TROOP LIST

1. Hq & Hq Co, 3d Inf Div

2. 7th Infantry

3. 15th Infantry

4. 30th Infantry

5. 9th FA Bn

6. 10th FA Bn

7. 39th FA Bn

8. 41st FA Bn

9. 10th Engr Bn

540th Engr Gp (C)

1109th Engr Gp (C)

10. 3d Signal Co

11. 3d Rcn Troop

12. 3d Inf Div Arty 250th FA Bn

693d FA Bn

13. 441st AAA A W Bn 2d Plat,

Btry A, 353d AAA S/L Bn Btry

C, 353d S/L Bn

14. 756th Tank Bn

15. 601st TD Bn

16. 3d Med Bn

17. 106th Cav Gp

18. 87th Cml Mortar Bn

WITH the capture of Neuf-Brisach, the end of the Colmar Pocket was assured. The enemy was now unable to supply or reinforce his troops. As the 3d Infantry Division inexorably closed on the two bridges over the Rhine east of Neuf-Brisach the enemy demolished them.

The United States l2th Armored Division raced south from Colmar and made contact with I French Corps elements at Houffach. The mop-up of the remaining elements of the German Nineteenth Army took only a few days. And again the 3d took up its Watch on the Rhine.

Limited training was undertaken almost immediately as the Division outposted and patrolled, and made plans to deal with any German attempts to recross the river. The 7th and 30th Infantry Regiments handled this task, while 15th Infantry remained in reserve.

The 254th Infantry was completely relieved on February 9 and reverted to control of its parent organization, the 63rd Infantry Division.

By February 10 a subparagraph in the G-2 Periodic Report noted that: "Organized enemy resistance west of the Rhine River between Strasbourg and the Swiss border is reported to have ceased."

The 99th Chemical Mortar Battalion remained in Division reserve, registering, firing on targets of opportunity, and firing smoke missions across the Rhine. The 168th Chemical Company continued smoke operations along the river, screening our movements from the enemy in Germany until the morning of February 12, when a detachment from the 21st Chemical Company relieved it.

Commencing on February 16, elements of the 4th Regiment Tirailleurs Marocain of the 2d Division Infanterie Motorise' reconnoitered 7th and 30th Infantry positions, preparatory to relief of the entire Division. "You're going back so far you'll be able to eat ice cream," a happy General Devers had promised the Division at the finish of the attack, and the 3d was ready to take the Sixth Army Group Commander at his word.

The relief commenced on February 17 and at 1800, February 18 control of the sector passed from the Commanding General, 3d Infantry Division, to the Commanding General of the 2d DIM.

The 3d assembled and made preparations to move to prearranged areas in Lorraine near Nancy, after 188 days of continuous contact with the enemy.

Pont-a-Mousson is almost exactly halfway between Nancy and Metz. There is a sign which reads, "Nancy 27 km" and directly below it with an arrow pointing in the opposite direction the legend says, "Metz 28 km." It was here that the Division CP set up for business. The regiments disposed themselves in small towns all along the Nancy-Metz highway. The 7th Infantry's 1st Battalion was stationed in Belleville, and 2d at Dieulouard, and the 3d at Marbache, all between Pont-a-Mousson and Nancy. Near Pont-a-Mousson the 30th Infantry set up housekeeping: 1st Battalion near Eulmont, 2d at Bouxieres, and 3d Battalion at Lay St. Christopher. The 15th Infantry bivouacked in towns north of Pont-a-Mousson, in the vicinity of Pagny.

Official status of the Division was now SHAEF reserve, but there were few who doubted that recommitment to combat would long be delayed. Meanwhile rest, rehabilitation, and then, inevitably, training, were the order of the day. The infantry regiments began training new replacements, just as did the 601st D Battalion and 756th Tank Battalion. The armored attachments had suffered heavier casualties in the Colmar attack than in any campaign since the push to Rome. New tanks, New TDs, and reinforcements were received to be absorbed into the framework of organizations. The 441st AAA AW Battalion's Battery C was immediately set to work providing antiaircraft protection for lines of communications, bivouac areas, and bridges, while the other two lettered batteries underwent rehabilitation.

