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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."*
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