The Use of Smoke at River Crossings

As long as the Third Army had been rolling forward it doubtless had been more concerned with fuel oil than fog oil. Its rapid advance of August left little room for the tactics of concealment, smoke or otherwise. Consequently, those smoke troops which had been assigned to Third Army had left their generators and turned to transportation duties on the supply line, whose tail extended clear back to the Normandy beaches. 

For details of these operations, see Pritchard, Smoke Generator Opns in MTO and ETO. 

At the site of the crossing in the narrow valley of the Moselle, a railroad, a canal, and the river roughly parallel each other in a 5 00-yard belt. A small stream, the Rupt de Mad, flows through the Arnaville gap, passes under the railroad and canal, and empties into the river. East of the river lay a strip of open land beyond which rose the hills which were occupied by the enemy. North-south roads on each side of the river mark the division between river flats and the beginning of the hills. On clear days the Germans had observation of the Arnaville area from 5 or 6 miles down (north) the river and from 3 or 4 miles up the valley. 

France, 10-21 Sep 44 (3) Lt Col Levin B. Cottingham, Employ of a Smoke Generator Co in an 

Assault Crossing of the Moselle River, n.d. (ca. 21 Sep 44) (4) 12th Army Group Immediate Rpt 

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