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road block. The 13th was another day of rapid movement over very hilly country and against light
resistance. Night found the troops in WURZBACH.
The large and modern town of LOBENSTEIN was secured by 0815 - 14 April. The OP party
entered town just in time to see a German locomotive go whizzing by – destination east. Everyone was
too surprised to shoot at it. From LOBENSTEIN the Battalion swept on to the Saale river and found no
bridges intact in our area. Consequently we had to cross in 2nd Battalion’s sector where the river
narrowed down to a mere trickle. The BERLIN-MUNICH autobahn was cut late in the afternoon as the
companies encountered hundreds of Germans fleeing on anything that would move. The Battalion
gathered up 170 prisoners during the day.
Mission for the 15th was the Division Objective – the large industrial town of HOF. As planned,
this Battalion was to take the entire town with the 90th Recon Troop assisting if necessary. With
Company I mounted on the platoon of tanks and the platoon of TD’s and with K and L Companies
motorized to cover the flanks the Battalion moved out at 0730. KODITZ – the last town before HOF –
was taken by 1100 after one enemy tank had been knocked out and 95 prisoners taken. Company I
reached the outskirts of HOF by 1300 and ran into a vicious house to house fight. Snipers firing out of
windows made every street a death trap.
Some blocks could be taken only by blasting holes in walls between houses and advancing in this
manner. By nightfall all three rifle companies were engaged and the town only three-fourths cleared.
The battle continued after dark. All GI’s were instructed by Regimental order to remain inside and
avoid streets. All night long the sharp crack of the M1 rifle, the rat-tat-tat of machine guns on tanks and
in doorways made echos ring up and down the debris strewn streets. Trigger-fingered soldiers stood
alert in advantageous positions – opening up immediately at any noise or moving shadow. A few
civilians attempting to move to their homes, or elsewhere under cover of darkness, paid for their
rashness with their lives.
The town was finally secured by noon of the 16th after 825 prisoners had been taken. In the
hospitals in town there were at least 4,000 wounded German soldiers. HOF had a normal population of
50,000 and included a large number of warehouses, banks, hotels, a large shopping district and extensive
marshaling yards still in surprisingly good condition.
The people of HOF were all certain that the American soldiers were going to kill everyone of
them. One amusing incident occurred here. A guard saw three Germans carrying a fourth one on a
stretcher. When he called them to halt, the one German on the stretcher got up and started running away
faster that the three who had been carrying him. One burst from the guard’s BAR brought the episode to
an abrupt conclusion. The Battalion also uncovered a number of liquor warehouses. During the
afternoon of the 16th the Battalion pushed out to the Army Restraining Line and held up.
From this position, a Task Force consisting of Company I on armor, the Regimental I and R
platoon, attached heavy machine guns from Company M and the Battalion command group left on the
morning of the 18th with the mission of crossing the Czechoslovakian border. This was accomplished
when 1st Lt, Merrill B. Rudes, Battalion S-2, crossed the border at 0955, thus becoming the first
American soldier to do so. And consequently, this Battalion became the first Allied unit to cut clear
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