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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.
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