SEVENTH ARMY ARTILLERYMEN loading a 105-mm. howitzer M 2A 1. The attack was launched, after an all-night artillery preparation, in a snow storm on the morning of 13 November 1944. At noon on 14 November the French First Army jumped off in its attack. On 16 November the French broke through the Belfort defenses and on 20 November reached the Rhine. Mulhouse fell on 22 November despite a quickly established enemy defensive line.
FRANCE
A 105-MM. HOWITZER MOTOR CARRIAGE M 7 being fired on German positions in the Rhine Valley (top). Infantrymen wait in a shallow zig-zag trench before advancing (bottom). On 20 November Sarrebourg was captured and on 22 November Saverne fell. By 27 November Strasbourg and its ring of defending forts had been taken. After the collapse of the enemy positions in the Vosges, the Seventh Army attacked northward and by the middle of December had crossed the German frontier on a 22-mile front and penetrated the West Wall defenses northeast of Wissembourg. In the meantime the German forces which had been driven from the Vosges maintained their bridgehead in the Colmar area, which became known as the Colmar pocket before it was finally liquidated.
GERMANY AND BELGIUM
REWARDS FOR STANDING IN LINE: men receiving typhus booster shots (top); men exchanging their French and Belgium francs for German marks (bottom).
