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VERDUN
The Germans had carefully mined the steel and concrete structure spanning the Meuse at
Verdun. Two Panther tanks had been parked and two squads of enemy machine gunners placed so as to
command the bridge approaches. All other bridges had been blown except this one which had been held
intact for the retreat of the German rear guard. As the lead elements of Combat Command "B" entered
the town after bypassing the German rear guard, members of the FFI ran forward and made their way
under the bridge to cut the wires leading to the Malaysian charges. The Germans recovered from their
surprise and began shooting. Soldiers ran out on the bridge and fired point-blank at the Frenchman,
killing one of them, but the last wires had already been cut. The tanks of Combat Command "B" came
rolling up to the bridge, knocked out the two Panther tanks and moved over the Meuse.
The 5th Infantry Division followed the armor on the 31st of August and, after a series of
"pocket-sized" battles which flared up in and around the Argonne Forest, cleared the zone and closed
across the Meuse on the 1st of September. The 90th Infantry Division in the meantime was immobilized
at Reims and Rethal because of the acute gasoline shortage.
The battlefield of Verdun, one of the bloodiest scenes of the first World War, had been preserved
by the French as a monument to its gallant dead. The deep, winding trenches, which had been so much
a part of the earlier war, were still there. Barbed wire heavy with rust still guarded the trenches. All the
varied litter of the battlefield was left in place. Nearby was a grim monument to the war dead: the
Ossuary in which the bones of 40,000 soldiers who fell at Verdun were deposited.
In capturing Verdun, XX Corp seized warehouses bulging with food and clothing and a huge
arsenal of heavy German guns and ammunition.
The capture of Verdun marked the end of the first major operation of the XX Corps. During this
first phase, XX Corps had driven almost completely across France, had crossed six major rivers, and by
the speed and aggressiveness of its attacks, had prevented the enemy from recovering sufficiently to
form a cohesive line of defense.
The route of XX Corps in the campaigns of Normandy and northern France reads like a
travelogue of famed historical shrines: Angers and Nantes on the beautiful Loire; Chartres, the Cathedral
city; Fontainebleau, imperial city; Reims, the crown of kings; Verdun, bloody battlefield. But it was not
just an exciting parade. There was plenty of fighting, and heavy losses were inevitably strewn across the
Corp's path to military glory.
During a highly mobile drive across France, it was the mission of Corps Headquarters to control
the fingers of the Corp's mailed fist: the combat teams, combat command, task forces, artillery groups,
signal an engineer battalions, and quartermaster and medical corp units.
The frequent and necessary changes of direction and objectives, the rapid pace of the Allied
advance through the crumbling German lines, made swift and accurate staff work imperative. Because
of commitments on other fronts of theThird Army and Twelfth Army Group, units up to and including
division level came and went throughout the campaign, the XX Corps saw the battle through to its
victorious end. The command echelon was forced to cope with logistical headaches which were created
as opportunities appeared constantly for further advances in conquest before the reeling enemy could
recover from the hammer blows he was receiving. Often the book of rules went out the window and any
expedient was adopted to speed the advance. On long swift moves, the protection of the flanks was left
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