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Did Patton’s 5th Armored Division participate in the battle of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge?

—EAB

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Dear EAB,

On August 24, 1944, the 5th Armored Division was transferred from Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr.’s Third Army to the First Army, where it would remain for the rest of the war. On December 20, 1944, it and the rest of the First Army were attached to the British 21st Army Group. Having spent November through December in the Hürtgen Forest driving the Germans back across the Roer River,  the division was withdrawn to Verviers and placed on reserve for the 12th Army Group, thus missing out on the Battle of the Bulge. After some shuffling it was attached to the XIII Corps of the Ninth Army on February 1, 1945, and resumed combat operations on February 25, by spearheading the XIII Corps’ drive across the Roer River and on toward the Rhine, which it crossed at Wesel on March 30.

Sincerely,

 

Jon Guttman
Research Director
World History Group
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