Editing George S. Patton (section)

=== Lorraine campaign ===
{{Main|Lorraine campaign}}
[[File:"Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, U.S. Third Army commander, pins the Silver Star on Private Ernest A. Jenkins of New York Cit - NARA - 535724.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Patton pins a [[Silver Star Medal]] on Private Ernest A. Jenkins, a soldier under his command, October 1944]]
Patton's Third Army was sent to Lorraine. Despite its proximity to Germany, Lorraine was not the Allies' preferred invasion route in 1944. Except for its cities of Nancy and Metz the region contained few significant military objectives. Once the Third Army had penetrated Lorraine there would still be no first-rate military objectives on entering Germany. The Saar's industrial region, while significant, was of secondary importance when compared to the great Ruhr industrial complex farther north.<ref>The Lorraine Campaign: An Overview, September–December 1944, page 3, Dr. Christopher R. Gabel,
February, 1985, Combat Studies Institute.</ref> Patton's offensive came to a halt on 31 August 1944, as the Third Army ran out of fuel near the [[Moselle River]], just outside [[Metz]]. Patton expected that the theater commander would keep fuel and supplies flowing to support his advance, but Eisenhower favored a "broad front" approach to the ground-war effort, believing that a single thrust would have to drop off flank protection, and would quickly lose its punch.

Still within the constraints of a very large effort overall, Eisenhower gave Montgomery and his [[Twenty First Army Group]] a higher priority for supplies for [[Operation Market Garden]].{{sfn|Ambrose|2007|pp=162–164}} However no supplies were diverted from Patton's Third Army. Three British transport companies were lent to American forces on 6 August for eight days not being returned until 4 September.<ref>Chester Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, page 589</ref> The Third Army exhausted its fuel supplies, however after the Market Garden operation.{{sfn|Zaloga|2008|pp=184–193}} According to Bradley there was parity of supplies between the three allied armies, Second British, First and Third US, by mid September 1944 and according to the official US Army History as cited on page 52 in Hugh Cole's book, The Lorraine Campaign, "by 10th September the period of critical [gasoline] shortage had ended". This was a whole week before Market Garden took place. The gasoline drought was the end of August/beginning of September.<ref>Hugh Cole, The Lorraine Campaign page 52</ref>

The French rail network greatly aided the speed of the Third Army's logistical recovery, which was repaired and quickly put to use. In eastern France the rail network was relatively undamaged by Allied aircraft and had been abandoned almost intact by the retreating Germans. The Third Army brought its railheads as far forward as Nancy. The French themselves operated the trains providing rolling stock and trained personnel to supplement the Third Army.<ref>The Lorraine Campaign: An Overview, September–December 1944, page 22, Dr. Christopher R. Gabel, February, 1985, Combat Studies Institute.</ref><ref>The Liberation Line by Christian Wolmar</ref>

Patton believed his forces were close enough to the [[Siegfried Line]] that he remarked to Bradley that with 400,000&nbsp;gallons of gasoline he could be in Germany within two days.{{sfn|Axelrod|2006|p=141}} In late September, a large German Panzer counterattack sent expressly to stop the advance of Patton's Third Army was defeated by the [[U.S. 4th Armored Division]] at the [[Battle of Arracourt]]. The German commanders believed this was because their counterattack had been successful.{{sfn|von Mellenthin|2006|pp=381–382}}{{why|date=April 2025}}

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?68490-1/patton-genius-war ''Booknotes'' interview with Carlo D'Este on ''Patton: A Genius for War''], 28 January 1996, [[C-SPAN]]}}

The halt of the Third Army during the month of September was enough to allow the Germans to strengthen the [[fortifications of Metz|fortress of Metz]]. Patton's forces reached the fortress at Metz on 5 September 1944, forcing a German surrender on 21 November 1944, taking over 10 weeks in the [[Battle of Metz]]<ref>An Overview, September–December 1944, page 29, Dr. Christopher R. Gabel, 1985, Combat Studies Institute.</ref> with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Also an [[Battle of Fort Driant|attempt]] by Patton to seize Fort Driant just south of Metz was defeated.{{sfn|Axelrod|2006|p=142}}

[[File:LtGen Omar Bradley, LtGen George Patton, and MGen Manton Eddy.jpg|thumb|From left to right: Major General [[Leven Cooper Allen|Leven C. Allen]], Lieutenant General [[Omar Bradley]], Major General [[John Shirley Wood|John S. Wood]], Lieutenant General George S. Patton and Major General [[Manton S. Eddy]] being shown a map by one of Patton's armored battalion commanders during a tour near Metz, France, November 1944]]

Patton's decisions in taking this city were criticized. German commanders interviewed after the war noted he could have bypassed the city and moved north to Luxembourg where he would have been able to cut off the [[7th Army (Wehrmacht)|German Seventh Army]].{{sfn|Hirshson|2003|p=546}} The German commander of Metz, General [[Hermann Balck]], also noted that a more direct attack would have resulted in a more decisive Allied victory in the city. Historian [[Carlo D'Este]] later wrote that the Lorraine campaign was one of Patton's least successful, faulting him for not deploying his divisions more aggressively and decisively.{{sfn|D'Este|1995|p=669}} Patton remained frustrated at the lack of progress of his forces. From 8 November to 15 December, his army advanced no more than {{convert|40|mi}}.{{sfn|Axelrod|2006|pp=143–144}}

In ''The Lorraine Campaign An Overview, September–December 1944'', on page 36, Dr. Christopher R. Gabel of the Combat Studies Institute stated in February, 1985:

<blockquote>Was the Lorraine campaign an American victory? From September through November, Third Army claimed to have inflicted over 180,000 casualties on the enemy. But to capture the province of Lorraine, a problem which involved an advance of only 40 to 60 air miles, Third Army required over 3 months and suffered 50,000 casualties, approximately one-third of the total number of casualties it sustained in the entire European war.</blockquote>