Co. and headed down the far banks of the river, cleaning out many towns. The other part of the team
paralleled this drive on the near banks and all defending forces were quickly dispatched. What was left
– some 500 troops armed mainly with Panzerfausts – holed up in VACHA but were soon hit and
whipped by the onrushing tanks and doughs. This action by A and C Cos. had effectively ruptured the
Boche’s attempt to form a Main Line of Resistance, and the 712th-90th team had now straddled the
WERRA, over which no American soldier was to have passed. But that evening the Boche unwittingly
dealt a devastating blow. At 1830 one of his planes roared in and was immediately hit by AA. Limping,
it began a crash dive and apparently jettisoned its bomb load right over A Co. and 358 CPs at
HEIMBOLDHAUSEN. One bomb hit a boxcar of black powder and the resulting terrific explosion left
a 50 foot crater, leveled 5 houses, blew the roofs off 30 others, and broke all windows in the vicinity. It
also left men pinned under the debris, men with burst eardrums, and in several instances men who had
thus paid the supreme sacrifice. Out of a total of over 40 men the A Co. Hq. platoon could not muster
even 10 to carry on the next day, and of these two-thirds sported purple hearts.
All units moved rapidly forward against dissolving opposition, although C Co. was compelled to
blast a determined SS aggregation out of MARKSUHL. On 4 April A Co., with 358, noticed nothing
unusual as they moved into MERKERS – a salt mine and the usual run of houses. But some chance
remarks by civilians put intelligence on the scent and in no time at all evidence revealed that the
subterranean chambers of the salt mine contained a gigantic haul of wealth. Complete unearthing
produced 100 tons of gold bullion, 5 billion German Marks, 2 million American Dollars, 4 million
Norwegian Pounds, 100 million French Francs, 110,000 English Pounds, 200 painting masterpieces
including Raphaels, Rembrandts and Van Dycks, 1500 priceless tapestries, and many other highly
valuable works of art. This cache was considered so important that 2 platoons of C Co., 2 Bns. of 357,
and 2 platoons of D Co. were used to guard it for the next 10 days, and those men lucky enough to draw
this assignment watched as such dignitaries as Gen’l. Eisenhower, Gen’l. Bradley and Gen’l. Patton
made inspections.
For the next 10 days the doughs rode on the tanks seeking the vanishing enemy as all Allied
armies began to carve Germany up into little bits. The end was not far away and tactics were reduced
almost to a formula. Swooping into the vicinity of a town, the tankers would scout out to see whether
the white flags were flying. If so, the doughs stayed on as the tanks laid their tracks down the main
street. Soon squads of infantry were searching the houses and the Burgomeister would be announcing at
every street corner the regulations concerning weapons, travel and curfew. Frequently even before this
was under way the fast riding team would be headed toward the next objective. If however no white
flags were flying, then the tank guns would feel out the enemy by firing 3 or 4 rounds and usually the
white flags came up. But sometimes there were SS men, or Hitler Youth, or even some fanatical
Volkstrum, who would resist until overpowered, more often than not inflicting several casualties with
the result that their town would feel the wrath of the tank guns and small arms. If the town was the
day’s objective, the tankers soon knew how to pick out the best appearing house in the sector they were
to outpost, and in a mixture of English and German issue the following orders: “Funf soldaten schlafen
hier. Yo nix bleiben hier. Yo bleiben keller. Rouse und Vech in zwanzlg minuten.” The house would
be taken over, guard set up, and soon the tankers would be sitting down to a hearty meal in the Heine
kitchen.
But all was not a bed of flowers. Road blocks were often strongly manned and only eliminated
after an assault. The 712th and 90th had the mountainous and heavily wooded THURINGER WALD,
one of the first areas fully dominated by the Nazi Party. But the team drove along the roads which had
been carved on the mountain sides and chopped through the thick trees with such skill and power that
they soon earned the reputation and accolade among the Nazis as being “The Forest and Mountain
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