XIIChptr16

Chapter 16

AUSTRIA – AND VE-DAY. TO APRIL 45-9 MAY 45

1. Grafenwohr

Entry into Austria was forced by XII Corps units in the closing days of April, but much else

happened before that event. One of the most interesting of these prior occurrences was the capture of the

training area of the Grafenwohr. Around this vast installation the rolling upland country, scattered with

stands of grub pine amid sandy pasture lands, had been taken over for a tank and artillery maneuver

grounds, and also for a more sinister purpose. The locality had been overrun by the 11th Armored

Division, and surrendered on 19 April 45 when bracketed by CCA and CCB. Prior to the arrival of

ground force units on the scene the place had been liberally plastered by Allied bombers. By the time the

Corps CP moved into the stricken Wehrmacht training Station on 24 April, says Col Murray: "We set up

in a German Caserne that had been the equivalent of our Field Artillery School, which was about 80%

destroyed. It was huge. It was as large as Fort Sill. Officers and men lived in the Caserne." – and a

dismal wilderness the "Post" was, too.

The resemblance of the place to Fort Sill was no simple accident. The following September the

US Field Artillery Journal would publish a revealing note on the incident:

"Col William H Bartlett, who was an instructor in gunnery and tactics at the Field Artillery

School from 1938 to 1942, had the unique experience as Commanding Officer of the 183rd Field

Artillery Group of capturing the Field Artillery School at Grafenworhr, Germany, during the closing

days of the drive on the Elbe River. As a result, the Nazi flag which formally flew over that school is

now a prized possession of the Field Artillery Museum.

"In forwarding the captured Nazi flag to Maj Gen Ralph McT Pennell, Commandant of the Field

Artillery School, Col Bartlett wrote:

'In the rapid advance across Germany the 183rd Field Artillery Group, assigned to the US Third

Army, attached to XII Corps, participated in the capture of the Artillery and Panzer School at

Grafenwohr, Germany. The firing ranges and school organization were very similar to those of the Field

Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Signal Mountain, however, was noticeably absent.

'The 183rd Field Artillery Group captured the School Flag and several maps of the Post Area. It

is only proper that the flag of the school be placed with the Battle Trophies of the Field Artillery School

of the U.S. Army, and it is being forwarded herewith.'

"Transmitting the flag from Germany to the Field Artillery School, Lt James H Wilson, adjutant

of the XII Corps Artillery, said, 'The capture of this trophy is appropriately symbolic of the superiority

of the doctrines and teachings of the Field Artillery School, Fort Sill, Oklahoma.' The captured Nazi flag

is now on display in a new Field Artillery School Museum Annex."

Most sinister of all discoveries in the Grafenwohr area was the revelation that a section of it was

devoted to a colossal Chemical Warfare Supply dump of approximately 3,000,000 poison gas projectiles

and mines of all types.

Another capture of special interest was the lovely little Bavarian city of Cham, also taken by the

11th Armored Division on 23 April 45. More important to XII Corps than the town itself was the fine

big airport 2 1/2 kilometers southwest of it. Here the long string so C-47's, which had previously been

pouring gasoline into Beyreuth to fill the thirsty tanks of XII Corps armor, to discharge their loads closer

to the fighting vehicles which needed them so badly. Half of the Corps' irresistible drive would have

been lost had it not been for those faithful sturdy unbeatable C-47's.*

* General Eisenhower in his report to the Combined to Chiefs of Staff says: "As in the dash across France in 1944, it was possible now to

maintain the momentum of the armored columns in their swift advances only by the expedient of airborne supply. In executing this task,

the carrier planes accomplished remarkable feats, and, invaluable as they had proved throughout the campaign in northwest Europe, the

'flying boxcars' were never more essential than in these concluding stages of the war. Landing on improvised airfields close to the front

line and sometimes within pockets temporarily surrounded by the enemy, 1,500 IX Troop Carrier Command C-47's, supplemented by

heavy bombers stripped for the purpose, flew over 20,000 sorties during April to carry nearly 60,000 tons of freight (including 10,255,509

gallons of gasoline) to the forward elements of the ground forces. Making their outward flights from French bases in the mornings, the

planes returned in the afternoons and bearing thousands of evacuated casualties and Allied prisoners of war who had been liberated during

the advances. Without such assistance it would have been impossible for the armored divisions to achieve the sweeping successes which

attended their operations." That is how we saw them going and returning in those days, and XII Corps can add to that of the Supreme

Commander its two bits worth of tribute for the splendid work of these planes.

WORKHORSES OF THE ARMY

(1) C-47, the familiar DC-3 of American commercial Aviation.

(2) Truck, cargo. L.W.B. W/W. 2 1/2 ton, 6x6, known as "2 1/2-ton" or "6-by-6."

COURIER PONIES OF THE ARMY

(1) L5, light liaison airplane.

(2) Truck, 1/4 ton, 4X4, known as "jeep", "peep" or "weapons carrier", etc. etc.

2. Into Austria; and the Myth of the "National Redoubt"

Restraining lines had been set up on previous occasions by higher headquarters to hold back the

impatient armor and infantry of XII Corps, in order that units on either side could catch up. Now there

was a new reason, off there in the farther reaches of Czechoslovakia and Austria were the conquering

hordes of the Red Army, sweeping westward to a junction with the forces of the West. In this instance

the fear was that the Corps would run full tilt into the advancing Russians, creating the possibility of

errors in judgment on either side which might have repercussions in international diplomacy. XII Corps

was restrained from crossing the Czech border in any strength until the end of the month, and directed to

proceed cautiously, behind full ground and air reconnaissance, to the southeastward. A restraining line

was set up along a railroad in Austria and Czechoslovakia beyond which no eastward movement in force

would be permitted. The Corps After Action Report summarized these operations as follows:

"The fourth week in April saw a continuation of the Corps progress to the southeast. Weiden was

seized 22 April, and Cham, with its excellent airfield, entered by the armor on 23 April. Regen and

Grafenau surrendered after a meager resistance of small arms and panzerfaust fire, on the 24th and 25th

April, respectively. On 26 April, the Corps first reached the Danube at Straubing, where the 26th

Infantry Division found the bridge blown. Extremely poor roads, stiffened resistance from SS troops in

the area around Egg, and harassing artillery fire from the south side of the Danube, slowed the advance.

During this period, higher headquarters anticipated first contact would be made with Soviet forces in

Austria, rather than Czechoslovakia, and the Corps was directed to proceed southeast to accomplish such

a meeting.

"At the end of April, XII Corps was disposed as follows: The 90th Infantry Division on the left

faced Czechoslovakia through the gaps, and over the heavily wooded heights of the Ober Pfalzer Wald,

and the even more forbidding Bohmerwald, linking up on the north flank with the 97th Infantry

Division, which had been transferred to First Army on 30 April.* With the 2nd Cavalry Group, the 90th

Infantry Division stood ready to enter Czechoslovakia in force from a point on the border north of

Waldmunchen to another east of Grafenau. The 5th Infantry Division was next abreast, backing up the

11th Armored Division, for which primary orientation was still southeast in Austria. The 26th Infantry

Division lay south of the 5th Infantry Division, clearing out the last knots of resistance north of the

Danube. The 4th Armored Division assigned to XII Corps 30 April, was moving toward an assembly

area near Deggendorf."

Gen Irwin's diary which had by now become the diary of the Corps commander, records another

great milestone in XII Corps' progress in an entry for 26 April 45: "clear and cool. Act 0800 moved to

CP to Schwartzenfeld, opening about 1100. (Hear the CP was in a housing development outside

town.)… 1830 CCA of the 11th Armored crossed Austrian border, with CCB about 2 km short.

