Colmar Pocket
Publié le 22/02/2012
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During the Allied advance through France following
the Normandy landings (D-day) and Operation
Cobra, which followed, elements of the
German Nineteenth Army continued stubbornly
to hold a bridgehead at Colmar, west of the Rhine
and south of Strasbourg. By the end of 1944, this
30-square-mile so-called Colmar Pocket posed a
threat to Dwight D. Eisenhower's broad-front
strategy of bringing all advancing units to the
Rhine before launching crossings of the river at
several points simultaneously. More immediately,
the Colmar Pocket threatened the Sixth Army
Group under Lt. Gen. Jacob Devers, whose lines
were greatly overextended. After the First French
Army failed to neutralize the pocket, elements of
the German Nineteenth Army advanced from their
positions and staged a counteroffensive against the
Allies at Strasbourg in a bid to retake the city.
Although alarming, this advance offered the Allies
an opportunity for an open fight, and I Corps of
the First French Army, together with the 21st U.S.
Corps, checked the advance. The cost to the Allies
was great: 18,000 killed or wounded. However, the
Germans, who refused to retreat, lost some 36,000.
The Nineteenth Army virtually ceased to exist.
Liens utiles
- LA BETE HUMAINE Auteur : Emile Zola Edition : Classique Pocket
- À 41 km au sud de Colmar La plus belle collection d'automobiles d'Europe À l'origine de ce musée, on trouve deux industriels du textile, fous de vieilles voitures, les frères Hans et Fritz Schlumpf, qui collectionnent durant une vingtaine d'années les voitures les plus prisées du monde.
- À 30 km au nord de Colmar Q uand le Moyen Âge émerge de la forêt S'élevant, à 757 m d'altitude, sur un piton de grès rose abondamment boisé, le château du Haut-Koenigsbourg offre un panorama exceptionnel tant sur le massif des Vosges que sur la plaine d'Alsace.
- Schongauer Martin, vers 1445-1491, né à Colmar (Haut-Rhin), peintre et graveur allemand.
- Frédéric Auguste BARTIIOLDI 1834 - Colmar .