittel, a few hundred held out until the afternoon of the 21st, when the Metz commander was wounded.
On the morning of the 22nd, a shower of mortar shells and hand grenades routed out the last
stubborn groups of the Metz garrison. The city was reported entirely clear at 1435 hours on the 22nd of
November, 1944.
The bypassed forts, Jeanne D'Arc, Driant, Plappeville, San Quentin, Verdun, and St. Privat were
strongly held by some 2000 men still supplied with food and ammunition. The 5th Division promptly
took over the city of Metz and laid siege to the resisting forts.
The fall of Metz marked a great milestone in the historic route of the XX Corps. The courage
and fighting qualities of the XX Corps troops had resulted in a smashing of another "hold or die", Hitler-
inspired defense system. The loss of Metz and its encircling rings of mighty forts, and the breaching of
the Moselle along a broad front, though at one of its highest flood stages in history, spelled a major
disaster for the German war machine. The months of planning by the Corps staff and the daring but
accurate decisions had paid off once more in great triumph. The 1500-year tradition of inviolability of
the citadel of Metz was destroyed for all time.
In losing Metz, the German Armies lost strategic hinge on which they had hoped to anchor their
line on the Western front. Before XX Corps now lay the German border and the Siegfried Line. The
battle for France was drawing to an end, a fatal end for the Nazis. Corps columns were already
pounding their way to the Saar. The opening rounds of the Battle of Germany were beginning.
The fall of its last great stronghold in France was, moreover, a stunning psychological blow to
the German state. Metz was more than a great armored shield against the hammer blows of the XX
Corps. It was an historic symbol of victory in arms, a good luck talisman for victorious armies through
centuries of war-torn history.
The XX Corps conquered Metz at a time when every factor of weather, terrain, and supply
favored the defenders. "General Mud and his Lieutenants Rain, Snow, and Cold" were aligned on the
side of German arms. Trench foot was an ever present specter sitting alongside the "Doughs" in their
flooded foxholes; and, as the dreary, wet November days wore on, the Lorraine region, lived up to his
reputation as the rainiest in France. The XX Corps, limited as it was in many important supply
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