Authorized armor to hold up 48 hours for maintenance with patrolling to front and flanks. …" Thus the

first Allied troops in the European Theater of Operations had broken into another satellite of Germany.

A more particular account of this historic penetration may be found in the division's After Action

Report:

26 April 45. "Resuming the advance at 0800, CCA's Task Force Wingard moved east through the

Cavalry at Kreuzberg and turn south toward Freyung. A destroyed bridge 1 km north of Freyung halted

the column. Tanks and tracked vehicles forded the River while wheeled vehicles used a bypass

discovered to the northeast. Engineers immediately began construction and maintenance work to keep

the column moving. After Task Force Wingard and the 490th Armored Field Artillery Battalion had

crossed the stream, utilizing the Ford and bypass, the bypass collapsed, and construction was renewed

under sporadic small arms fire from the surrounding woods. Freyung, CCA's portion of the final

objective, was entered and cleared by 1030 against minor resistance. Among those taken prisoner in the

city was German Brig Gen Von Horst, an ordnance officer. In accordance with its prearranged plan Task

Force Wingard swung east from Freyung and advanced to Unter Grainet by 1250. From this vicinity a

full track armored patrol, made up from B Company 22nd Tank Battalion, and the 41st Cavalry

Reconnaissance Platoon; was dispatched east toward the Austrian border. Mountain trails and blown

bridges delayed the advance from time to time. Hitler Jugend resistance was brushed aside at

Lackensajusen and at 1830 this patrol became the first Allied unit to enter Austria from the West.

Although no meeting was effected with the Russian army, the patrol returned to the main body at 1900

is Mission accomplished."

While the 11th Armored Division was making the headlines to the southeast, the bulk of the

Corps was facing northeast into Czechoslovakia, if not with concern at least with considerable interest.

Large forces of Germans were known to be moving through that country, pushed inexorably toward our

lines by the Red Armies. It was still far from clear whether they would attempt to break through XII

Corps into the "National Redoubt," or not. Among other enemy units, the Corps' old adversary, the 11th

Panzer Division was reported on 27 April to be moving toward the pass leading via Furth to Cham and

right into the center of the Corps' extremely extended position. Its intentions and capabilities could not

be accurately assessed, anymore than those of the other veteran German divisions milling about on the

90th and 97th Infantry Division fronts. The situation with respect to the "National Redoubt" is lucidly

summed up in the report of Gen Eisenhower cited above:

"Prior to the Allied advance across central Germany, evidence had been received that the

government was preparing to evacuate Berlin and move southward, ultimately perhaps to Berchtesgaden

in the National Redoubt. Some of the departments had already left the city, but the main body now

found that, with the Allied linkup on the Elbe, it was too late. An impassable barrier had been drawn

across the country, and the way to the Redoubt was cut off. In consequence, Hitler and his intimate

henchmen stayed on in Berlin.

"Although the Redoubt was not, therefore, to be the last seat of the Nazi government, the

possibility remained that it would still be the scene of a desperate stand by the fanatical elements of the

armies south of the dividing line, together with those which might retreat northward out of Italy. These

armies, totaling about 100 nominal divisions, included the bulk of the remaining German armored and

SS formations, and up to 30 Panzer divisions might conceivably be concentrated behind the mountain

barriers. In addition, most of the surviving German jet fighter plane strength was located in the south.

The conquest of the Redoubt area thus remained as an important objective of the Allies, despite the

collapse of the rest of Germany. In the event of determined resistance, its reduction would constitute a

formidable problem, and speed of movement was therefore essential to forestall the enemy's retiring into

the area in time to fortify it against our attacks.

"Extending some 240 miles in length and 80 miles in depth, the Redoubt comprised the western

half of Austria, with small portions of Germany to the north and Italy to the south. It was bounded on the

north by the Bavarian Plains, on the south by the Dolomites and Carnic Alps, on the west by the Swiss

frontier and the Rhine Valley, and on the east by the Lageneurt Basin and in the eastern extremity of

Tiedere Tauern. Within it lay Berchtesgaden and Hitler's 'Eagle's Nest.'

"The whole area was extremely mountainous and thus unsuitable for large-scale airborne

operations, while the roads into it followed narrow valleys which could easily be held by determined

defenders. The snows and danger of avalanches limited the possibility of any military operations to the

summer months between May and October. Although there was no evidence of any completed system of

defenses along the natural ramparts, some progress appeared to have been made in this respect along the

northern flank. Air reconnaissance also revealed underground constructional activity. It was believed

that some subterranean factories had been established in the area, but if any considerable numbers of

troops were to be maintained there they would have to rely for their supplies, both of food and

ammunition, upon previously accumulated stocks. …

"At the same time that the 21st Army Group concentrated on its principal thrust to Lubeck, a

similar advance was to be made in the southern zone down the Danube Valley toward Linz with the

object of effecting a further junction with the Russians. The static situation in the center now permitted

the use of the Third Army for this purpose, while the 6th Army Group devoted the whole of its attention

to the problem with the Redoubt farther south and west."

The other Corps in Third Army, and the forces in 6 Army Group, might have saved their breath

rushing down into the "National Redoubt" area. There was going to be no last-ditch fight there. XII

Corps, by sealing the southwestern and southern exits from the Bohemian Bastion, had bottled up the

German armies which were intended to implement the plans of Hitler, Goebbels & Company for that

fanatic defense. As Gen Marshall says of this operation in his relevant Biennial Report: "the swift

advances into the mountains of Austria and Bohemia had prevented the establishment of an inner

fortress."

It was XII Corps' special destiny, then, to establish the much-advertised "National Redoubt" as a

myth.**

* The 97th Infantry Division whose men bore proudly the blue-and-quite trident shoulder patch for the three most 'Down East' states in the

USA, was with XII Corps only eight days in combat. After participating in the reduction of the Ruhr Pocket, they had been rushed down

into Bavaria, and held the left flank of XII Corps from 22-30 April 45. After the war they were the only division with a combat record

under XII Corps which actually completed redeployment to Japan. In connection with this latter operation they made the headlines all over

the US -- and we heard about it in the ETO.

** TOWNS CAPTURED IN APRIL BY XII CORPS, as credited to the corps in Third Army After Action Report:

Town

Date

Berka

Schenkfed

Sitzelbach

Suhl

Allendorf

Barchfeld

Eckartshausen

Mohra

Oberhof

Zella-Mehlis

Bonndorf

Breitenbach

Ineierau

Meiningen

Metzels

Schwarza

Drossenhausen

Gehlberg

Grattstadt

Unterneubrunn

Veilsdorf

Gressuebel

Ilmenau

Wiedersbach

Breitenbach

Gehren

Langwiesen

Town Date

Neustadt

Ebertshausen

Ernstthal

Lauscha

Sonneberg

Buebbach

Golsberg

Heberndorf

Kulmbach

Lothra

Rottersdorf

Ruppersdorf

Stadtsteinach

Bruck

Bayreuth

Gorlitz

Schelgel

Hof

Kirchenlamitz

Grafenwohr

Rehau

Brand

Kemnath

Metzenhof

Pressath

Seussen

Parkst in

Schwarzenbach

Weiden

Schnaittenbach

Regen

Schonberg

Fa1kenstein

Freyung

Grafenau

Steinach

Bogen

Metten

Buchhausen

Greibing

Straubing

Taimering

Zenting

Otterskirchen

Ulrlchsreut

Wilhelmsreut

Wegscheid

These 75 towns are far greater in number than those taken by the next closest corps in Third Army during April, and almost exactly double

the number captured by XX Corps during the same period.

