36th Infantry Division - Heroes Blast Path Through Rugged Vosges

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HEROES BLAST PATH
THROUGH RUGGED VOSGES

Lyon by-passed . . . Doubs River spanned by the 111th Engineers, a 124-foot timber trestle bridge, built under fire in 24 hours . . . Louhans, Arbois and Besancon captured . . . Vesoul taken after a delaying force was decimated . . . the push to the Moselle continued. Resistance grew stiffer. At Remiremont, where lay the German’s sole escape route over the last intact bridge across the Moselle, the 142nd had a fight on its hands. While it traded blows with a stubborn enemy, the 141st swept up on its left with the orders: “Cross the Moselle.”

To reach the Moselle, the 141st needed a guide. None could be found until the Mayor of Raon appeared. He was 90, but he had the agility of a youth and he knew the way through the trackless forest. Alone, he made a reconnaissance, returned to lead the 141st to the fords.

Remembering the bloody Rapido, T-Patchers employed another tactic. While 2nd Bn. staged a diversionary action in the river’s elbow opposite Eloyes, 1st and 3rd Bns. Forded the swirling waters a mile upstream.

The enemy was not long fooled. Germans were in favorable positions and boasted they would maintain defenses all winter behind their water barrier. Their