Race for the Alps - Aug 28th - The Matrix Games version of West Front

With Groupe Wilde and elements of the 338th Division protecting the Drome crossings near Livron and Loriol, Kniess ordered Brig. Gen. Otto Richter, commanding the 198th Division, to break out of the battle square during the night of 28-29 August and the morning of the 29th. For the escape, Richter decided to divide his forces into three tactical columns, each built around one of his grenadier regiments and each moving north during the early hours of the 29th by a separate route. On the west a column led by the 305th Grenadiers was to move directly up Route N-7; two other columns, one centered around the 308th Grenadiers and the other around the 326th Grenadiers, were to push up separately through the valley between Hills 300 and 430 and try to swing back to the highway near La Coucourde.

Meanwhile Dahlquist, intent on resuming his clearing operations that night, ordered the 141st regiment to again strike south against Montelimar, supported by the 143d Infantry, which was also to advance toward the city through the valley between Hills 300 and 430. In addition, he ordered Task Force Butler to make another attempt against Loriol at first light, and directed the 142d Infantry, which had replaced the 157th north of the Drome, to continue west through Livron to block the Drome fords. Inevitably the opposing forces would clash head on.

As units of the 143d Infantry moved south through the Hill 300-430 valley in the early hours of 29 August, their leading elements ran into the two columns of the 198th Division moving north. In the violent night melee that followed, some of the German soldiers managed to break through the American lines and, under constant fire, reach Route N-7 by morning; most, however, were either killed or captured during the lengthy skirmish, just about ending the effectiveness of at least two of the three 198th Division regiments. Meanwhile the 305th's column, which was supposed to wait until the other groups had cut back onto the highway, left early during the night and made good its escape directly up Route N-7 without opposition.

As daylight broke on the morning of the 29th, the 141st Infantry resumed its drive on Montelimar, policing stragglers of the 198th; capturing General Richter, the division commander; and joining forces with the 3d Division's 7th regiment coming up from the south. During the final fighting of 28-29 August, the three converging American regiments captured over 1,200 Germans (including about 700 by the 143d Infantry in the area of the Hill 300-430 valley) while suffering 17 killed, 60 wounded, and 15 missing. The 15th Infantry, 3d Division, clearing Montelimar, captured another 450 Germans; and the 3d Division's 30th Infantry, which continued mopping up during the day, took several hundred more. On the 30th, those 3d and 36th Division units remaining in the battle square swept the entire area, taking nearly 2,000 additional prisoners.

To the north, along the Drome, the 142d Infantry cleared Livron by 0930 on the 29th, and, despite stiff German opposition, Task Force Butler secured Loriol during the afternoon. However, neither force could make a final push to the Rhone that day to stop Germans who were still crossing at a few small fords. These eleventh-hour German escapees still had some punch left, and during the night they swallowed up two American roadblocks, capturing 35 American troops. Total casualties during the 29th for the two attacking American forces on the Drome were about 13 killed, 69 wounded, and 43 missing, but approximately 550 more German soldiers were prisoners.

For the Nineteenth Army, 29 August was the last day of cohesive action in the battle square. As long as they could, German soldiers continued to flee over the Drome River in ones and twos and disorganized groups. Groupe Wilde pulled out during the early afternoon, as did what was left of the 338th Division, followed later in the day and into the evening by those elements of the 198th Division that had managed to break through from the south. This last-minute success, however, came at the expense of other German units, such as the 757th Grenadiers, that were virtually destroyed during the day trying to protect the Loriol-Livron crossings.

The battle officially ended on the morning of 31 August when the 142d regiment finally reached the Rhone River, clearing the north bank of the Drome and capturing 650 more Germans in the process. Although exhausted and thoroughly disorganized, the Nineteenth Army had managed to save the bulk of the 11th Panzer Division, Kniess' LXXXV Corps with two greatly weakened infantry divisions, and a host of miscellaneous units, parts of units, and individual groups of army, air force, navy, and civilian personnel. West of the Rhone, the bulk of the IV Luftwaffe Field Corps, including the understrength 716th Infantry Division and an assortment of units under the 189th Division, had pulled abreast of Montelimar as early as 26 August and had also continued north, led by the 71st Luftwaffe Infantry Regiment, which, fleeing in disarray, had already reached Lyon. At Vienne, fifty miles north of the Drome, the corps crossed the Rhone, joining the LXXXV Corps' flight northward with elements of the 11th Panzers constituting a new rear guard. The battle of southern France was over, and the race for the German border had begun.