On 6 June 1944, Allied troops landed Normandy, and the liberation of German-occupied France was under way. Throughout June and July, Allied soldiers expanded their beachhead against stiff resistance while building up strength for the breakout. On 25 July, American forces under the command of Lieutenant General Omar Bradley ruptured the German defenses on the western end of the beachhead and broke into the clear. The US Third Army, under the command of Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr., became operational on one August and poured through the gap. Thus began one of the most sensational campaigns in the annals of American military history. Patton's Third Army raced through a narrow corridor between the Germans 7th Army and the sea, turned the flank of the entire German line and Normandy, and tore into the German rear. Third Army advanced in all four directions at once, with elements advancing South to the lower river, West into the Brittany peninsula, north to a junction with the British near Falaise, and east towards the Seine River and Paris. -- From page 1.

"February 1985." List of maps : European Theater ; Geography of Lorraine ; Route of the Red Ball Express ; Third Army positions, 1 September 1944, Lorraine ; XII Corps plan, 5 September 1944, Nancy ; Capture of Nancy by XI Corps, 11- 16 September 1944 ; German counterattacks against XII Corps, 19- 30 September 1944, Nancy ; X Corps at Metz, 5- 25 September 1944 ; Third Army dispositions, 25 September 1944, Lorraine ; X Corps operations, October 1944, Nets ; XII Corps attack, 8 November 1944, Nancy ; X Corps capture of Mets, 8- 21 November 1944 ; Third Army operations, 19 November- 19 December 1944, Lorraine ; Third Army redeployment, 20- 26 December 1944 ; Third Army operations in Lorraine ; Third Army gains, September- December 1944, Lorraine.