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To: PAR35

I believe you are correct. Norwind was around January 5 and was an attempt to recapture Schweinfurt. We lost a good many people before the effort was halted. I was in Task Force Linden which consisted of the regiments from the incomplete 42nd Division.


57 posted on 12/17/2015 11:21:11 AM PST by ex-snook ( God is love.)
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To: ex-snook; PAR35

Gentlemen, Operation Nordwind was to seize Strasbourg, France and to cut into the rear of the US Third Army. Schweinfurt was safely under German control 300 kilometers to the northeast of Strasbourg, in northern Bavaria. A summary of Nordwind:

On 31 December 1944, German Army Group G (Heeresgruppe G)— commanded by Generaloberst (Colonel General) Johannes Blaskowitz — and Army Group Upper Rhine (Heeresgruppe Oberrhein) — commanded by Reichsfuhrer - SS Heinrich Himmler — launched a major offensive against the thinly stretched, 110 kilometres (68 mi)-long front line held by the U.S. 7th Army. Operation Nordwind soon had the understrength U.S. 7th Army in dire straits. The 7th Army — at the orders of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower — had sent troops, equipment, and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in the Ardennes involved in the Battle of the Bulge.

The initial attack was conducted by three Corps of the German 1st Army of Army Group G, and by 9 January, the XXXIX Panzer Corps was heavily engaged as well. By 15 January at least seventeen German divisions (including units in the Colmar Pocket) from Army Group G and Army Group Upper Rhine, including the 6th SS Mountain, 17th SS Panzergrenadier, 21st Panzer, and 25th Panzergrenadier Divisions were engaged in the fighting. Another, smaller, attack was made against the French positions south of Strasbourg, but it was finally stopped


62 posted on 12/17/2015 11:50:01 AM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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