XII CORPS CP'S AT SCHWARZENFELD AND VIECHTACH:

VISITS AND AWARDS

(1) In front of Corps Headquarters in a housing development on the

edge of Schwartzenfeld, Germany, Maj Gen S LeRoy Irwin new

commander of XII Corps, receives a visit from a Third Army

Commanding General. The CP was located here from 26-29 April

45. (2) This is the main drag of Viechtach, Germany, as self-

propelled guns of the 490th Field Artillery Battalion, CCA , 11th

Armored Division thundered through it on 25 April. XII Corps

headquarters was just down the street from 29 April-3 May. (Photo

from Sgt Chambers). (3) In the vacant lot between the two

buildings occupied by the headquarters at Viechtach, 30 April, Lt

Gen Koeltz of the French Army presents for Legion of Honor

awards and a dozen Croixs de Guerre to officers and men of XII

Corps units. (4) Gen Koeltz recites a citation to a XII Corps

soldier. On his left is Maj Pierre L. Vivet, the greatly respected

French Liaison officer with XII Corps throughout combat. (5) Gen

Koeltz "taps" four XII Corps officers for the Legion of Honor: Brig

Gen Herbert Ernest, CG 90th Infantry Division; Brig Gen Joseph

A. Tully, Asst CG 90th Infantry Division; Col Frances M. Day,

Asst Arty Officer XII Corps Arty; and Col Charles H. Reed, CO

second Cavalry Group, 30 April.

3. The Last Week of Battle

Even the XII Corps After Action Report does not give as clear and condensed a picture of the

background of the Corps' last week of combat as a diary of the new Corps commander. Gen Irwin, with

less than 10 days' experience in his larger responsibility, was taking hold with both hands in guiding XII

Corps through its final days of war in Europe and with tact, firmness, and skill:

"28 April 45. Overcast. Night quiet. Study of yesterday's changes indicates 90th Division must

hold present front; cavalry, when relieved, can screen mountain area on the left flank; Danube flank

should be secured by XX Corps; 5th Division, if assigned, can go forward in left zone; 4th Armored

should assemble in SHAEF reserve somewhere south of Cham. This setup will provide strength where

needed, sufficient reserves, and will permit advance to Linz and somewhat beyond. Until new infantry

division starts arriving, I do not feel justified in ordering armor to make a further advance, and therefore

am directing they clear right portion of zone to Danube. About 1100 Gen Gay called to say we got 5th

Division. Ask him to have advanced detail report promptly and suggested 4th Armored be moved to

reserve position southwest of Cham to get them out of First Army zone. Gen Patton called at noon to say

to take bridges at Passau under artillery fire as soon as possible – that he would notify us of bombing of

those bridges (over Danube and Inn) – and that we continue on our Linz objective. Also he said to

sideslip 97th Division as far as possible so that we can hold on to 90th Division. Col Franson, Chief of

Staff 5th Division, called before noon to learn what I wanted. I told them to get representatives here as

soon as possible, which he said he would do this afternoon by air. At about 1500 Gen Warnock and Lt

Col Thackeray from 5th Division arrived, got situation and orders, and returned by air to Bamberg were

division is assembled. We will furnish 100 trucks, which should get division up by Monday night.

"29 April 45. Bright with broken clouds. Moved CP at 0800 to Viechtach, opening about 1200.

Gen Patton and Gen Brown (fifth Division) arrived about noon. Gen Patton said (1) there is some chance

of a surrender on Tuesday, (2) we turn southwest at Linz to move on Salzburg and Berchtesgaden, (3) to

start for Linz tomorrow morning, and (4) to exercise greatest economy in gas and rations. Gen Brown

was briefed on operation, and is moving to Regen to set up his CP. The 11th CT (5th Infantry Division)

should close this evening, and the rest of the division tomorrow night. General Patton said First Army

will eventually take over our front as far as Regen, not quite enough in my opinion if we are to cross

Danube as our rear will be vulnerable. Gen Koeltz, French Army, with staff (arrived at CP).

"30 April 45. Overcast and some snow. The 11th (CT 5th Infantry Division) and some of the

10th closed last night. Armor, 5th and 26th all jumped off this morning. 90th attacking to clear woods in

it front. General Patton called about 1000 to get situation on Passau and Linz. Urged capture of Linz and

to let him know progress. General Koeltz decorated several officers had 0930. Left at 1330 to visit 11th

Armor. Met General Brown on road and talked over his situation. Finally found armor's CP at Sonner,

about 6 km from Austrian border. Armor made a very limited advance yesterday due to (1) bad roads,

(2) fairly well-organized resistance, and (3) starting from positions considerably further west of the

border than we understood they had reached and consolidated. Their 48-hour rest permitted the enemy to

close up on them and form a line. Returned to CP about 2200, having stopped ads 10th Infantry enroute.

Roads in poor shape from rain and snow, and traffic congestion very bad, due to arrival of 5th Division

which closed less one infantry battalion.

"1 May 45. Overcast and snow. Last night 4th Armor was turned over to us, and was ordered to

assemble south of Regen. We are ordered to cross Danube and move on Salzburg and Berchtesgaden.

Directed that 4th Armored and 26th Division do this operation, as logistics will not permit any other

arrangement without too much delay. …"

Later Third Army changed its mind and directed XII Corps to stay north of the Danube. But,

anyway, Passau and Linz, Austria, both south of the river, were added to the beads strung on the Corps'

long string of captured towns. Their seizure was credited to the 11th Armor and 26th Infantry Divisions,

Linz falling to the 11th armored on 5 May without a struggle and with a highway and railroad bridge

over the Danube in possession.

In the meantime, on 2 May General Irwin's diary records, "about 1400 we received word from

Army that there is a radical change in plans; that we are not to cross the Danube; and to limit the number

of troops we send to the east. Apparently we invade Czechoslovakia. …" and that is what we did. The

Corps After Action Report briefly narrates the closing operations of the war thus:

"During the last eight days of the war in Europe, from 1 May through 8 May, XII Corps effected

a rapid penetration into two different countries in two directions – northeast on a broad front deeply into

Czechoslovakia and southeast into Austria. Crowding up to the railroad designated by higher

headquarters as that restraining line beyond which only patrol contact would be made with Soviet forces,

the 11th Armored Division brought up generally north and east of Linz on the Corps' right. The 4th

Armored Division broke out through the gaps in the Bohmerwald opened up by the 5th and 90th

Infantry Divisions, passed through those divisions, and was well into Czechoslovakia with Prague as the

objective, when stopped by orders from higher headquarters. … The closing weeks of the war saw XII

Corps operating at the zenith of its power against an enemy rapidly, and obviously, approaching the

nadir of its strength and resources. Already knocking at the inner portals of Germany's central fortress at

Gotha and Ohrdruf as the (month of April) opened, at (the war's) end the Corps had entered Austria and

widely and deeply breached the 'Bohemian Bastion,' of which it has been said: 'Who holds this, controls

Germany.' Resistance, when there was any, varied from 'light' to 'determined,' but it was always

localized and uncoordinated, and at no time gave evidence of larger strategic planning or control.

Sometimes with five, sometimes with only four divisions, the XII Corps rolled on. The distance

advanced was 275 miles; the areas seized from enemy control, approximately 8400 square miles.

Prisoners poured into the cages, to an estimated final total for the period of 135,013. This brought Corps

bag from 12 August 44 until the end of hostilities to 244,339."

The fighting of the last few days was freakish, but it was still fighting. It still took skill, bravery,

– and luck. It still took American lives every day. Several incidents are worth recording in illustration of

these points.

There were a number of daring individual penetrations and forays into the disintegrating enemy

front. A good example was the expedition that won a Silver Star for Captain Ferdinand P Sperl, of

Interrogation of PW's Team No 10, attached to the XII Corps Headquarters. On 26 April 45, "Captain

Sperl," says the citation, "having received information of a German Staff Group with highly valuable

documents located within the enemy lines, volunteered to secure the capture of the Staff and documents.

