the commander of the 1st Military Railway Service. By 25 September, the railroad had reached Lyon with a capacity of per day. Devers pressed Gray for . By 1 October, when Devers had promised Eisenhower that he could support ten divisions by rail, sufficient supplies were arriving for just one. The rest had to be supported by road. Not until the third week in October could all of the Seventh Army's needs, including those of XV Corps, be met. Devers conceded that he could supply Patton with only per day from 15 November, which only increased Eisenhower's resolve to give priority to opening the port of Antwerp, in the north. Devers was ordered to clear the Germans from the west bank of the Rhine in his sector. His offensive went well; the French 1st Armored Division reached the Rhine on 19 November, and Leclerc captured Strasbourg on 23 November. Devers inflicted a crushing defeat on the German Nineteenth Army, nearly destroying six of its eight divisions. A large German presence remained west of the Rhine, which came to be called the Colmar Pocket. When Eisenhower and Bradley visited 6th Army Group on 24 November, they were astonished to find Devers, Patch, and Haislip energetically planning a crossing of the Rhine in early December. Bradley drew attention to the formidable defenses on the far bank, and Devers told him that he had spoken to patrols, who had found them empty. Eisenhower would have none of it. His strategy remained to destroy the German forces on the west bank before he would attempt a crossing. Official historians described this decision as "difficult to understand." An attempt to reduce the Colmar Pocket on 15 December was called off by Eisenhower when Bradley was hit by the German Ardennes Offensive, which Brigadier General Garrison H. Davidson, the Seventh Army Engineer, felt might have been avoided entirely if Devers had been allowed to proceed with the Rhine crossing. In response to the crisis, Eisenhower ordered Devers to cease offensive operations and to assume responsibility for much of Patton's front, which would allow the Third Army to turn north. That left the Seventh Army holding a front with six infantry and two armored divisions. Eisenhower ordered Devers to withdraw to a shorter line, but Devers balked at that, and there was a violent French reaction to the prospect of abandoning Strasbourg. On 31 December 1944, the