Advance to the Hartz Mountains

 

 

    Our next mission was to follow the 3rd Armored on the Autobahn to the Hartz Mountains and to protect their rear. They had broken through the German lines and were moving rapidly. We had a tough time trying to keep them in site. I ended up being in charge of carrying the terrain maps. They only covered a few miles and I had about 20 in no time. We reached the Mountain and I Company was again assigned to climb to the top, take the high ground. 

    When we reached the top of the Mountain, everyone was moaning, groaning and complaining. It was quite a fast climb with some very steep inclines. If the Germans would have been at that area, I think we would have been wiped out. Lucky, there were no Germans there. As soon as we caught our breath I was told to take a machine gun squad and a couple of riflemen to the front and set up an outpost. I picked the spot and did jut that. We were about 80 yards from the rest of our company.

    On the way back, it was getting dark and I saw two soldiers walking towards me. Because we hadn't seen any Germans, I thought it was someone from our company looking for me. When they were about 25 feet from me I realized it was two German soldiers. It looked like they were reaching for their rifles, I screamed Hand de ho. They must have realized I had the Thompson aimed at them. They froze and I told them to drop their rifles. Then to sit on the ground. As I got a good look at them, I thought they might only be about 15 or 16 years old. I ask them to empty their pockets and take off their jackets to make sure they didn't have any hidden weapons. The one started to cry and this startled me.

    I told them to put their jackets back on and told them to walk ahead of me. I turned them over to the CO and tried to get some sleep. The next morning we headed out along the ridge, picked up the outpost and moved on. About a half mile later our scouts sighted some vehicles ahead. We sent a patrol ahead and they reported what appeared to be 5 command cars and some motorcycles and two soldiers outside of a small hut. We surrounded the hut and our platoon leader, who spoke perfect German, yelled for all of them to surrender. No problem. A white  piece of cloth was shown and the Lt. yelled for them to come out. There were 8 officers and 5 enlisted men. The Colonel came up to our CO and surrendered. Some of them almost seamed happy to surrender. It was getting close to the end of the war and they knew it and were very happy to surrender to American troops. It would save them from the Russians.

    The German Colonel was a little arrogant and demanded soap and a razor to wash and shave. It irked our CO a little bit. Our Colonel called me over and told me to look for the rustiest old razor that I could  find. Then pick up some GI soap and any old dirty rag and take the Colonel down to the creek and make sure he washes and shaves. This I did and the Colonel did while he glared and muttered all the time. The prisoners were then taken back while our platoon had a great time with their command cars and motorcycles.

    We had a demolition derby, crashing into each other and to trees and we kept it up until none of the vehicles could run anymore. I had grabbed a scout motorcycle and went roaring down a lane. There was a sharp turn at a bridge over a small creek. I slid into the bridge abutment, flew over the top of the motorcycle and into the creek. Luckily, I ended up with only a few bruises but did get a little wet. We discovered later that the forward part of our outfit had stopped an armored outfit and that it had surrendered a short time earlier. The Germans who surrendered to us were the Battalion Headquarters of that Division.

    Things may have been looking up for us but our war was far from over. Our outfit moved out again and we were advancing rapidly through many towns and finding little resistance. In one of the towns we went through, there was something that I found very interesting. We entered an area that had many, what we call, row houses, in this case about a dozen that were joined together.

    I sent a squad down to the far end of the buildings and sent another squad to the near end to search and meet in the center. What was happening at that time, the German SS troop units would force the Wehrmacht (the regular army) to fight us until things got too hot. The SS Troops then would take off and the Wehrmacht would be left to surrender.

     Back to my story: I had been in the center of this group of houses waiting for my guys to make it to where I was. All of a sudden I could hear this very loud screaming and crying. I wondered where my guys were since I hadn't seen any movement from one house to the next. I ran into the center house and opened the cellar door and there must have been 20 women and children. It took me more than 20 minutes to half convince them that we were not going to kill and rape them.

    When they finally calmed down, some of them started to chatter and point at me and to call out for one particular woman to look at me. When she came up she put her hands on her chest and started to cry. Later I found out that they said I looked just like her son who was in the  Army and that she hadn't seen or heard from for several years. She asked me to sleep in her house that night which I did. She made up a bed with clean sheets, great pillows and a blanket. I had asked her to waken me at 5:30. She woke me and I could smell food. She had bacon, eggs, potatoes and ersatz coffee for me. I thanked her, gave her a big hug and left. To this day I regret not getting her name and address.

 

 

     I forgot to mention Apr. 12, 45. We were in  the lower hills of the Hartz Mt. area and who should we see arriving at this location, two Red Cross girls. They gave us the news about Pres. Roosevelt dying. He almost made it to the end of the war in Europe. They came up to serve us doughnuts and coffee.

     From what I heard, our kitchen gave them the flour, sugar and the oil to make the donuts, The kitchen made the coffee. Very surprising, we never got anything but C rations. We had gotten two hot meals  in a combat area. The one- they heated C-rations in a 50 gallon drum full of hot water. The other, we had dehydrated potatoes, slices of ham and coffee.

     To show you what kind of a platoon Leader I had, between the two of us, he made the ruling, all the privates went 1st., then the corporals, buck sgts., staff sgts., Tech. Sgts., from the whole company. I was the last non-com, then the officers. Any other time and  place in the service, the officers always went first for anything good , then the enlisted men.

    I am only talking about I was personally involved in. In most infantry companies in combat, the platoon Ldr. was in front of the platoon, except when scouts were sent out. They had a very high rate Of casualties. You probably know all of this, if so, I apologize. I did have that CO. in Miss. who went over the hill the first day he was in combat, and he was a West Pointer. I also had one PL. ldr. that went over the hill and caused a number of casualties. He was another one who was extremely strict until he saw his 1st. combat day.--

    I guess I better get back to my trip to England. We left by truck to Cologne. Stayed over night. The Capt. went to an office set up by a group,(I can't think of the name) who were in charge of governing the civilian population and involved in rebuilding. They confiscated German buildings for themselves, including their offices and living quarters.

    Here was a dozen combat soldiers, all had been wounded, all had been with their companies for a longer stretch after rehab than any other non coms. The head of this group gave the Captain an address. He went to look at it and came storming back to us and said " I should go back and kill that S.O.B. The address was a very large concentration camp that we were involved in taken Cologne and freeing the prisoners and this civilian chief wanted us to go there to sleep. Were we being punished for being  in combat for a minimum of four straight months? The Captain found a nice home and ask, if we could sleep there that night. They very happily agreed. Next stop Paris.