… Captain sperl, under the gravest personal danger, passed through the outpost lines of fanatic SS

troops, contacted the German Staff commander and convinced him of the advisability of surrendering

the documents and undamaged to a task force. Captain sperl then returned to his own lines again

subjecting himself to the danger of capture or death and led a task force through the German lines and

successfully captured the desire staff and documents."*

Another notable example was the extraordinary operation conducted principally by Captain

Thomas M Stewart of the 42nd Reconnaissance Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Group, which led, at long last, to

shipment of what was undoubtedly the greatest single group of blooded horses to reach the US as a

result of World War II. Preliminaries to the expedition may be well told and Captain Stuart's own words:

"Through Top Secret information obtained at Karlbach (just outside of Eslarn) we learned of the

presence of about 200 allied PW's – both American and British – and a stable of Lippizaner and Arabian

horses about 10 miles from us across the Czech border. Colonel Reed, Group CO, called me in to

attempt to bargain with the Germans, to try and effect the release of the PW's and secondarily, the

horses, to the American lines. Through prearrangement, a German Veterinarian Captain came through

our lines, ready to give us the information necessary to make the trip to Hostoun, location of the camp

and stables. The stables comprised the German remount depot for that area. The Lippizaner horses were

originally from the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. Numbered among the horses was one previously

owned by Von Ribbentrop and another used by King Peter of Yugoslavia. The Germans preferred to

turn the mounts over to the Americans rather than to the Russians. … I can't speak German, but I can

understand it. Arrangements were made for me to accompany the German Captain through the lines,

avoiding all enemy troops, roadblocks, mines – and to attempt the release of the PW's and horses. I was

to try to bargain with German Brass for the withdrawal of German troops from the area, so that our men

could go in and do the business. The German Captain and I rode up to one of our Cavalry outposts in a

peep, and from here we mounted horses brought for this purpose by the German Captain. My mount was

King Peter's private stallion. The horse belonged to the royal Yugoslavian stud. As a matter of fact, I

jumped him for his first time. …" After this romantic story-book beginning, the operation proceeded on

an extremely practical plane. Captain Stuart succeeded in making his way deep into the German lines

and then talked sundry Krauts into agreeing to surrender their installation without harm to the PW's 4

horses, – if the 2nd Cavalry Group could get into them through a variety of German forces which knew

nothing about the undertaking. Captain Stewart then returned to his headquarters and the group, after a

sharp firefight, reached the stables on 29 April 45. Even then the action was not at an end; the Germans

threw a roadblock across the only road leading back to the 97th Division's lines, and Troop A of the

42nd Squadron, which had been left to protect the installation, had a five-hour battle on 30 April in

which they took 100 prisoners and lost one man killed and one wounded. Exactly 1 year later a

photograph of one of these horses was to appear in the Stars and Stripes with the triumphant caption:

"European Thoroughbreds in US – Saffa, a Lippizaner mare, and her 10-day old colt by Maestoso XVII,

Lippizaner stallion, pose for the cameraman at the Aleshire QM Depot, Remount, at Front Royal,

Virginia. …" Few reading this, and the many other articles in US papers and magazines hailing the

arrival of this famous group of horses, realize the vital influence on all future generations of American

horseflesh exercised by the men of XII Corps' "own" 2nd Cavalry Group.

This influence, like that of the and s on the outcome of the War in Europe, was not exercised, as

has been suggested above, without cost. In one of the last serious actions of the war for XII Corps, a

band of crazy young German OCS students, who should've known better so close to VE-Day, on 4 May

ambushed a platoon of the and corps' cavalry group, and showered them with small arms and

panzerfaust fire in an action which caused unnecessary casualties to both sides.

A similar personal reconnaissance of Bad Steuben on 14 April had resulted in award of the same decoration to Major Paul R Screvane,

of the Headquarters XII Corps Artillery. He thus became the second officer in that headquarters within a month to win a Silver Star.

Captain Horace W Ziglar, of Headquarters Battery XII Corps Artillery received one for heroic action during the fight for Frankfurt, 27-28

March 45.

4. End of the 11th Panzer Division; the "Werewolves," and Others

Von Wietersheim's 11th Panzer Division has been considered throughout this chronicle as the

symbol of the organized professional military resistance encountered by XII Corps. Almost to the last

day of the war it had maintain continuity of command. Almost to the last day of the war it retained its

integrity as a unit and fought throughout as a unit. Its combat was frequently characterized by a savage

effectiveness, as members of the 2nd Cavalry Group and other XII Corps units could testify. Now,

thanks to the excellent sense of timing of its commander, it was to surrender as a unit just before the

Russian and American front came together, and move as a unit with much of its organic transportation

into a state of captivity in which certain preferential advantages accrued to it by reason of this particular

action.

At least three of XII Corps' major units were involved in the surrender. The 2nd Cavalry Group

was in contact with the enemy division during the proceedings, and nothing could have been more

appropriate, in view of that group's perhaps longest and most unpleasant association of any XII Corps

outfit with the 11th Panzer Division. In the actual surrender negotiations the 90th Infantry Division

represented the Corps and all those of its components which had suffered at the hands of this crack

German unit. Some confusion resulted from the fact that while Von Wietersheim and the bulk of the

division had reached Klattau on a move to the Passau area, and was therefore in the 90th Infantry

Division zone of advance, the rest had gotten as far as Wellern, in this zone of the 26th Infantry

Division. Due to some very complicated monkey business concerning command of the enemy division,

which occurred during the last four weeks of the war, the nominal commanding general on 1 May 45

was one General Major Von Butlar, formerly of the OKW, and he was with the part of the division

facing our 26th Infantry Division. Nevertheless, on 2 May 45, Von Wietersheim decided to surrender the

whole division, as he had considered doing for over a month. "He called a meeting of his ranking

officers," says the Third Army interrogation report, previously cited, "and informed them of his

intention. When all present agreed with these plans, he again took charge of the division. The G4, Major

Vogtmann, was dispatched to the 90th US Infantry Division in order to negotiate. Firing ceased on 3

May 45 at 1400 hrs, and the first units of the division marched into the assembly area by 1700 hrs.

Butlar had been informed by messenger of the decision to surrender and his group had been included in

the terms. He and the 111th Panzer Grenadier Regiment surrendered two days later and joined the bulk

of the division in the assembly area around Koetzing" (in 2nd Cavalry Group area of occupation). Thus

the story of XII Corps' "war with the 11th Panzer Division," which began with bloody fighting at

Luneville by the 2nd Cavalry group away back there in France in September 1944, had come to an end.

The 2nd Cavalry Group "remained in possession of the field," with all these survivors of the enemy

division as their prisoners.

Von Wietersheim and von Butlar were only two in a growing parade of German High Brass.

Says a XII Corps press release of the period, with a certain smugness:

"In 24 hours one Field Marshall and seven Generals paid unauthorized visits to the headquarters

of the famous XII Corps, commanded by Major General S LeRoy Irwin. Six were prisoners, and the

other two, who were White (Fascist) Russians, sought terms of surrender. Included in the XII Corps

prisoner bag were: Field Marshall Ewald von Kleist, former commander of Army Group A in the

Northern Caucuses and Crimea; Lieutenant General Francis Farkas de Kisbarnack, former Commanding

Officer of the VIII Hungarian Corps; Major General Ritter von d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner-Horstig,

Branch Engineer; Major General Russwurm, Chief of Signal Troops, Replacement Army; Brigadier

General Doctor Deyrer, G4 and Judge Advocate for Wehrkreis XIII.

"When photographers tried to take pictures of Von Kleist, the Field Marshall refused to pose, but

Brigadier General Ralph J. Canine, Terre Haute, Indiana, veteran Chief of Staff of the XII Corps, gave

photographers the 'go' sign and 11 pictures were taken. All of the PW Generals and the adjutants were

interviewed by Sgt Kurt Diamant of 54 Fayette St, Cambridge, Massachusetts."

