This rugged country was ideal for a determined defender. The mountainous roads could have
been cratered or mined and hundreds of bridges could have been destroyed but instead only a few
abatises blocked the way. The 90th moved on 10, 20 and sometimes 30 miles a day.
At Hirschberg, near the great hydroelectric reservoir, the Saale-Stau See, a bailey was built over
the Saale. At Blankenstein a floating bridge as pushed across and the division rolled on.
Hof fell and elements of the division, duly accompanied by photographers and press
correspondents, crossed into Czechoslovakia on 18 April 1945. The 90th had been the first to slice
completely across the German nation. Turning now to the south and moving parallel to the Czech
western border the division slashed on through Marktredwitz, Tirschenreuth and Neustadt where a
bailey was built across Waldnabb River on the 23rd
This was near the huge Wermacht training center of Graffenwohr and a few of the diehards
(perhaps from the school) made a last ditch stand behind abatis in which antipersonnel mines had been
placed. This sudden return of mine warfare caused several engineer casualties but soon the division had
slashed on through this zone.
The infantry had liberated American prisoners of war at Fuschmill and at Flossenberg a huge
concentration camp was captured. Here the bodies of former inmates were stacked like cordwood
awaiting transportation via a special inclined rail car down into the furnace ovens.
On 4 May the entire German l1th Panzer Division surrendered unconditionally to the 90th.
Moving in their own 700 odd vehicles Germans moved in under the white banner, were disarmed and set
up in their own PW cage.
On the next day the division turned again into Czechoslovakia to open the Regen pass through
the mountains, to allow the 4th Armored to rush through, then motorize and make a dash for Prague.
Vast forests lined the roads and the winter's snow still capped the places along the route through Zwiesel
to Suscice as the division pushed through the Sudetenland. A few trees had been felled across the road, a
few mines had been scattered on top of the paving and near Ludwigsthal. A bridge over a swift
mountain stream had been demolished. The gap was quickly spanned with a bailey and the advance
continued only to be halted suddenly on the morning of 7 May. A message of historic importance was
being relayed to all units! The German high command had signed an unconditional surrender.
With the battalion CP and H & S Company at Mestys Zelezna Ruda, and the lettered companies
with their respective combat team regiments still deeper in liberated Czechoslovakia, the combat history
of the 315th Engineer Battalion ended – a history which began on the beaches of Normandy and wound
through one thousand miles of hedgerows, craters, mines and road blocks and rubble, across eleven
major rivers and countless minor streams – the 315th Engineers had cleared the routes half way across
Europe and stood triumphantly at last facing the Russians on the liberated soil of Bohemia.
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