page_title: Troy H. Middleton
section_title: Push across Germany and victory
hierarchical_section_title: Troy H. Middleton / World War II / Push across Germany and victory
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Loreley, Rhein, Deutschland English: The Loreli, the Rhine, Germany
context_page_description: Lieutenant General Troy Houston Middleton was a distinguished educator and senior officer of the United States Army who served as a corps commander in the European Theatre during World War II and later as president of Louisiana State University. He is best known for his decision to hold Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, contrary to the recommendation of Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., Commanding General of the United States Third Army.
  Enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1910, Middleton was first assigned to the 29th Infantry Regiment, where he worked as a clerk. Here he did not become an infantryman as he had hoped, but he was pressed into service playing football, a sport strongly endorsed by the army. Following two years of enlisted service, Middleton was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was given the opportunity to compete for an officer's commission. Of the 300 individuals who were vying for a commission, 56 were selected, and four of them, including Middleton, would become general officers.
context_section_description: With the front restored to its previous boundary, Bradley summoned his Army and Corps commanders to his headquarters. He wanted Hodges' First Army to advance to the Rhine, while Patton's Third Army would stay put until First Army reached the river. Patton was very reluctant to hold in place, and questioned the advisability to do so. Bradley explained that all available ammunition and reinforcements would go to First Army, since two armies could not be simultaneously supplied.  Patton reluctantly accepted Bradley's explanation, but after that meeting he called together his three corps commanders, Manton Eddy of XII Corps, Walton H. Walker of XX Corps, and Middleton. He asked Eddy if he could ease forward and capture Trier, Walker if he could do the same with Bitburg and Middleton if he could take Gerolstein. All three commanders agreed to this, and within a few days all three had reached their objectives.  Middleton was then asked by Patton to take his corps all the way to Koblenz on the Rhine River, which he did, and VIII Corps reached the river before any units of First Army arrived.
  Once the VIII Corps was at Koblenz, Patton took most of its divisions away for an operation with XII Corps further up the river at Mainz, leaving Middleton with some corps units (mostly artillery) and a single division, the 87th Infantry. Middleton asked Patton if he could take Koblenz with the 87th, eliciting a laugh from the army commander. Middleton pressed him to let him try, and with the commander's approval he was able to take the city, which only had about 500 defenders. Most of the other German troops were on the other side of the Rhine not wanting to get trapped between the Rhine and the Moselle Rivers.
  Once Koblenz was captured in mid-March 1945, VIII Corps was assigned a 25-mile front from Koblenz upstream (southeast) to beyond Boppard and the famous landmark, the Lorelei. Patton then gave Middleton the 89th Division and 76th Division for the river crossing. Middleton chose to cross the river near the Lorelei where the river was narrow, swift, and flanked by steep terrain, eliciting another laugh from Patton. Middleton knew there would be little German resistance there, and he was able to get the entire 89th across in one night using inflatable rafts, and then put a pontoon bridge in place by early morning. The 87th initially attempted to cross at Koblenz but met too much resistance there, compelling them to move further upstream closer to Boppard, where their crossing went smoothly.  Within two days Middleton had all three of his divisions across the Rhine.
  In late March, VIII Corps advanced eastward through Eisenach and then across the Fulda River. Here some of Middleton's infantrymen came across the concentration camp at Ohrdruf, discovering the sickening evidence of what had transpired there. Middleton called Patton to come take a look, and Patton was joined by Bradley and Eisenhower.  In his diary, Patton described the place as "one of the most appalling sights that I have ever seen."  This was the first Nazi concentration camp to be discovered by the United States Army, and Eisenhower cabled Marshall to get a delegation from congress over to witness and communicate what took place there. Middleton later had officials from the town come in to witness what was going on in their midst. While every one of them denied knowing what was happening, the mayor and his wife both committed suicide that night.
  The VIII Corps continued its eastward advance well into the month of April, and was ordered to stop between Chemnitz and the Czechoslovakian border, where the corps would make contact with the Russians. The immediate problem was dealing with the prisoners of war. The Americans were almost overwhelmed by the number of Germans wanting to surrender to them, and despite orders to take no more prisoners, thousands of Germans filtered through VIII Corps lines at night, desperately trying to avoid capture by the Russians.  During the last week of April, a Russian cavalry unit made contact with Middleton. While the leaders of both the Ame
caption: The Lorelei, near where Middleton led his troops across the Rhine
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