In a similar manner other Orthodox German units, or what was left to them, and their

commanders, rolled into the XII Corps cages. But behind them they left a ghost to haunt the future

American occupation. This was the organization loudly proclaimed by the German radio as the one

designed to make life hell for US troops after the conventional fighting was over, – the "Werewolves."

To this day it is difficult to know whether the "Werewolves" were as much of the myth as the "National

Redoubt," or only as much of the myth as the Volksturm proved to be when it came to effective last-

ditch defense of the Vaterland. True, S/Sgt Ib J Melchoir, of the MII Team 425-G, XII Corps, and Spec

Agt William G Hock and Agents Seaton and Schroepfer, of the 97th CIC Detachment, XII Corps, on 28

April 45 effected the capture of six German officers and 25 EM, hiding in the woods north of Schonsee

along the check frontier due north of Cham in 2nd Cavalry Group zone. These individuals, upon

interrogation by XII Corps Headquarters personnel, claim to be "Werewolves." They were in civilian

clothes, and appeared to have the means to operate along the announced "Werewolf" lines. But if so, it

was impossible to suppose this to be the only such group. Others must have existed, if this one was

actually a "Werewolf" unit, and if so, not all could have been caught. And evidence of bona fide

"Werewolf" activities were conspicuously absent during XII Corps' period of occupation of this section

of Bavaria, which was shortly to begin.

THE "GHOST DIVISION" GIVES UP THE GHOST

(1 & 2) Preceded by his request for negotiations, Lt Gen Wend von Wietersheim, Commanding General of the 11th Panzer Division comes

into the town of Vseruby, Czechoslovakia, 4 May 45, and surrenders the "Ghost Division." Having asked to give up to XII Corps, before

units of which his outfit had been retreating so long, von Wietersheim receives terms of surrender from Brig Gen Herbert L. Ernest,

Commanding General 90th Infantry Division then under XII Corps direction. (3) The German general, with 11th Panzer division surrender

party, arrives under flag of truce at the entrance to Vseruby, 4 May. (4) Having achieved the desired end of becoming prisoners of XX US

Army Corps, instead of prisoners of the Russians, the personnel of the division was distributed about the Corps area of occupation and put

to various useful activities. Best remembered perhaps of these groups was the 11th Panzer Division Band, which was brought down to

Regensburg, promptly changed its colors and its clothes, and became (relatively) respectable as "Philips (XX Corps' Own) Band" in the

ballroom of the Park Maximilian Hotel.

ELEVENTH PANZER DIVISION SURRENDERS ITS T/O & E

(1 & 2) Some German tanks, trucks and an amphibious volkswagen we failed to destroy come rumbling down in as XII Corps' old enemy,

the 11th Panzer Division turns over its personnel and materiel to the 359th Infantry Regiment of the 90th Infantry Division and the 2nd

Cavalry Group. (Photo 1 by T/5 Millard McKee, 315th Engineer Combat Battalion. (3) Capt Clifford A. Raser of Chief of Staff Section,

Headquarters XII Corps, inspects an 11th Panzer Division tank. (4) The personnel surrendering included these women auxiliaries of the

division.

5. Plan Eclipse

Early in March, 1945, there had reached XII Corps headquarters copies of the super-hush-hush

super-duper Plan, called "Second Draft Outline of 12th Army Group Plan for Operation 'Eclipse'." This

massive piece of lofty thinking provided "for the occupation of Germany after the German surrender or

collapse." In addition to the "basic document" there were 12 Appendices, 19 "Eclipse Memoranda" and

uncounted references to directives and manuals. The whole pile of mimeographed "poop" which was

originally dumped into this fighting headquarters was perhaps 4 inches thick and ran to a weight of 10

pounds. Now it was clear what all those people had been doing back there at 12th Army Group

Headquarters during the war. The thing looked pretty tedious and irrelevant with the main fighting still

on the west side of the Rhine, but something had to be done about it. Third Army had been told to make

up their plan to occupy initially "the Provinces of Hessen, Kurhessen, and Nassau" and to be prepared to

take over later from 6th Army Group forces, Wurtemberg and the "entire U. S. Western Military

District."

Third Army had naturally lost no time in delegating most of the work on this plan to its

component corps. Corps, in the ordinary course of such matters, would have immediately passed the

bulk of the job on down to Division. But The Thing looked like a pretty high level stuff at this stage of

the game; it was "classified" so secret as to make it an accursed nuisance to handle; and in XII Corps

there was always a slight impediment to such delegation of work to be found in the principal handed

down from the days of "Doc" Cook: "Personnel of the headquarters will never put off on lower

headquarters any job that they can do themselves." It looked as though XII Corps Headquarters were

stuck with doing some of the work on it, and in the middle of a war, too. Fortunately there had recently

arrived in headquarters an officer fresh from the Zone of Interior, who was consequently, to borrow an

idea from Sgt Mauldin, full of vitamins and enthusiasm. The Chief of Staff immediately dumped the pile

of "poop" on him, gave him some sage counsel on the necessity for care and handling "Top Secret"

documents, and directed him to see that XII Corps did not "miss the boat on 'Operation Eclipse'."

The matter turned out to be more interesting than it appeared on the surface, for it was in general

"The Shape of Things to Come" for XII Corps. "Eclipse" was to be successor and heir to "Overlord," the

underlying plan which had brought American armies across the channel on D-Day, and all the way

across France and Germany since. It was to cover "an advance by the Allied Forces, conducted at

maximum speed consistent with security, to secure important strategic areas deep inside Germany, to

gain contact with the Russian Forces, and to extend the Allied air threat." Thereafter it was to provide

for deployment to "secure additional strategic areas; to establish firm control throughout the Supreme

Commander's sphere of occupation in Germany; to carry out the disarmament and disposal of enemy

forces in Germany … and the redisposition of national forces to coincide ultimately with the National

Zone of Occupation." It informed the personnel of the headquarters for the first time that partition of

Germany into national zones had been agreed upon by the Big Three, and by means of maps and

description it defined those zones much as they stand today. Third Army, originally assigned to occupy

the Western Military District, in the event so completely out ran the forces scheduled to occupy the

Eastern District, that a "Third Draft" of the plan had to be issued exactly reversing the areas of

responsibility. By the end of the war, XII Corps had driven far beyond the easternmost limits of the

Eastern Military District. It had to be called back to occupy the sub-district ultimately assigned to it as a

part of the Third Army's forces in occupation of the "US Eastern Military District, comprising of the

state of Bavaria."

XII Corps did not "miss the boat on 'Operation Eclipse'." The corps plan, considerably less

encyclopedic than 12th Army Group's, went out to its divisions comfortably before the end of the war,

when they would need it for guidance, and was reported into Third Army Headquarters eight days

before that of any other corps in the Army at that time. This included, of course, XX Corps.

6. "Death Marches" and "Death Camps"

Uttermost horror of the closing days of the war were the stark evidences of inhuman German

brutality encountered in Bavaria and Austria. At once nauseating and terribly fascinating, these vestiges

of the Nazi terror made the average American almost doubt what he saw with his own eyes. Harder to

doubt was what he smelled with his own nose.