The 10th Engineer Battalion and 3d Reconnaissance Troop likewise began rehabilitation and reception of reinforcements.

Along with the commencement of training, recreation was introduced to an organization which had known little recreation since its stay in Pozzuoli, near Naples, six months before. Pass trucks began making regular runs to Nancy, which by now was a large hospital and base-section strongpoint, and the locale of beaucoup femmes, always a subject of considerable interest to soldiers. Nancy, in many places virtually untouched by bombs and shells, was a sight for eyes weary of scarred, razed Alsatian villages.

But the war, as always, soon predominated and subordinated all other efforts. As February passed into March the training program rounded off. This consisted of intensive practice in street fighting, the attack of permanent, fortifications, weapons firing, intelligence, night operations, and the technique of river crossings.

Effective March 12 the Division became a part of XV Corps, under the command of Maj. Gen. Wade H. Haislip, and plans were formulated for a forthcoming operation. Although plans for the operation were secret, oldtimers with the faculty of sensing preparations for reentry into combat, knew an operation was scheduled. This time no one doubted the destination or purpose. As one of the very few United States divisions which had fought against Germany almost continuously since July 10, 1943, what was more logical than action in the homeland of the enemy himself? Germany it was to be, and before the war ran its course the 3d Infantry Division was to have the distinction of playing a prominent part in seizing the very place in which Naziism had first arisen to plague the world.

On March 13 the Division began moving to assembly areas near Etting, Schmittviller, and Bining. The move was entirely secret. Numbers on vehicle bumpers were covered over. Shoulder patches were blotted out with strips of adhesive, as were the blue-and-white diagonal patches which decorated either side of each steel helmet.

The Division was poised on the Franco-German border, awaiting the signal for attack. It was not long coming. The date was set-March 15. The hour-0100.

In a special, last-minute briefing, Iron Mike told his regimental commanders: "Within one hour after the jumpoff you will be in Germany."

Events proved him right. The 3d Infantry Division reached the fringe of its long-sought goal exactly thirty-one minutes after its leading elements crossed the line of departure.

The path into Germany was necessarily a thorny one. For the third push to the Rhine River also marked the third time that the division had been assigned to a highly-fortified area and given the task of reducing all obstacles that lay in the path. The two other times were against the "iron ring" of Anzio and the "frozencrust" of the Colmar Pocket.

Other United States units had faced the enemy in this area for more than two months. Shortly following the beginning of the German Ardennes-Eiffel offensive in the north there had been an attack against the Seventh Army. When this push was stopped, no further offensives were mounted in this area by either side. Stalemate developed. As usual, the Germans promptly mined every possible spot accessible to their engineers; fortified their lines by digging zig-zag fire trenches and siting their weapons with the expert eye to terrain for which they were noted.

Elements of the crack German l7th SS Panzer Division occupied a major portion of the sector through which lay our zone of advance at the time of our attack. Although morale of the average German soldier. was ,not, on the average, high, that of the NCOs and officers was still unbroken, and the over-all fighting ability of enemy troops could still be termed no less than "excellent."

The ground was gummy, sticky, following recent rains.

Promptly at 0100, March 15, the 1st and 2d Battalions of the 7th Infantry and 1st and 3d Battalions of the 30th Infantry pushed off; the 7th from Rimling and the 30th from the vicinity of Schmittviller, passing through elements of the 44th Infantry Division. Division Artillery simultaneously opened fire with ten battalions, plus an additional six battalions of XV Corps artillery supporting. The initial barrage lasted twenty minutes.

Advancing on the left flank of the regiment the 1st Battalion of the 7th Infantry, commanded by Lt. Col. Kenneth W. Wallace, moved northward rapidly and aggressively, overcoming small-arms resistance which was supported by mortar and artillery defensive fire.'

