G Company's War: Two Personal Accounts of the Campaigns in Europe, 1944-1945

8. The Race across Germany

8 The Race across Germany March 26-May 9, 1945 ~ OPERATIONAL BACKGROUND By the last week of March the entire line of the Rhine-and with it the final German defensive barrier-had been breached by the Allied forces. On the extreme flanks, the First Canadian Army in the Netherlands and General Patch's Seventh Army in the far south of Germany continued to meet strong resistance. Elsewhere it was clear that the Wehrmacht was finished. Once across the Rhine, the other four Allied armies-from north to south the Second British and the Ninth, First, and Third U.S.-raced through the German heartland. Here and there they encountered pockets of resistance, but for the most part the battle for Germany was in the nature of a road march. Hitler's continuing insistence upon a policy of no retreat had resulted in the bulk of his forces being destroyed west of the Rhine, leaving only battered fragments to contest the invading Allied host in central Germany.1 On the Third Army front the crossing of the Rhine just south of Mainz had caught the German high command by surprise, since it meant that any northward thrust by the Americans would necessitate another major crossing -that of the westerly flowing Main River. This proved to be no great concern for Patton, who sent his old reliable 4th Armored Division looping northeastward, with the 26th Division in support, for a link-up with the First Army. The immediate objective was the small city of Hanau, on the Main River just east of Frankfurt, where the tankers were fortunate enough to seize an incompletely demolished bridge. Here the Yankee Division was to meet the last organized resistance it would encounter.2 [P.R.] EGGER March 26, 1945. The entire regiment was assembling in the area five miles east of the Rhine where we had stopped in the early hours of the morning. Rubin, who had dropped out last night, came in with the 3rd Battalion. The 2nd Battalion was loaded into trucks at daylight and we rode through Darmstadt, which had been devastated by bombs, to Grossauheim, a suburb of Hanau on the Main River. We I ,~ SUHL J FULDA>" ~PR. 7 _ , PRAGUE /' '- ~ .FRAN.U':I.:ANAU KDN':j.~~~EU~J 'L CZECHOSLOVAKIA / MAR.28 ~ MAINZ e ~ \ ' r;IER MAR.25 -'.. BEYREUTH., J SERRIG \ ~ \ \ .PILSEN eMAR.f6 \ ~ AMBERG I • __ - - ~ NUREMBERG. APR.24\ -~ SAARLAUTERN ~ __,,- " " ',~,\ISERSLAUTER ~~- \.. .....-. " , " ' MAY7 - - ' - \~ SEI FTEN .SAAR UNION ) ~ DEGGENDORF"" "-- • FRANCE ~ (lo APR.27 ~ r", ~ t r. • STUTTGART !fa..L. II ,to V PASSAue,!, , 1If.-?MAY2 , ~ , .J L1NZ~ , , , MAY 5 A .MUNICH ( , , , ~SALZBUR6 1/ ,.~ /,_, " ,~ ... --5 ...r --- ""') ,....., - , r-" ,.,~_ " '-.' J ~ " o J '--.....J - ... SWITZERLAND T INNSBRUCKe AUSTRIA Map 11. G Company's Route Through Germany THE RACE ACROSS GERMANY • 233 kept encountering units of the 4th Armored with large numbers of prisoners in tow. We unloaded about noon in a wooded area near a battery of the 4th Armored. The infantry of the 4th had crossed the bridge over the river [about a mile upstream from Hanau] and were encountering resistance. We moved to the edge of town and waited at some buildings near the bridge. There were a number of civilians in the area observing the proceedings . At 1600 we hurried across the bridge while the Germans were firing air bursts above it and relieved the 4th. The sounds of the burp guns and sniper fire reminded me of Saarlautern. I noticed two dead GIs on the far side of the bridge. Our platoon took over a house near the river for the night. The occupants of the house, an elderly couple, moved to the basement for the night. March 27, 1945. G Company moved through the town [Krotzenheim] before dawn. Within a block of our quarters I counted four dead American soldiers who had probably been killed by snipers yesterday. The Germans had withdrawn, so we moved back across the bridge-which was still receiving air bursts-to attack Hanau. We began to draw sniper fire as soon as we entered the outskirts of the city. The 3rd Platoon cleared a row ofhouses that paralleled the railroad tracks. The civilians had left this area, which had been shelled by our artillery, and we found no soldiers in the buildings. Lt. Schulze told me to assemble my squad and move across the tracks to occupy the railroad depot. Rubin was missing so I went into the...