The first things encountered were the survivors, and those who had not survived, from "death

marches", – the fleshless bags of bones, living and dead; clad, if at all, in the ragged striped uniforms

marked with the "KL" of the Koncentrationlager; scattered along the roadsides where they had fallen. Of

all these marches overrun by XII Corps the one which might stand representative of the rest was that

from the Flossenburg Camp, 10 miles northwest of Weiden, which was terminated by the arrival on the

scene of elements of the 11th Armored Division. The story is briefed dispassionately in the XII Corps

G5 Summary for 26 April 45, over the signature of Colonel "Josh" Billings, G5 who had just become a

full colonel as of that date:

"On 16 April, 2,800 political prisoners were started on a march from Flossenburg by SS; on 18

and 20 April more were put on the road so that by 20 April, an estimated 15,000 German-held political

prisoners and forced laborers were conducted on an SS 'March of Death'. They were driven for three

days and three nights; as the weak fell by the wayside, they were either murdered or left to die. No food

was provided during the period and, in their weakened condition after years of concentration camp

inhumanities, many had insufficient energy to withstand the torturous journey. Survivors report the

cruelest treatment throughout the March; shootings by SS guards were reported to be continuous. The

slaughter continued right up to the arrival of our armor; then the SS guards departed leaving the human

wreckage to stagger away; the strongest, taking to the highways; the weak crawling into the woods and

barns or other shelter. About 3,000 died on the March; about 3,000 were able to get out of the immediate

area where turned loose; the balance of 9,000 were holed up in the general area Cham, Roding, Posing,

and Neunberg."

Near the town of Neunberg (16 miles northwest of Cham) the SS guards had one final orgy of

butchery. Colonel Frank Weaver, Assistant G5 and Captain Merle Potter, found such aftermath of this

activity that the latter returned to the village and supervised a mass burial for 204 victims of the

"march." Colonel Hayden Sears, formally CO of the 17th Armored Group and more recently of the 4th

Armored Division is credited with organization of a custom by this time widely popular throughout XII

Corps. In accordance with it, the people of Neunberg were required to supply coffins for the poor

wretches slaughtered within their township, dig the graves, and attend the burial services. At conclusion

of the ceremony, in the name of the Corps Commanding General, a message was read in German over

the public address system of a sound truck to the assembled men, women and children of the village.

"Only God Himself," the message ended, "has the terrible might and infinite wisdom to visit upon you

and your leaders the total punishment you deserve. … May the memory of this day and of these tragic

dead rest heavily upon the conscience of every German so long as each of you shall live."

The worst discovery of this nature was reserved almost for the last. On 5 May 45, a

reconnaissance party from Troop D, 41st Cavalry Squadron, 11th Armored Division, advancing down

the beautiful valley of the Danube, uncovered near Linz two concentration camps, Mauthausen and

Gusen. The former was such a spectacle of horror as subsequently to compete in the opinion of the

world with Dachau and Buchenwald for the title of worst example of its kind. It was certainly the most

hideous thing that many members of XII Corps had ever seen. "Here were 16,000 political prisoners,

representing every country in Europe, all reduced to living skeletons and ridden with disease," the I & E

pamphlet history of the 11th Armored Division reports. "The bodies of more than 500 were stacked in

an area between two barracks. The few long term prisoners still alive said that at least 45,000 bodies had

been burned in the huge crematorium in four years. Other thousands were killed in the gas chambers,

injected with poison, or beaten to death."

Details of such camps have since received so much public notice in connection with post-war

trials of guards and superintendents of these hell-holes, that this volume need not repeat the stories of the

torture chambers, killing pens, the walking dead, the emaciated bodies stacked like cordwood. Suffice it

that a visit to Mauthausen was an unforgettable experience, – unfortunately. As one XII Corps

Headquarters officer wrote home: "It is really the smell that makes a visit to a Death Camp stark reality.

The smell and the stink of the dead and the dying. The smell and stink of the starving. Yes, it is the

smell, the stink, the odor of a Death Camp that makes it burn in the nostrils and memory. I will always

smell Mauthausen, just as I can still smell the bodies we found from the Flossenburg death march. …"

MEN OF XII CORPS UNITS THAT OVERRAN SUCH CAMPS AS

FLOSSENBURG WILL SEE THEM IN DREAMS FOR YEARS

(1) Tunnel entrance to the Flossenburg concentration camp near Weiden, Germany, where slave laborers by the thousand were worked and

starved to death, beaten, machinegunned and hanged. This gateway into Hell might well have borne the inscription from Dante's Inferno:

"All hope abandon, you who enter here." (2) General view of Flossenburg, 30 April 45, shortly after the camp had been overrun by the

97th Infantry Division. Workers were herded to labor and the nearby Messerschmitt factory and quarry. (3) Prison laborers prepared to

carry more victims to the Flossenburg crematory furnaces. 30 April. (4) Those that we found alive were walking skeletons. (5) The

notorious "Flossenburg Death March" started from this camp: SS guards attempted to march the workers beyond the reach of advancing

American columns, and shot down all those unable to keep up the pace, like those under examination by infantrymen of the 97th Infantry

Division. 1 May.

7. The Russians, and VE-Day

Contact with the Red Army and the end of the fighting – these were two occurrences so long

anticipated, so much discussed, that when they finally happened practically together even their

cumulative effect was anti-climactic.

XII Corps Headquarters and divisional liaison planes had been scouting boldly ahead of the

ground forces for some time, hoping to sight some Russian activity. Rumors of Russian tactical aircraft

deep within our lines had been running around with the usual cheerful irresponsibility of such reports;

the Patton Legend picked up a new angle when it was said that the general himself had been shot at in

error by a Russian plane while flying over Nurnberg in an L-5. But few if any XII Corps personnel could

be found to swear to firsthand observation of a red star on the wing of a plane.

The conscious race of various XII Corps units to be first to meet the Russians had been going on

for a couple of weeks, hampered only by restraining lines and stop-movement orders from higher

authority. At one time, with the 11th Armored Division jammed up against its restraining line in Austria,

it looked as though the Corps forces advancing freely into Czechoslovakia would make the first contact.

But these too, ran into a Third Army restraining line on 6 May,* and it was a patrol from the 11th

Armored Division that represented XII Corps and Third Army in their first meeting with Marshall

Stalin's legions.

Details of the contact with Red Army units probing westward from Vienna are quoted from 11th

Armored Division's I & E pamphlet history:

"At 1550, 8 May, Troop A, 41st (Cavalry Squadron) commanded by Lt Kedar B Collins, Albany,

Georgia, met a patrol of the Soviet Seventh Guards Division first unit of the Third Army to link up with

the Red Army.

"The meeting took place in the midst of battle. The Soviet patrol of seven tanks was following

the trail of its planes to strafing and bombing a German column of SS Panzer troops. In the face of the

Soviet advance, the American patrol, consisting of an armored car and three peeps, was almost taken

under fire.

"Sgt John L. Brady, riding in the lead jeep, leaped up and shouted: 'We are Americans!' Lt Gene

Allenson, Coral Gables, Florida, and Lt Richard L Lucas, Mount Carmel, Illinois, shot up flares to

identify their nationality. The Red Army troops replied with their flares and jumped out to join the

Americans. First Yank to meet the Soviet patrol was T/4 Frank H Johnson, Reno, Nevada, who was

greeted by Lt Fyedor A Kiseyev. T/Sgt Clarence L Barts, Chicago, at the time of the meeting, was

mistaken for a German. The Red Army soldiers demanded his pistol. When they learned he was an

American, they hugged and kissed them.

"Others who took part in the historic junction of the victorious armies were Cpl Theodore

Barton, Brisbane Australia, a released PW who acted as interpreter; Pfc Robert P Venderhagen, East

Detroit, Michigan, T/Sgt Joseph P McTighe, Louisville, Kentucky, Cpl Will Richmond, Trenton, New

Jersey, Pfc Michael Tancrati, Springfield, Massachusetts, Sgt Marvin H Estes, Montrose, Colorado, T/5

Andrew Florey, Medford, Oregon.