At 0135 Company B led the 3d Infantry Division into Germany about one mile south of Utweiler. First Scout Pfc. Wayne T. Alderson was the first man across. Minus Company A, the battalion crossed the Bickenalbe stream and seized crossroads 304, one kilometer east of Baumbusch woods. By noon, despite increasing enemy resistance, Company C was in the eastern edge of the woods, while Company B had pushed through moderate resistance to occupy Erching. Company A, which had swung left after progressing about one and one-half miles from the line of departure, stormed Guiderkirch from the north and had it cleared by 0400, taking sixty-one prisoners.

The 3d Division had had many attacks in which temporary disaster, as it sometimes must to the best formations, came to one battalion. In practically all cases it had resulted from enemy armor counterattacking a temporarily armorless unit. As it was at Maison Rouge bridge in the attack against the Colmar Pocket, so it was on the first day of the attack with Lt. Col. Jack M. Duncan's 2d Battalion of the 7th.

Advancing on the regiment's right flank the battalion encountered thick schu-minefields as well as antitank minefields and sustained serious casualties at the outset. Four tanks were disabled and the balance of attached armor halted. In spite of its crippling losses, plus heavy enemy resistance, the battalion forged its way into Utweiler and captured the town, taking many prisoners. At 0730 strong enemy Flakwagon and selipropelled gunfire was received and two hours later a battalion of enemy infantry, supported by nine tank destroyers and four Flakwagons, were observed on the high ground that ringed the town on three sides. Men of the isolated battalion watched the hostile armor roll into town, methodically leveling every house in its path. With no supporting armor, the only alternative to annihilation was withdrawal. Only a portion of the battalion managed to reach the high ground south of the town. There was a heavy toll in killed, wounded and captured, a good part of which was suffered prior to the withdrawal.

The 1st and 3d Battalions, 30th Infantry, also encountered intensely-sown schu-minefields from the outset and in addition 1st Battalion drew automatic fire from pillboxes.-The 3d reported a stream of smallarms fire on the narrow gaps in minefields and extremely heavy, casualty-inflicting self-propelled gunfire.

Because of their maneuverability and the ease with which they crossed antipersonnel minefields, tanks of the 756th Battalion were employed to great advantage by the 30th both in smashing pillboxes and evacuating wounded.

A tank-infantry attack, led by 1st Lt. Richard Rosebury of the regimental raider platoon attached to the 3d Battalion, was outstandingly successful in securing the dominating crest of a hill whose possession was absolutely essential to the battalion.

While the 1st and 3d Battalions of the 30th were rolling up the field defenses, the 2d was in "reserve" near Volmunster, if such can be called the role of a unit which found it necessary in a 26-hour period to clean out at least fifty pillboxes in an adjacent division's area, rather than endure a hail of fire from these positions.

The 7th Infantry's 3d Battalion, under Maj. Ralph J. Flynn, was committed at 0400. It pulled up behind the 2d Battalion and formed an arc around Utweiler running south to east. Companies I and L, and AT Company (organized as a bazooka unit), supported by fifteen pieces of armor, launched a counterattack on Utweiler behind an artillery preparation. By 1540 assault elements of Company I had penetrated enemy defenses and entered the town. Armor of the task force destroyed seven enemy tanks and tank destroyers and all four of the enemy's Flakwagons. Fighting in Utweiler ,continued until 1800 hours, that first day before the town was ours.

First element of the 15th Infantry to be thrown into the fight was the 1st Battalion, which shoved off from its area near Bining at noon, to attack. Ormersviller. The battalion moved along the axis of the RimlingEpping Urbach road to Epping Urbach, then swung north toward Omersviller. Near midnight, March 15, Company A had pushed to within 1000 yards of the town with no contact save for enemy artillery and mortar fire.

Division artillery, as always, played a very important part in the initial attack. From 0100 until daylight, March 15, the battalions fired a hundred concentrations in support of the attacking infantry units, in addition to the opening barrage.

