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Osprey Campaign #75
Lorraine 1944: Patton Vs Manteuffel
In the wake of the defeat in Normandy in the summer of 1944, Hitler planned to stymie the Allied advance by cutting off Patton's Third Army in the Lorraine with a great Panzer offensive. But Patton's aggressive tactics continued to thwart German plans and led to a series of violent armored battles. The battle-hardened Wehrmacht confronted the better-equipped and better-trained US Army. The Germans managed to re-establish a fragile defensive line but could not stop the US Army from establishing bridgeheads over the Moselle along Germany's western frontier.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Steven J. Zaloga
427 books78 followersSteven Zaloga is an author and defense analyst known worldwide for his articles and publications on military technology. He has written over a hundred books on military technology and military history, including “Armored Thunderbolt: The US Army Sherman in World War II”, one of the most highly regarded histories of the Sherman Tank. His books have been translated into Japanese, German, Polish, Czech, Romanian, and Russian. He was a special correspondent for Jane’s Intelligence Review and is on the executive board of the Journal of Slavic Military Studies and the New York Military Affairs Symposium. From 1987 through 1992, he was the writer/producer for Video Ordnance Inc., preparing their TV series Firepower. He holds a BA in history from Union College and an MA in history from Columbia University.
Mr. Zaloga is also a noted scale armor modeler and is a host/moderator of the World War II Allied Discussion group at Missing-Lynx.com, a modelling website. He is a frequent contributor to the UK-based modeling magazine Military Modelling. He is a member of the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society.
Mr. Zaloga is also a noted scale armor modeler and is a host/moderator of the World War II Allied Discussion group at Missing-Lynx.com, a modelling website. He is a frequent contributor to the UK-based modeling magazine Military Modelling. He is a member of the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 7, 2013
This title is typical of the Osprey line of well-researched, meticulously detailed books of World War II key battles. Not all of those interested in World War II battles in Europe are familiar with the Lorraine campaign, since a campaign battle star was not awarded to veterans of this conflict per se, as Northern France or the Rhineland would be. However, it was a key event, representing months of toil for one of the key forces fighting the Germans, Lt. General George S. Patton's Third Army. It would be an important stepping stone in the progression leading to the Siegfried Line and beyond, into the interior of Germany.
The clash between the allied forces fighting under Patton's command and the German brigades of the 5th Panzer Army occurred as the allies were getting ready to push into Germany during September, 1944. After the breakout from Normandy, the allies had been able to sweep the German forces eastward, almost completely out of France, by the end of August. When Patton arrived at the Moselle River, some military commanders thought the German army could have run out of steam, and may be ready for a capitulation along the lines of the situation in Germany during 1918. Nothing could be further from the truth, as Hitler was gathering his tank forces to engage in a breakthrough westward across the Moselle near Nancy, stopping and hopefully defeating Patton's forces.
September was a time of intense fighting between the two armies as German attacks led to disastrous consequences for the Panzers. Zaloga chronicles the destruction of Panzer Brigade 106 by the US 90th Infantry Division of XX Corps on September 8th; the destruction of Panzer Brigade 112 by the French Groupment Tactique Legland (operating under the command structure of the US XV corps of the Third Army) at Dompaire on September 13; and the heavy loses inflicted by the US 4th Armored Division of XII Corps on 5th Panzer on Septemeber 18-19, in its attempt to capture Luneville and collapse the US bridgehead on the Moselle.
As the author notes, these real, substantial victories ended in stalemate conditions by the end of the month. Even though the Germans would be stopped from a breakthrough at the Moselle, Patton would also be stopped in his tracks by a serious reduction of his fuel and other supplies needed for an offensive operation on order of Supreme Commander Eisenhower, who had agreed to give first priority of precious military resources to support of Patton's nemesis, Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, in his "Operation Market Garden" attempt (ultimately disastrous), to capture the Ruhr industrial region in Germany. The US Third Army would be bogged down in Lorraine until December, trying to capture Metz (subject of another Osprey title authored by Steven Zaloga). Patton would never consider Lorraine to have been a great campaign, since he was not happy being ultimately subjected to a defensive role, while the defeated Germans would claim victory; after all, they muddled through enough losing battles to accomplish their objective of having Patton stopped, even if other than combat reasons caused the halt.
All of the momentous clashses in the book are accompanied by great illustrations from artist Tony Bryan, three-dimensional maps showing dispositions of opposing forces in key conflicts, well-chosen photographs and standard maps. All of the above are in support of a thorough listing of the dispositions of many military units on both sides. This gets to the strength and the weakness of this book. A detailed analysis of any section of the book reveals how, where and when the army units, from division level up, engaged each other, but the order of battle presentation becomes hard to keep track over the course of the book. Perhaps the battle itself contributed to this reading challenge, since there were so many units actively engaging over the entire area of Lorraine during the month of September.
