5000 Germans who had decided war was not for them. The PWs were 25 miles ahead. Only 12 men
and two trucks were available for the job. It didn't add up, so Lt Col Scanlon gave an order:
"25 miles ahead we have 5000 PWs waiting. Go up and build a cage around them!"
Men in XII Corps, and the rest of the American Army so cruelly disappointed in the previous fall
and winter, began to dare to take hope again that the end of the war was in sight. This certainly looked
like the beginning of the end, anyway. It certainly looked like that "Destruction of the German Armies
in Western Europe" which the High Brass had been saying all along was necessary before the war would
be won and we could all go home. And once again, the voices of those who should know were raised in
the optimistic statements, though perhaps somewhat more cautiously than had been the case during the
previous September, when even the most famous statesmen had been predicting the eminent conclusion
of the Battle of Europe.
Gen Patton in a special order to officers and men of Third Army and XIX TAC, dated 23 March
45, summed up the results of the recent operations:
"In the period from 29 January to 22 March 45, you have wrested 6,484 miles of territory from
the enemy. You have taken 3,072 cities, towns and villages, including among the former: Trier,
Koblenz, Bingen, Worms, Mainz, Kaiserslautern and Ludwigshafen.
"You have captured 140,112 enemy soldiers, and have killed or wounded an additional 99,000,
thereby eliminating practically all of the German 7th and 1st Armies. History records no greater
achievement in so limited time.
"This great campaign was only made possible by your disciplined valor, unswerving devotion to
duty, coupled with the unparalleled audacity and speed of your advance on the ground; while from the
air, the peerless fighter-bombers kept up a relentless round-the-clock attack upon the disorganized
enemy.
"The world rings with your praises; better still, Gen Montgomery, Gen Eisenhower, Gen Bradley
have all personally commended you. The highest honor I have ever attained is that of having my name
coupled with yours in these great events.
"Please accept my heartfelt admiration and thanks for what you have done. …"
And Gen Eisenhower, in the unshakable confidence of hindsight, was to put it with maximum
brevity and impact in his postwar report in the Combined Chiefs of Staff, 13 July 45, when he classed
this campaign as one of the three crucial operations of the war:
"The third decisive phase of the campaign (for Europe) consisted of the battles west of the Rhine
during February and March. Once again the enemy played into our hands by his insistence upon
fighting the battle where he stood. In the lowland country between the Rhine and the Meuse, in the
Eifel, and in the Saar, the armies which had been intended to defend Germany were shattered beyond
recovery. The potential barrier of the Rhine lay practically undefended before us, and from that time
onward there was no German force in existence capable of halting our forward march. The war was
won before the Rhine was crossed."
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