"Later that day, commanders of three German military units offered to surrender unconditionally

to the division. These were the 2nd SS Panzer Corps, with 50,000 troops, the 8th German Army,

strength 100,000, the Russian Forces of Liberation, a a Nazi-sponsored Army, 100,000 strong. All were

told to remain in place."

Shortly after the 11th Armored Division met the Russians all of the XII Corps front-line units

make contact, "across roads choked with German personnel enroute to make a preferential surrender to

US forces," as a Corps After Action Summary put it.

"For the first time in the 4th Armored's history," characteristically says that division's draft

sequel to the ETOUSA I & E pamphlet, to be called From Bastogne to Bavaria, "German troops ran

toward the division instead of from it. At least 80,000 German troops attempted to surrender to the 4th

or filter through into Germany.

"The staff of the 17th German Army, which surrendered to CCA, was given the job of

organizing the mob of German soldiers. German generals, colonels and lieutenants walked the streets

with white armbands marked 'Liaison Officer With U.S. Army.' Field orders were issued in English and

German and signed by American and German commanding officers. German staff cars, trucks and

volkswagons mixed up in the traffic with American halftracks and peeps.

"Gathered into four huge bivouac areas the Germans were held with their vehicles until those

designated as Soviet prisoners could be turned over to the Russians. Our column of fleeing German

vehicles extended 35 miles, with the tail of the column in Prague and the head butting into the 4th

Armored. The German, with some distress, said that their rear end was being shot up.

"Then the Russians arrived. Columns of the Second Ukrainian Army came from the east, cutting

below the Germans from Prague. American six-by-six trucks and peeps sped into the 4th Armored's area

with Red flags snapping. GI's and Russians eyed each other with curiosity and examined each other's

arms and uniforms. Medals and parties were exchanged and Americans found the Russian representation

for stiff drinking no myth. …"

The XII Corps Headquarters and personnel of the corps infantry divisions and cavalry group

were soon making the same discovery. …

There was double reason to celebrate by 9 May 45. Two days previously all major units had

received a famous message from the Supreme Commander, AEF:

"A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND SIGNED THE

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER OF ALL GERMAN LAND, SEA, AND AIR FORCES IN

EUROPE TO THE ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE AND SIMULTANEOUSLY TO THE

SOVIET HIGH COMMAND AT 0141 HOURS CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME, 7 MAY UNDER

WHICH ALL FORCES WILL CEASE ACTIVE OPERATIONS AT 0001 B HOURS 9 MAY.

"EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY ALL OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS BY ALLIED

EXPEDITIONARY FORCE WILL CEASE AND TROOPS WILL REMAIN IN PRESENT

POSITIONS. MOVES INVOLVED IN OCCUPATIONAL DUTIES WILL CONTINUE. DUE TO

DIFFICULTIES OF COMMUNICATION THERE MAY BE SOME DELAY IN SIMILAR ORDERS

REACHING ENEMY TROOPS SO FULL DEFENSIVE PRECAUTIONS WILL BE TAKEN. …"

That would make 9 May 45 the longed for VE-Day – Victory-in Europe Day. Between 1100 and

1130 on 7 May, a BAR man in Company K, 358th Infantry Regiment, let go 40 rounds at some enemy

infantry, "in the woods at Q2779," thereby firing the 90th Infantry Division's last shot of World War II.

Other XII Corps units fired their last shots.**

The European front, for the first time since 1 September 39, was still. "Of the German war

machine," General Eisenhower would report to the Combined Chiefs of Staff, "which had sought to

dominate the world lay overwhelmed and crushed to a degree never before experienced in the history of

modern armies."

ROUTINE UNCLASSIFIED

XII CORPS NEWS SUMMARY

072200 to 082200

The war in Europe officially ended 090001. At 3 PM, May 8, Prime

Minister CHURCHILL and President TRUMAN made simultaneous announcements that

hostilities would cease at one minute past midnight. Marshall STALIN made no

announcement, explained by continued fighting on the Eastern front.

Mr. CHURCHILL, after giving a brief factual account of the surrender, and

a résumé of the history of the war, said: "We may allow ourselves a brief

period of rejoicing. But let us not forget for a moment the toils and efforts

that lie ahead. JAPAN, with all their treachery and greed, remains unsubdued."

Mr. TRUMAN struck the same note. "Our victory is but half won," he said.

In proclaiming victory in Europe, he said: "I only wish that FRANKLIN DELANO

ROOSEVELT had lived to witness it."

King GEORGE spoke at 9 o'clock: "Today we give thanks to Almighty God for

a great deliverance. I ask you to join with me in the act of Thanksgiving."

EASTERN BASED ARMIES:

Marshall KONEV'S forces captured Dresden, last large German city

remaining in German hands after a two-day battle. DRESDEN, a city of half a

million, has for two centuries been noted as the center of art and culture. It

was formally the capital of the kingdom of SAXONY.

An order of the day to YEREMENKO announced the capture of the important

rail and road junction of OLOMOUC. It was the largest remaining German

stronghold in MORAVIA.

Another order of the day to MALINOVSKY announced the capture of the

Austrian cities of HOLLAPRUNN and STACKERNEU and of two large towns in

CZECHOSLOVAKIA NW of BRNO.

Marshall TITO'S forces have liberated ZAGREB, capital of CROATIA.

FAR EASTERN FRONT:

36,000 Japanese have been killed on OKINAWA since April 1. In the same

period 2000 Americans have been killed and 11,000 wounded. Many Japanese

batteries and other installations were knocked out in the naval bombardment of

yesterday and American troops have since captured a village overlooking NAHE,

the capital of the island.

Australian and Dutch troops on TARAKAN just off BORNEO have advanced to

within a mile and a half of the island's E coast.

Bitter fighting is still in progress in LUZON and MINDANAO.

In BURMA Fourteenth Army troops have linked up 27 miles N of RANGOON and

are closing in on the remnants of the Japanese 16th and 33rd Armies.

In HUNAU province of CHINA the Japanese are still on the offensive and

have pushed to within 55 miles of an important American airbase.

Super fortresses made their 18th attack on the Japanese home island of

KYUSHU.

MISCELLANEOUS:

At last reports CZECH Patriots controlled most of PRAGUE, but, as the

CZECH radio put it, the German troops were having "their last wild fling" and

were "behaving like devils." Some units had surrendered, but others fired on a

hospital housing their own wounded and used women and children as screens for

their tanks.

Representatives of the Scottish Command arrived in NORWAY to receive the

surrender of the German forces there.

In his broadcast to the German people announcing the unconditional

surrender, DOENITZ said: "We must face the facts squarely. The foundations on

which the German Reich was built have collapsed. The connection between state

and party no longer exists."

The German High Command, noting that in some sectors the British had

banned the use of the Nazi salute by PWs, ordered all German forces to use the

military salute, and broadcast instructions as to how it should be done.

King LEOPOLD of BELGIUM and his family have been rescued.

Dr. SCHAGHT, Hitler's finance minister in the early days of the Nazi

regime but later imprisoned by him, was liberated from a camp in ITALY. He

told reporters that the Germans will follow any lead which gives them food and

order."

A late bulletin announced that the Germans in PRAGUE had surrendered.

DEGRELLE, Belgium Fascist leader has been arrested in SPAIN.

HENRY M. MURRAY,

1st Lt. Infantry,

Public Relations, XII Corps.

It was hard to believe. And to most Americans there was a strange quality to the feeling they

experienced. It was so lacking in the exultant thrill of victory we had all been led to expect. In the little

Bavarian hill town of Grafenau, where the Corps CP had moved on 3 May, the news was received with

the same somewhat numb reaction. Perhaps the quality can best be conveyed by two eloquent passages

from the history of the 101st Evacuation Hospital. It was, after all, in such hospitals that the ultimate

payoff of the fighting was most clearly understood. The first quotation had been written many months

before the conclusion of the war, by an anonymous nurse of the "101st Evac":

"Nights in the hospital were long and grim. … For the most part you don't think or wonder or try

to reason beyond the moment. … But sometimes at night there is a lull when you sink onto a blanket-

covered box beside a hissing gasoline LA lantern and just listen, and it all comes over you with a rush.