At 0135 Company A, 15th Infantry, reported that it was entering Ormersviller, now against heavy artillery and mortar fire although there was very little smallarms resistance. Less than an hour later the company had occupied the left side of the town, with Company B on the east side. Ormersviller was captured-first town to fall to the 15th Infantry in the new drive.

The 1st and 3d Battalions, 7th Infantry, resumed the attack to the north and east toward the Siegfried Line at 0130. Against scattered but determined rear guard resistance, Company I took Hill 370 while Company L pushed into the Dackerwald woods. The 1st Battalion infiltrated into Medelsheim against stubborn enemy delaying action during the hours of darkness and during the early hours of daylight cleared the town, taking many prisoners.

By noon 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry, had got to within 800 yards of Loutzviller, where its lead element, the 2d Platoon of Company A, was held up by small-arms fire from a house on the outskirts. One member of the platoon here killed one and captured nine Germans to eliminate this obstacle, and the town fell shortly after.

The 3d Battalion had moved from its assembly area near Epping Urbach that morning and passed through 1st Battalion elements at Ormersvlller, attacking southeast toward Volmunster. The town fell to Company I within two and a half hours as Company L swung toward Eschviller, which it and elements of Company K took during the morning.

During the rest of the day and for part of the next, 15th Infantry continued to advance. The 1st Battalion overran Scheidberg and stepped into Germany to follow up with the capture of Hornbach, against smallarms and machine-gun fire. One platoon of Company A fought two hours in taking Hornbach. The 1st Battalion moved on to capture Mauschbach.

Dietrichingen fell to the 2d Battalion while a patrol found Brensschelbach clear. The 3d Battalion took the main road junction east of Loutzviller, then swept through Windhof, Schweyen, Ohrenthal, and pressed on to Rolbing where Company I crossed an unnamed river. In the battle for the road junction, Pfc. Buster D. Robertson, first scout in an assault platoon, distinguished himself by walking forward under heavy fire and indicating enemy positions to be destroyed. He himself was killed with a burst of machine-gun fire, but the assault platoons inflicted approximately fifty casualties on the enemy causing his forces to withdraw leaving behind eleven machine guns.

At 1400 March 16, the 1st and 3d Battalions, 7th Infantry, resumed the attack in their zone. Troops of the 1st Battalion broke into Neu-Altheim and engaged the enemy in a bitter small-arms fight. In slightly more than an hour, despite furious attempts on the part of two enemy tanks or self-propelled guns to stem the assault, the town was cleared. The 3d Battalion, in an aggressive attack, seized Riesweiler, closed in and took the Nasserwald and Grosserwald woods and by 1700 advanced to a road junction and patch of woods a mile east of Altheim. At 0020, March 17, 1st Battalion pushed out again in the attack, while the 3d Battalion dispatched patrols. Altheim fell without resistance to the 1st Battalion. Companies K and L attacked Stuppacheshof and occupied it within three-quarters of an hour. Patrols moved into Mittelbach unopposed but found the town heavily mined, and boobytrapped with 75mm shells.

The 3d Infantry Division was now at the first fortifications of the vaunted Siegfried Line.

A task force consisting of a rifle platoon from 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry, a bazooka platoon from the regimental Antitank Company, and five light tanks from the 756th Tank Battalion set out for Mittelbach from Altheim.

During the night of March 17-18 a small, carefullybriefed patrol from 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry, was sent out to the first row of the Siegfried Line's "dragon's teeth," and drew small-arms, artillery, and self-propelled-gun fire, indicating that the sector was extremely sensitive.

Maj. Gen. John W. O'Daniel at this time ordered a two-regiment attack against the Siegfried Line, 7th and 15th, with the 15th on the right, to breach the line, push rapidly to the Schwarzbach River, secure two bridges and the high ground immediately to the north; then mop up from the flank and rear of the Siegfried defenses east of the breach. H-hour was set for 0545, March 18.

The 7th Infantry moved to an assembly area in the vicinity of Althornbach during the night of March 17-18 and the 15th likewise completed its operations.

The 30th Infantry was still in reserve.

Assault battalion was the 1st in each of the regiments.

At 0545, following a strong artillery preparation, the two battalions jumped off. The 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry, penetrated the first three belts of dragon's teeth, by-passing many enemy groups in pillboxes, each of which thereafter became an objective of its own, to reach the Muhlthalderhof Ferme, about a mile-and-a-half southeast of Zweibrucken, at 0630, where the battalion was engaged in a fire fight by the enemy.

The 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry, followed by the 2d, while the 3d performed a blocking mission on the right flank of the Division and regiment, got away at 0545 and likewise advanced behind the massed fire of nine battalions of artillery and was supported by engineers with bulldozers and demolitions.

The battalion immediately, drew fierce small-arms fire and picked its way ahead slowly, closing in on the woods to the front. As it advanced, the enemy opened fire with heavy concentrations of artillery fire.

By 0930 Company C was in the woods, with Company A on the right, moving toward the first row of -dragon's teeth. The resistance was now furious. Brisk fire- fights raged throughout the course of the morning and the enemy succeeded in preventing the battalion from reaching the dragon's teeth until 1130, when Company C forced its way in. Four hours later the company was barely inside the obstacles and commencing to mop up against tenacious resistance that slowed the advance to a yard-by-yard pace. In this sector the enemy was fighting with everything he 'could muster to hold the Westwall and keep the last great man-made barrier before the Reich intact.

The 7th Infantry, at 0730, committed the 3d Battalion, which initially was without armor because the engineers had been unable to blow the dragon's teeth sufficiently for tanks of the 756th and tank destroyers of the 601st to operate. At 0930 Company 1, assault company of the battalion, encountered stiff resistance from by-passed enemy groups 500 yards south of the 1st Battalion. The balance of the 3d Battalion further south also engaged formidable enemy elements bypassed by the 1st. The 2d Battalion meanwhile mopped up and secured the flanks of the advance.

Company B, 15th Infantry, passed through the weary Company C and pressed the attack with renewed force. Fierce fighting raged the length of the Division front.

At about 1906 a reinforced company of enemy infantry counterattacked the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry, the brunt of which was taken and repulsed by Company A. The battalion in turn launched counterthrusts that drove the enemy back with many losses. By the end of the day the 7th Infantry had driven a thin wedge 1500 yards in depth through the first and second rows of dragon's teeth and was within sight of Zweibrikken, fighting the enemy on three sides. Shortly after midnight, March 18, Company I repulsed a determined counterattack at Wallerscheid. By this time the 1st Battalion had almost exhausted its ammunition and supplies. Armor was held up by the antitank ditches and one tank was stuck in the "teeth." A task force, consisting of Company 1. and engineers commanded by the 3d Battalion S-3, Captain Harold Wigetman, succeeded in supplying the 1st Battalion during the night, although the task force received and repulsed a strong counterattack from the northeast just before it contacted rear elements of the 1st.

The fighting continued all night in the 15th zone also. The 2d Battalion, standing by all the previous day ready to move up and renew the attack, had been held up by furious artillery fire. However, it passed through the 1st Battalion in the early morning hours of March 19 with Company F in the lead, followed by Company E.

The Commanding General decided that the attack needed additional impetus and committed the 30th Infantry to the left of the 7th Infantry in a new sector on the morning of March 19. At 0515 the 2d and 1st Battalions in the assault, preceded by a thunderous half hour artillery barrage, blasted their way into the dragon's teeth.

Maj. Kenneth B. Potter, commanding 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry, in the absence, due to injury, of the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Michael Paulick, was caught in an antitank ditch while the enemy fired down the portion of the ditch that ran off at right angles on either flank. Thus trapped and unable to crawl out because of a hill, the major and his party remained there until nightfall directing the fight by radio.