Having said that, the book helped me to accomplish my main goal of comprehending the history of the U.S. Army's drive across Europe. The Osprey format allows me to pursue my other goal of placing the movements of the World War II army unit belonging to my father on the map. Toward this end, a Major from the 157th Engineer Unit, Harold R. Whiting, has a very interesting short history of the unit's movements on the internet. Regarding Lorraine, he notes that the combat engineer battalion moved into the area with the XV Corps, which had been earlier detached from the Third Army and was rejoining it in Lorraine. The 157th was with the XV Corps by the time it made contact with the 7th Corps, which was moving north through France, thus establishing a continuous allied front from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. The engineers moved from Charmes northward with the XV Corps to Luneville. As Zaloga shows, on page 64, the Corps' 79th Infantry Division, to which the 157th Engineers were attached at the time, was engaged in heavy fighting around Luneville into late September, due to continued German counterattacking from the protection of the neighboring Parroy forest. The Germans were also helped by the poor weather hitting France at that time, bringing fog and torrential rains, thus hampering allied air support.
The general conditions facing all of the army units on the ground are described by Whiting of the 157th Engineers, as the entire "front' became bogged down in late September. The previously mentioned 79th Inf. Div. was held up in the "Foret de Parroy" as weather and the Germans confronted the US Army. As Whiting recounts, everything was under water or stuck in mud. Bivouac areas were "mud bogs", hospitals begged for the engineers to build access roads, bridges needed to be built everywhere and those already built faced being flooded. Miles of roads had to be maintained while new sections of roads had to be cleared of wrecked equipment for the XV Corps to advance on, and ultimately capture Sarrebourg, east of Nancy on the Marne-Rhine Canal.
Zaloga shows how the heavy loss of German armored vehicles in these battles and previous actions in France resulted in 1944-45 tank forces which were an "emaciated reflection" (p. 88) of their condition in their prime, in 1939-43. The Americans also experienced heavy losses in Lorraine, but by the end of September, Third Army replacement tanks exceeded the number of those recently lost in battle. Far from admitting defeat, the madman micro-manager Hitler was wise enough to learn that the failed September Lorraine offensive, combined with the heavy German losses at Mortain in August, demonstrated that the Americans could not be engaged with Panzer forces at parity strength. He would come up with a new, more deadly offensive which would break out in the Ardennes in late December, in which twenty-six German divisions would attack four American divisions. That would be a subject to study and discuss another time.
The clash between the allied forces fighting under Patton's command and the German brigades of the 5th Panzer Army occurred as the allies were getting ready to push into Germany during September, 1944. After the breakout from Normandy, the allies had been able to sweep the German forces eastward, almost completely out of France, by the end of August. When Patton arrived at the Moselle River, some military commanders thought the German army could have run out of steam, and may be ready for a capitulation along the lines of the situation in Germany during 1918. Nothing could be further from the truth, as Hitler was gathering his tank forces to engage in a breakthrough westward across the Moselle near Nancy, stopping and hopefully defeating Patton's forces.
September was a time of intense fighting between the two armies as German attacks led to disastrous consequences for the Panzers. Zaloga chronicles the destruction of Panzer Brigade 106 by the US 90th Infantry Division of XX Corps on September 8th; the destruction of Panzer Brigade 112 by the French Groupment Tactique Legland (operating under the command structure of the US XV corps of the Third Army) at Dompaire on September 13; and the heavy loses inflicted by the US 4th Armored Division of XII Corps on 5th Panzer on Septemeber 18-19, in its attempt to capture Luneville and collapse the US bridgehead on the Moselle.
As the author notes, these real, substantial victories ended in stalemate conditions by the end of the month. Even though the Germans would be stopped from a breakthrough at the Moselle, Patton would also be stopped in his tracks by a serious reduction of his fuel and other supplies needed for an offensive operation on order of Supreme Commander Eisenhower, who had agreed to give first priority of precious military resources to support of Patton's nemesis, Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, in his "Operation Market Garden" attempt (ultimately disastrous), to capture the Ruhr industrial region in Germany. The US Third Army would be bogged down in Lorraine until December, trying to capture Metz (subject of another Osprey title authored by Steven Zaloga). Patton would never consider Lorraine to have been a great campaign, since he was not happy being ultimately subjected to a defensive role, while the defeated Germans would claim victory; after all, they muddled through enough losing battles to accomplish their objective of having Patton stopped, even if other than combat reasons caused the halt.
