36th Infantry Division - T-Patch Blitz Opens Rhone Valley 2

Pages 14 and 15

nition and artillery-laden LST by a single low-flying plane in the channel off Green Beach.

On D plus 3, T-Patch, the division newspaper, printed a banner head: FIRST YANKEE RAG ON RIVIERA! With landings consolidated along the entire Seventh Army front, the 36th began a lightning blitz that blew sky-high German plans for defense or even an orderly withdrawal.

A task force consisting of 3rd Bn., 143rd, elements of the 636th TD Bn., 753rd Tank Bn., and 111th Medics, along with ordnance and reconnaissance units, pounded north towards Lyon while the remainder of the division sprang forward to Draguin, Digne and Sisteron. The 143rd RCT, 636th TDs 36th Cav. Recon Troop, and other Texas units under Brig. Gen. Robert I. Stack, Asst. CG, spearheaded the drive up the Route Napoleon.

In one day, the division extended its lines 100 miles, raced to trap the German Nineteenth Army before the Nazis could reach the Moselle River. Grenoble was captured by the 143rd.

The dash up the Rhone River Valley to cut off the enemy retreat was a dangerous gamble. Provisional trucking units were formed to augment the overworked 36th QM Co. Heavily reinforced by automatic weapons from the 443rd AAA Bn., the long columns slashed deeper and deeper, disrupting the enemy’s rear areas as the jaws of the trap snapped shut.

Lacking full organic support, the 36th reached Montelimar, traveling the 250 miles eight days after it had stormed the beaches. The German Nineteenth Army was pushed into the gun-studded lap of the 36th the same day.

Before the division could assemble its full strength, panzer columns attacked to the north where a single company of the 141st had set up a road block. Although the 36th had nearly encircled the 11th Panzer and the 198th Inf. Divs., strong German units were hacking at the thin line.

Finally encircled, the Nazis tore down one road block only to be pinned in place by intense artillery fire.