The 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry, assumed the job of blocking to the east and west the morning of the 19th. The 2d's. Company G was thrown into the battle and during the morning eliminated four pillboxes. By noon however, the battalion was approximately 2000 yards southeast of Contwig and receiving direct antitank-gun fire. In addition, hundreds of antitank and antipersonnel mines were hampering the advance-one of the greatest mine concentrations the regiment had ever faced.

The 3d Battalion, 7th Infantry, had moved north at 0800 to contact advance elements (1st Battalion) of the regiment, despite enemy-manned pillboxes on both flanks of the line of advance which tried vainly to break up the operation.

The grinding, slashing, grueling fight continued that whole day of March 19. The Germans had provided obstacles by demolishing every bridge in the path of advance. The line was a maze of reinforced concrete pillboxes with interlocking fields of fire, barbed-wire entanglements, entrenchments and deep antitank ditches, in addition to the omnipresent dragon's teeth.

The enemy facing Seventh Army was rapidly being cut off in the rear by elements of the advancing Third Army at this time, but this was nowhere apparent in the quality and ferocity of opposition offered the 3d Infantry Division. The crackup, however, was not far away. General O'Daniel, sensing this, ordered the attack ruthlessly pressed. It went on through the night.

In one small action, Cpl. Henry Mount of 15th Infantry's Company G placed pointblank machine-gun fire on a pillbox from an exposed position, although he could hardly have hoped to neutralize it. After a short time the occupants ceased firing and friendly riflemen, having got next to the fortification unobserved, blew the door with TNT charges and took eight prisoners. In another instance one rifleman killed five snipers with five shots within a very few minutes.

The breakup came on the morning of the 20th. Prisoners began to swarm in, over-run by the relentless attack.

At 0230 Company E, 7th Infantry, seized and occupied a pillbox 300 yards south of the Muhlthalderhof Ferme. An hour later 3d Battalion had cleaned out six pillboxes. The enemy's defense began to dissolve and patrols quickly pushed out to the front.

The 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry, under Lt. Col. Mackenzie E. Porter, had a bridgehead across the Hornbach River by 0545. As the 1st and 2d Battalions continued their assault, plans were being laid for 3d Battalion to widen the corridor which the assault units were making through the fortifications, and to mop up scattered pockets of resistance.

In front of the 15th, likewise, the breakthrough was obviously successful and the enemy was moving out in double time. Companies F and G were attacked from the rear at 0400 but by dawn the resistance had been mopped up and the 2d Battalion moved ahead toward Contwig without enemy contact save for scattered groups of Germans which surrendered without creating trouble.

Leaving a platoon to protect engineers at the Hornbach River crossing site the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry, capitalizing on the Siegfried breakthrough in the 30th Infantry zone, rushed patrols to the bridges leading into Zweibrilcken, the first large and well-known German city yet encountered. The 2d Battalion, after detailing troops to block exposed positions, was ordered to clear the city in its zone. To take Zweibrilcken was entirely a 30th Infantry assignment, which the regiment rapidly proceeded to do.

The 1st and 3d Battalions, 7th Infantry, advanced to the north at the same time. By 0825 thirty-five prisoners had been taken. At 1100 a task force, consisting of Company E and tank destroyers, contacted elements of the 30th Infantry one kilometer southwest of Muhlthalderhof Ferme. By noon the 7th Infantry was engaged in mopping-up operations.

During the remainder of the 20th , the 30th Infantry concentrated on clearing Zweibrilcken, as the 7th relieved the 30th in lxheim, and took Nieder-Auerbach. The 1st and 2d Battalions, 30th, moved to high ground north of Zweibrilcken following its. capture, where the 1st Battalion bad a stiff fight with numerous dug-in enemy infantry liberally supported by 88mm guns. The battalion destroyed two of these guns and captured sixty prisoners to secure the high ground, which then served as a line of departure for the 6th Armored Division.