All of the momentous clashses in the book are accompanied by great illustrations from artist Tony Bryan, three-dimensional maps showing dispositions of opposing forces in key conflicts, well-chosen photographs and standard maps. All of the above are in support of a thorough listing of the dispositions of many military units on both sides. This gets to the strength and the weakness of this book. A detailed analysis of any section of the book reveals how, where and when the army units, from division level up, engaged each other, but the order of battle presentation becomes hard to keep track over the course of the book. Perhaps the battle itself contributed to this reading challenge, since there were so many units actively engaging over the entire area of Lorraine during the month of September.
Having said that, the book helped me to accomplish my main goal of comprehending the history of the U.S. Army's drive across Europe. The Osprey format allows me to pursue my other goal of placing the movements of the World War II army unit belonging to my father on the map. Toward this end, a Major from the 157th Engineer Unit, Harold R. Whiting, has a very interesting short history of the unit's movements on the internet. Regarding Lorraine, he notes that the combat engineer battalion moved into the area with the XV Corps, which had been earlier detached from the Third Army and was rejoining it in Lorraine. The 157th was with the XV Corps by the time it made contact with the 7th Corps, which was moving north through France, thus establishing a continuous allied front from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. The engineers moved from Charmes northward with the XV Corps to Luneville. As Zaloga shows, on page 64, the Corps' 79th Infantry Division, to which the 157th Engineers were attached at the time, was engaged in heavy fighting around Luneville into late September, due to continued German counterattacking from the protection of the neighboring Parroy forest. The Germans were also helped by the poor weather hitting France at that time, bringing fog and torrential rains, thus hampering allied air support.
The general conditions facing all of the army units on the ground are described by Whiting of the 157th Engineers, as the entire "front' became bogged down in late September. The previously mentioned 79th Inf. Div. was held up in the "Foret de Parroy" as weather and the Germans confronted the US Army. As Whiting recounts, everything was under water or stuck in mud. Bivouac areas were "mud bogs", hospitals begged for the engineers to build access roads, bridges needed to be built everywhere and those already built faced being flooded. Miles of roads had to be maintained while new sections of roads had to be cleared of wrecked equipment for the XV Corps to advance on, and ultimately capture Sarrebourg, east of Nancy on the Marne-Rhine Canal.
Zaloga shows how the heavy loss of German armored vehicles in these battles and previous actions in France resulted in 1944-45 tank forces which were an "emaciated reflection" (p. 88) of their condition in their prime, in 1939-43. The Americans also experienced heavy losses in Lorraine, but by the end of September, Third Army replacement tanks exceeded the number of those recently lost in battle. Far from admitting defeat, the madman micro-manager Hitler was wise enough to learn that the failed September Lorraine offensive, combined with the heavy German losses at Mortain in August, demonstrated that the Americans could not be engaged with Panzer forces at parity strength. He would come up with a new, more deadly offensive which would break out in the Ardennes in late December, in which twenty-six German divisions would attack four American divisions. That would be a subject to study and discuss another time.
August 5, 2025
Osprey books vary in quality from the very bad to “good, given the limitations of size.” This one was the latter, and I enjoyed it.
The book gives the reader a rough but what I thought was a satisfying outline of the battle. There was some contradictory information and some frustratingly truncated accounts, but not a great deal of either. One example was when the author mentions Lt. James Fields won the Medal of Honor at a particular point in the battle, and nothing more is said of it. A quick Google search filled me in on this soldier’s epic stand. It’s a pity it didn’t make it into the book, and this may be the editor’s decision and not the author’s.
The book gives the reader a rough but what I thought was a satisfying outline of the battle. There was some contradictory information and some frustratingly truncated accounts, but not a great deal of either. One example was when the author mentions Lt. James Fields won the Medal of Honor at a particular point in the battle, and nothing more is said of it. A quick Google search filled me in on this soldier’s epic stand. It’s a pity it didn’t make it into the book, and this may be the editor’s decision and not the author’s.
March 18, 2021
Valuable to understanding the campaign, not the only one you can read, but typically a good summary by Zaloga and well-illustrated. Not a popular subject like D-Day or the Bulge, but historically significant. They got stuck in Lorraine, after a lightning sweep across France.
November 16, 2008
Great photos and maps, but a boring read. It does have some interesting facts though.
February 15, 2016
A solid explanation of an important part of the France campaign that falls outside the standard narrative. Could use a good extra map or two but generally can be followed well.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews