"To the American soldier in Europe in 1944 the historic Lorraine city of Metz was to become known, after the complex series of forts and other prepared positions on its outskirts, as "Fortress Metz." The first test in the long combat lesson which was to give the city its name came in early September with crossings of the Moselle River south of Metz.1
By 1 September the main force of the Third United States Army's XX Corps, after a spectacular August drive across France, had run out of gasoline at Verdun. Reconnaissance units were sent as far east as the Moselle River, last major water barrier before Metz.2 The optimistic reports they brought back of a panic-stricken enemy only deepened the frustration of the paralyzed units waiting for gasoline. Actually, during these early days of September such optimism was unfounded; even on 1 September, the Germans had units going into position to defend Metz,3 and by 4 September enemy resistance against American reconnaissance units perceptibly stiffened.
Able to do little during this period but commit ambitious future plans to paper and make a sterile record of the optimistic messages radioed in by the cavalry reconnaissance units, the XX Corps waited and hoped that gasoline soon would arrive. By the afternoon of 3 September enough gasoline was on hand to promise an easing of the situation, and late in the evening of 5 September the XX Corps commander, Maj. Gen. Walton H. Walker, returned from Third Army headquarters with the long-awaited word to resume the offensive.
Early the next morning, General Walker ordered that Field Order 10,4 the most ambitious and far-reaching of various plans considered during the waiting period, be put into effect that afternoon, 6 September, at 1400.5 It directed seizure of crossings on the Sarre River, some thirty miles east of the Moselle, and…"
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Quite interesting reading…
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Amicalement
Armand
's first experience with 1:4800 scale naval models.
