An Event at the Mulde and Elbe Rivers

 

 

    In the  the Hartz Mt., area, we encountered some very ferocious fighting against SS troops as if they were putting up a last stand of a do or die situation. They knew it was near the end and also knew the hatred that was building up against them. After they were overcome, many of the SS troops disappeared and the German Wehrmacht started to surrender to the Americans, hoping to avoid capture by the Russians.

    After going through the Nordhausen concentration camp. Everyone was sickened by the horrible sight of the starved zombie like skeletons. most of them couldn't even stand up. I had been through a number of smaller ones, but the massiveness of this, made it so much worse.

     At the next town, Harzgerode on Apr 19th., I went on patrol with our jeep driver to look over our next area. We are driving east on the road toward the Mulde River. On my Right I noticed a convoy of German trucks and big guns. A German artillery  battalion or larger unit. What do  I do / The war is winding down, but we are still getting some sporadic firing.

    The convoy stopped and then a white flag appeared. An officer got out of the lead truck and started toward us. I told the driver to stay there and I went to meet the officer who turned out to be a Colonel. He saluted me and I returned the salute. He let it be known that he wanted to surrender to a Colonel or Higher. I told him I was a Colonel and he should have all his men get off of the trucks, and put all their rifles on one pile and all the pistols on a separate pile.

    I then told him to have all the men board the trucks. I told him to follow me to the jeep. I told the driver to get a sack and put all the pistols in it and put them in the jeep, then get on one of the scouts motorcycles and lead the convoy following me in the jeep back to the town. What a great feeling, here I am a Tech Sgt. capturing a whole artillery outfit. 

    As I approached the town, I could see The CO standing in the middle of the street and I believe the whole company was  behind him . I drove up to the Captain., got out of the jeep told the colonel to follow, walked up to the Captain with my swelled out chest, gave him a very snappy salute and presented the German colonel to him for the official surrender. I then grabbed the driver and split all the pistols with him. 35 pistols each. What a day. The next day, we headed toward Wolfen and Jessnitz at the junction of the Mulde & Elbe rivers. This was as far as we were allowed to go according to the arrangements made by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. This is about the 21st of April as we anticipate finally contacting the Russians.