half by the Tough ‘Ombres. The remainder of April the division continued its drive southeast patrolling
the Czech border but not going into the country.
As the drive gained momentum the 357th pushed out in front and stayed there. One battalion
had to keep contact with the regiment on the left thus holding the 357 CT left flank back. This created a
problem for us because we had to stay up close enough to give the front elements support and far
enough back to support the left flank elements. It wasn’t unusual to see the 343rd in position with 2
batteries laid on compass 3200 and one battery on 6400. This occasionally confused the FO’s who had
been led to believe, at Fort Sill, that the artillery fired over the infantry and not back of them. All
observers were at all times notified of our position, but some observers did not check this on their map
before firing. This proved rather embarrassing at times when the target was on a line between the guns
and the observer. After a near miss on his own position, the observer usually gave fire direction a piece
of his mind and in turn was asked to check our position before we fired the next rounds.
A number of old German towns were set-a-fire by artillery when they offered resistance after
displaying their white flags. This happened to one neat little city, directly on the axis of communication.
It was a proposed CP for Div Arty and Division, the town offered resistance, a new town was chosen for
their respective CP’s!
Many allied prisoners were freed during this time. Some were being marched to the Southern-
Redoubt by SS Guards. Thousands of slave laborers were freed, the Flossenburg concentration camp
was captured and political prisoners freed.
3 May found the 343rd sitting right on the Czech border in the vicinity of Rittsteig, Germany.
The CG of the 90th had received a surrender envoy of the German 11th Panzer Division. We had
received orders to move with the 357th but were recalled to participate in the surrender of this Panzer
unit. Urban CP was used as the contact point when the unit started coming in and was being disarmed.
Our howitzers had the road covered and as the convoy approached there was some speculation as to
what would be the outcome if the Krauts changed their minds. The surrender went as expected, except
the division arrived with a few hundred more vehicles and a couple thousand more men than the German
Commander knew he had, others had decided that it was the right thing to do, so fell in line as the
column passed!
The following morning we marched 54 miles, to catch up with the 357th, over familiar roads. In
fact it seemed that we had been thru a few of the towns, while maneuvering around, so many times that
we expected the natives to start calling us by name. The first few miles of this move presented a strange
sight. The captured 11th Panzer on one side of the road and us on the other. The Krauts were being
disarmed and as we passed they would toss us Lugers and P-38s. It was all so strange. A few days ago
we had been tossing the projectiles at each other.
After driving from Hof to Zwiesel parallel to the border, we suddenly swung to the left and
started up the main highway toward Prague via Pilsen. Neither point mentioned was reached. On 7
May at a point a few miles beyond Susice we were given the order to cease firing and halt in place.
After the order was received, Urban closed at Petrovice and marched 13 miles further northeast to
Cejkovy in case we had to fire for the boys from Union who had gained such momentum in their drive
that they couldn’t be stopped until then.
The march into Czech was a change over the past few months: we were liberating again.
Everyone lined the streets and the roads in the country cheering us as we passed. It was a fitting end for
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