ACTION IN THE NORTH
Important as was the fortified region of Metz in the strategic aims of XX Corps and Third Army,
it was still only a part of the larger effort to fight on through the Siegfried Line to the Rhine. Once
again, as it did during the breakthrough from Normandy, the "Ghost Corps" demonstrated its ability to
fight on more than one front. While Corps forces were ringing the city and besieging remaining forts,
the forward drive to the Saar River never lost its momentum on the north flank of the Corps zone of
action where the 3rd Cavalry Group and the 10th Armored Division were operating out of the
Koenigsmacher bridgehead.
The 3rd Cavalry Group had served as the eyes of the Corps, during a seven-week river watch
along the Moselle, and was continuing to report details of enemy movements, to locate minefields and
strong points for the assault troops, and to protect the north flank of the Corps along a broad front. Now,
reinforced with tanks and tank destroyers, engineers and artillery, it was organized into Task Force Polk
under its commanding officer, Col. James U. Polk, and was assigned by XX Corps the mission of
reaching Saarburg, some 20 miles northeast through hostile territory. Further south, the 10th Armored
Division was to strike for the German border in an effort to seize intact a bridge over the Saar at Merzig.
Task Force Polk, though lightly armored, used armored tactics whenever possible in its advance
to the north. The cavalry by a series of dashes, lightning changes of direction, and sometimes plain,
ordinary bluffing, ran the gauntlet of enemy strong points while acting as spearhead reconnaissance for
XX Corps, the most mobile Corps in the Third Army. Instead of barging head-on into centers of
resistance, the XX Corps cavalry preferred more startling entrances from the flanks and rear, coming
through farmyards, barns, or even stone walls. This unit made such frequent use of secondary roads that
it was sometimes called the "Cowpath Spearhead."
Using Jeeps, armored cars, assault guns, and tanks and wild, unpredictable cross-country tactics,
XX Corps cavalry kicked up such a fuss that the Germans thought it represented at least an armored
division. With these "blitz" tactics, some cavalry units were put across the German border near Perl, and
were possibly the first Third Army troops to set foot on the soil of the Third Reich. Making full use of
the attached tank destroyers and an entire field artillery battalion, the cavalry harried the Germans,
driving them further north and east, and shortly an entire squadron had closed across the German border.
Troops of XX Corps who expected a vast change after the German border was crossed were in
for a surprise. Everything seemed the same. The people, who had been handed back and forth between
warring powers for hundreds of years, looked much the same. Both the French and German tongues
were spoken with equal fluency. But the American soldiers knew that they had "liberated" their last
town, that they were now fighting in the role of conquerors, and that their letters home would now be
prefaced "Written in Germany". The fighting, too, reached at new high in intensity as XX Corps slashed
deeper into the heart of the Third Reich. The desperate Wehrmacht used every weapon in its arsenal and
every hill and town in a desperate but futile attempt to blunt the sharp instrument that was thrust at its
vitals. It fought until it was hurled, battered and bloody, back into the hoped for safety of the Siegfried
Line.
On the 19th of November when XX Corps units were entering Metz from five different
directions, the cavalry assault in the north had come into contact with the switch line fortifications of the
Siegfried Line.
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