… Strange thoughts in an unnatural setting as you hear the breathing of wounded men, like a weird

symphony in the darkness. … Noises, great and small … rain hurling against canvas … moaning winds

and the splash of muddy boots … a sudden cry, breaking the stillness like a trumpet … distant,

thunderous drums that shake the earth, reverberating …. The patients are restless – you quiet them with

words. They answer in low-pitched voices; whispers tense with pain and anxiety that wander, sometimes

clear, sometimes faint; but you listen, nor try to check their course ….

"A few precious moments come with midnight chow, when tense, weary doctors, nurses,

technicians, ward men gather. The strain is eased; perhaps talking and is laughter is immoderate – it

braces them from the 'graveyard shift'. … The tent is brightly lit, warm and pleasant with the smell of

strong coffee and hot food. You wipe the rain off the top of your steel helmet and perch on it, balancing

the mess kit in the way that has become second nature; or perhaps you gather around a table. There is a

rustling of tent flaps as another figure laboriously crawls through, glistening from the wet, fixing the

'blackout' behind him. Perhaps it's a surgeon who has just left a shattered brain case in 'OR' or maybe the

guard just relieved from his post (if so, he will beat his hands together and exclaim, 'That was the

longest two hours I ever spent!') Or it may be a driver in from a long convoy moving another hospital.

… it is occasions like these, when things seem clearly and easily defined – when everyone, great or

small, is working toward the same end, and those guys on litters become more personal and more

individual, and how wonderful and how hoped-for is the time when this damn war comes to its

inevitable ended. …"

The second passage tells how the news of VE-Day was received in the same hospital:

"No one seemed very much surprised, but there was a happy feeling inside, and a relief that you couldn't describe. It had been

stored up over those days of basic training and maneuvers in those tense days in England while the whole world waited for D-Day, and the

long hard-font campaigns. …Yes, the big job in Europe was done. There would be no more battle casualties, no more darkened ambulances

grinding to a stop at Admission with their silent broken men on litters. Hostilities had ceased."

* The exact location of these restraining lines may be of interest to somebody's grandchildren. Says Third Army After Action Report for 6

May 45: "XII Corps (5th, 26th and 90th Infantry Divisions, 4th and 11th Armored Divisions and supporting troops) was to advance

northeast to the general line of Pilsen -- Ceske Budejovice (Budweis), clear all enemy in its zone and be prepared to continue the advance

to the east. The Corps was to continue the advance east in the Danube Valley to the railroad running from (W038827) to Ceske Budejovice

(Budweis), sending only reconnaissance east of this line."

** "At the hour designated for execution of the cease-fire order," according to the Corps After Action Report for 9 May 45, "XII Corps

units were disposed from left to right on the Corps front as follows: The 2nd Cavalry Squadron was screening to the east of Klatozy from

Stibrin through Ujezd to Planice. The 359th Infantry, 90th Infantry Division occupied positions along the road running southeast from

Klatovy, the 1st Battalion between Mochtin to Bystre; the 2nd Battalion from Cihan to Planicka; the 3rd Battalion to the rear was in

position between Kneziceto and Besny. In the 357th Infantry, the 1st Battalion Zapiekov to Stribrne Hory; the 2nd Battalion from

Hradesice Southeast to Rabi. The 358th Infantry, 2nd Battalion from Otava River, east to wiska. In the 4th Armored Division CCB was

assembled between Kasejovice-Lnare and Kodov. CCA was between Katovice and Strakonice. The 25th Cavalry Squadron screened

between Drakonice to Dub. In 5th Infantry Division, 10th Infantry, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were in Vimperk, the 1st Battalion between

Sklare and Stadtagger. The 2nd Infantry, 2nd Battalion was in Milesice, 3rd Battalion and 1st Battalion in Volary. In the 11th Infantry, the

3rd Battalion was in Ferchanhaid; the 1st Battalion, Knizeci Plane; the 2nd Battalion, Horsvette Hory. The 42nd Cavalry Squadron

extended from Haslach to Finsterneu to Vierhauser. In the 26th Infantry Division: the 101st Infantry, 2nd Battalion was in Grafenau as

Corps security guard; the 1st Battalion was between Cerna Hurka and Radslav; the 3rd Battalion was from Senava to Nom Manava. In the

104th Infantry, the 2nd Battalion was in Kramolin; the 3rd Battalion in Bohdalovice; the 1st Battalion from Ostrov to Kozinec. The 328th

Infantry was disposed with the 3rd Battalion from Nahoran to Velence; the 2nd Battalion from Suttanc to Seify; the 1st Battalion at Hor

Dvorist. The 11th Armored Division was located with CCA in the vicinity of Ottenshlag, CCR at Zwettl, and CCB at Gallneukirchen."

This is the last entry for the European War in the daily narrative of the report.

VE-DAY: THE MEN WHO BROKE THE WEHRMACHT

Men of the XII Corps units got the news of VE-day scattered all over southeastern Germany, in Czechoslovakia, and Austria, and by all

types of communication. Here T/5 John H. Kuclra with Supply Service Company Headquarters 90th Infantry Division listens to a Signal

Corps radio receiver in Susice Czechoslovakia. (1) The story told on 8 May 45 was that the Americans shown on the page, and thousands

like them in the armies of the United Nations had broken the criminal pride of the Nazi government of Germany, once and for all: (1) T/5

Ernest Clayton. (2) Lt Paul F. Trader. (4) Pvt William L. Siler. (5) Pvt Frank D. Washington. (After being freed by his own unit, 358th

Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division from a German slave labor camp). (6) T/4 Arthur Brown of L Company, 101st Infantry

Regiment, 26th Infantry Division. (7)Cpl Mike Ranicin driver for Commanding General 4th Armored Division. (8) Pfc Leroy R. Briggs

with 820th Military Police Company at Passau. (9) Pvt Wallace F. Burket, bazooka man with Company C, 318th Infantry Regiment, 80th

Infantry Division is reunited with his brother, who had long been a prisoner of the Germans, in Branau, Austria. 9 May. (10) T/5 Willie E.

Sillmore of the 1367th Dump Truck Battalion, 1134th Engineer Group at Passau.

XII CORPS RECREATIONAL COMMAND: SET UP TO BE HOST TO

REGENSBURG VISITORS

(1) Walking by the sign designating their headquarters as host for XII Corps' visitors, are Lt Col Norman K. Williams, Comma

nding Officer and Capt William F. Bolen, executive of the command, Summer 1945, at Regensburg, Bavaria. (2) Three members of XII

Corps who operate the enlisted men's club at the Corps Recreational Command are: Pfc Ray J. Smith; T/4 Julius C. Allbritton; Pfc Willie

C. Ellis; the first and last are with the 456th Anti Aircraft Artillery (Automatic Weapons) Battalion: Allbritton is with the 90th Infantry

Division. (3) GI's crowd around entrance to XII Corps Transient Billets in Regensburg, at which personnel from all commands may stay.

(4) Transient mess serves as many as 1000 troops a day, and does it to music: Cpl William C. West of 456th AAA Battalion; Pfc Hugo

Trinciente with Headquarters Company, XII Corps; and Cpl William Waddell of 456th AAA Battalion. (5) "Jockey Club" serves coffee,

doughnuts, and beer to drivers awaiting assignment: men who maintain the club are: T/4 William P. Hyde, T/5 Herbert Proctor, and Pvt

Joseph Bivona, all members of the 154th Anti Aircraft Artillery Battalion.