On 21 March the tankers and doughs began converging on MAINZ. A Co. with 358 struck from
the north, B Co. with 359 hit in the center, and Task Force Speiss blocked on the right flank. The Boche
evidently planned to make a real stand as all units bumped into particularly stout resistance in the
suburbs and were once again embroiled in savage conflict. Big Kraut guns from the other side of the
RHINE threw heavy barrages at the advancing American columns. But persistence and resolution told
and by nightfall the team was ready to move in on the city the following morning. The attack began as
scheduled in a perfectly coordinated assault. For the Germans it was a sorry day. Proud MAINZ was
falling and falling fast in spite of repeated assertions that the city would be defended to the last man and
to the last round of ammunition. For the Americans, after the all-out house-to-house defense of the
suburbs, the ease with which the city itself was taken was an anti-climax. Neither threats nor pleadings
could evoke the will to resist in more than a handful of the miscellany who were the city’s defenders. A
feeling of hopelessness pervaded this one time capital city. Its heart was gone with its buildings for
Allied bombers had done their work well. Now the civilians huddled for the last time in their
underground shelters. Braver ones on the streets watched apathetically as their soldiers surrendered by
the hundreds. There was fighting – on the outer edges and in the green parks. But the Citadel, moss-
covered underground fortress defiantly barring the south entrance, was taken without fanfare, and when
the railroad tracks which bound the city’s girth were crossed, resistance became sporadic, confined to
small groups of die-hards. Finally it stopped altogether. The City’s radio station was taken intact and
Col. Weiss, the Commandant, surrendered. By nightfall the city of MAINZ was added to the already
impressive group of scalps taken by the 712th-90th team. Meanwhile C Co. with 357, assigned the job
of cleaning out the west bank of the RHINE, ran into a hornet’s nest at WEISAU which they overcame
only after a furious assault.
Further north American Arms were pouring across the RHINE on the REMANGEN BRIDGE
but in the 3rd Army sector no bridge had been captured and an assault crossing was necessary. The 90th
was originally ordered to create a diversionary feint around MAINZ, while the real crossing would be
effected by the 5th Inf., further south. All proposed plans indicated that for the next several days the
tankers would only be required to roll their tanks around and perhaps fire across the river. But at 0925
23 March Division received the following order: “Assemble 2 Regts. in reserve at once prepared to cross
RHINE tonight.” The 5th Inf. had crossed with ease and no time was wasted in exploiting the situation.
As the tanks rushed down to DEXHEIM, where the crossing was made, changes in orders flooded in.
The 80th Inf, was to relieve the 90th and now it would not arrive and the 26th Inf., itself not even
relieved in the south, would take the 90th’s positions. The high command was hard put to adjust itself to
the ease with which the once mighty barrier had been surmounted.
C Co., with 357, was attached to the 5th Inf. and as soon as they crossed were embroiled with the
112th Regt. of the 553rd Div. at ERFELDEN and with 120 FRANKFURT policemen near LEITHUM.
Fighting became so intense and the lines so confused that two C Co. tankers were just about to leave one
building after a conference when they discovered a Heine guard posted outside the building. But soon
the situation was under control. Meanwhile B Co., and then A Co., had crossed and were making
steady, slashing gains, despite an occasional JU 88 and ME 109. Sufficient ground was quickly cleared
– the hole had been opened –
to permit the 4th Armd. to uncoil and again that outfit moved through to
commence its dash to the MAIN RIVER. The 90th was off in its wake and 25 March was a day of rapid
overrunning of much ground. All three medium Cos. sliced across a major autobahn and reached out
way past their initial objectives, while the light tanks, with Task Force Speiss, had the honor of seizing
industrially important DARMSTADT, moving in from the west as the 4th Armd. surged by on the east.
With the 6th Armd. on the left or west, the 90th in the center, and the 4th Armd. on the right the area
between the RHINE and the MAIN was quickly contained and only minor resistance met – A Co. at
DIETZENBACH, B Co. at SPRENDLINGEN and D Co. at OFFENTHAL. By 27 March all the south
 |
 |
 |