World War II: American VI Corps Fought the Battle for Herrelsheim

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Terrain and weather totally dominated the fighting around Herrlisheim. In January 1945, snow and heavy ground fog blanketed the region, neutralizing Allied air superiority. The west bank of the Rhine River was poor tank country–flat and open with small clusters of woods and crisscrossed by many small waterways swollen with snow and ice. There was very little concealment, and many of the bridges in the area had been destroyed. Those still standing were well-protected and under observation by the Germans.

On the northern edge of the bridgehead, the Moder River ran along the southern edge of Rohrwiller and then cut north through the center of Drusenheim. The Zorn River ran northeast along the western edge of Herrlisheim, joining the Moder about 200 meters northeast of la Breymuehl, a small cluster of buildings between Rohrwiller and Herrlisheim. Kleinbach Creek roughly paralleled the Zorn and ran through the center of Herrlisheim. The Landgraben River ran somewhat perpendicular to the Zorn, along the northern edge of the Steinwald and then through Offendorf.

In 1945 a two-lane road, the D-468, ran northeast through the area, connecting Gambsheim, Herrlisheim and Drusenheim. Another fairly good road ran from Bischwiller through Rohrwiller and la Breymuehl, joining the D-468 just north of Herrlisheim. A small secondary road connected Herrlisheim and Offendorf and then snaked south along the Rhine River to Gambsheim. A railroad line also ran along the eastern edge of Herrlisheim, roughly paralleling both the D-468 and the Zorn.

The railroad embankment provided perfect defilade positions for German anti-tank guns facing west, and the Steinwald, due north of Gambsheim, dominated the flat ground south of Herrlisheim. The flat, open plain bounded by Herrlisheim in the north, Offendorf and the railroad embankment in the east, and the Steinwald in the south formed a textbook-perfect armor kill zone.

The 12th Armored’s Combat Command B (CCB), commanded by Colonel Charles V. Bromley, was offered the opportunity to attack from the south through French lines, with the Rhine on its right flank. Bromley, however, decided to attack from the northwest, from Bischwiller and through Rohrwiller, which were still held by the 79th Infantry. In retrospect, that route clearly left CCB’s left flank vulnerable to the German positions in Drusenheim.

Combat Command B attacked with two task forces in column. The armor-heavy rear element, Task Force Rammer, reached its assembly areas in Rohrwiller at about 2 p.m. on January 8. Meanwhile, elements from the leading infantry-heavy Task Force Power advanced southeast from Rohrwiller to scout the bridge over the Zorn at la Breymuehl. The scouts found the bridge intact in front of the la Breymuehl waterworks complex, and they radioed back for the tanks to advance. They did not realize that a second bridge, less than 100 meters down the road, had been blown–and all the division’s Bailey bridges were still far in the rear.

The American tanks quickly jammed up at la Breymuehl, and CCB had to hastily modify its plan of attack. Deploying the tanks along the west bank of the Zorn for support, the 56th Armored Infantry Battalion moved across the swollen river to take up positions along Kleinbach Creek. The axis of attack ran perpendicular to the railway line on the far side of Herrlisheim. The advancing GIs were subjected to heavy German mortar and small-arms fire from their front, as well as enfilading fire on their exposed left flank from Drusenheim. The American attack stalled as infantry units bunched up and became tangled. Although Company B of the 56th Armored Infantry Battalion reached the Kleinbach at about dusk, they were later ordered to pull back to la Breymuehl.

That night there were at least four infantry companies packed into the waterworks buildings. At about 3 a.m. on January 9, mortar rounds began to fall on the waterworks. German troops infiltrated the buildings, and close-quarters fighting raged until daylight. Light tanks were used to evacuate the wounded back to Rohrwiller along the road the GIs christened ‘Purple Heart Lane.’

Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, World War II

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