September 10, 1944 – A momentous and historic turning point in the European Battles of WWII
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September 11, 2024September 10, 1944 – A momentous and historic turning point in the European Battles of WWII
Then came a momentous and historic turning point in the European Battles of WWII. It occurred during the night of September 10-11, 1944.[1]
That night, an armored reconnaissance group operating west of Dijon, France, joined hands with a patrol from the 2nd French Armored Divsion of the US Third Army at Sombernon.
So less than a month after the start of Operation ‘Dragoon’, the southern France D-Day of August 15, 1944, and Operation ‘Overlord,” the western France D-Day of June 6, 1944, the two Allied armies had succeeded in cementing a continuous front stretching in a great arc from the English Channel to the hills and forests of eastern France.
With the right—or eastern—flank of the Seventh Army checked by the German defense of the Belfort Gap, the front swung from an east-west to a north-south axis.
The momentum of the advance was running down, but stiffening enemy resistance could not prevent the Allied capture of Vesoul, blocking the last direct escape route to Belfort in the VI Corps zone.
Lure and Luxeuil also fell, and the Americans footslogged on, marching through drenching autumn rain, swinging once more towards the east and the Moselle River.[1]
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[1] Turner, 74-75.
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