Colmar Pocket

The Colmar Pocket
Part of World War II
U.S. and French forces link up at Rouffach, February 1945. The junction of the two forces split the Colmar Pocket.
Date 20 January – 9 February 1945 Location Around Colmar, Alsace 48°4′50″N 7°21′36″E / 48.08056°N 7.36000°E / 48.08056; 7.36000 (Colmar)Coordinates: 48°4′50″N 7°21′36″E / 48.08056°N 7.36000°E / 48.08056; 7.36000 (Colmar) Result Allied victory
Belligerents
France  United States	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Jacob L. Devers Jean de Lattre de Tassigny Antoine Béthouart Goislard de Monsabert Frank W. Milburn	Heinrich Himmler Siegfried Rasp Erich Abraham Max Grimmeiss
Strength
Initial: 5 French infantry divisions 2 French armored divisions 2 U.S. infantry divisions Reinforcements: 1 French armored division 1 U.S. armored division 1 U.S. infantry division	7 infantry divisions 1 mountain division 1 Panzer brigade
Casualties and losses
: 13,390 : 8,000	At least 22,000; possibly as high as 38,500

Initial: 5 French infantry divisions
2 French armored divisions
2 U.S. infantry divisions

The Colmar Pocket (French: Poche de Colmar; German: Brückenkopf Elsaß) was the area held in central Alsace, France by the German Nineteenth Army from November 1944 – February 1945, against the U.S. 6th Army Group during World War II. It was formed when 6th AG liberated southern and northern Alsace and adjacent eastern Lorraine, but could not clear central Alsace. During Operation Nordwind in December 1944, the 19th Army attacked north out of the Pocket in support of other German forces attacking south from the Saar into northern Alsace. In late January and early February 1945, the French First Army (reinforced by the U.S. XXI Corps) cleared the Pocket of German forces.

A German bridgehead on the west bank of the Rhine 40 miles (65 km) long and 30 miles (50 km) deep was formed in November 1944 when the German defenses in the Vosges Mountains collapsed under the pressure of an offensive by the U.S. 6th Army Group. General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny's French First Army forced the Belfort Gap and destroyed the German IV Luftwaffe Korps near the town of Burnhaupt in the southern Vosges Mountains. Soon thereafter, French forces reached the Rhine in the region north of the Swiss border between Mulhouse and Basel. Likewise, in the northern Vosges Mountains, the French 2nd Armored Division spearheaded a U.S. Seventh Army advance, forced the Saverne Gap, and drove to the Rhine, liberating Strasbourg on 23 November 1944. The effect of these two advances was to collapse the German presence in southern Alsace west of the Rhine to a semi-circular-shaped bridgehead centered on the town of Colmar that came to be known as the Colmar Pocket.

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