All regiments, during the night of the 20th and over the 21st, re-checked and completed clearing isolated sections of the Siegfried Line, and made ready for some blitz warfare in the style to which the 3d Infantry Division had long ago become so well accustomed.

The deed was done. The Siegfried Line, not engaged until March 18, was breached in the 3d Division zone in three days-start to finish. Despite the fact that the Third Army was threatening the German rear, the enemy defenders seemingly were not affected by the menace, and the resistance offered to our attack was as tenacious as that encountered anywhere.

During the late afternoon of March 21 the 7th Infantry moved to an assembly area in the vicinity of Contwig, and at 2100 attacked to the northeast. Without firing a shot the 1st Battalion cleared the towns of Battweiler, Schmittenhausen, Reifenberg, Herschberg, Schauer-Berg, and Hoheinod, capturing more than a hundred prisoners in the process. Operating in the right half of the regimental sector, the 3d Battalion cleared Thalischweiler after a hard fight against automatic weapons and small-arms resistance. The 3d Battalion seized more than fifty prisoners, two antitank guns and one Flakwagon.

At 2350, March 22, 1st Lieutenant Elmer J. Becker, 2d Battalion S-2, led a task force consisting of a bazooka Platoon from Antitank Company and a reinforced rifle platoon from 2d Battalion plus two demolition engineers and two radiomen in a rapid move by vehicle through Schmitthausen, Wallhalben and Saalstadt to Harsberg, where contact was made with elements of the 106th Cavalry Group. From Harsberg the task force moved on foot across country to Steinalben, where the bridge over the Moosalbe River was seized intact and demolitions removed from the span.

By the end of the day, the regiment had accounted for 203 prisoners,* including three officers. Over one hundred slave laborers had been freed and evacuated to the rear.

The 30th Infantry had been completely motorized on the previous day. The regiment was chosen to follow up the 6th Armored Division's dash to the Rhine-the Division's third trip to the river in World War II.

The 30th covered the sixty miles in three days, to assemble in the vicinity of Ludwigshafen. The Autobahn, built originally for military traffic, served its purpose well. After the first day, the 30th's move was largely administrative as Third Army units had already cleared the route of the Autobahn.

The 15th Infantry, meanwhile, had pushed off to the east on March 21, led by the 1st Battalion, and entered Walshausen by 1600 against spotty resistance; then shoved on to take Winzeln while Company C moved due east to Windsberg and Company A to the southeast.

The battalion was on the move all night, taking fifty prisoners and inflicting casualties, whenever it encountered the enemy. There were brief, but frequent, encounters.

The 3d Battalion jumped off in midafternoon of the 21st, advancing along the axis of the main road running southeast from Stambach. The battalion plowed ahead with a company on either side of the road and Company L moving astride it. Six tanks supported the attack. Company I reached Nunschweiler before midnight with virtually no opposition. However by midnight the enemy brought up troops and engaged the company in a lively fight using small-arms, machinegun, mortar and self-propelled gun fire. After two hours the fight subsided; the town fell and Company I pushed on to clean up the woods immediately to the east.

Company L then passed through Nunschweiler, attacking toward Hoheidschweiler. Reaching the town, our assault squads were working their way through the streets when the Germans launched a strong counterattack and directed intense machine-gun fire down the streets. The enemy forces were supported by two tanks. After a short fight one was destroyed and the enemy withdrew.

Company K, in the meantime, had taken the town of Hoh and was ready to forge on to Froschen and south to Petersburg, while Company L attacked toward Fohbach and Hengsberg. By early morning of March 22, Company K had reached Thal and Company I had captured Petersburg.

The 15th Infantry regrouped and early in the evening of March 22 moved out from the vicinity of Contwig to reach Kaiserslautern. The 2d Battalion remained at Kaiserslautern while the remainder of the regiment, following in the wake of the 7th and 30th Infantry Regiments, went on to bivouac in the vicinity of Hardenburg to the northeast. On the following day the battalions pushed on to the Rhine.

The 7th Infantry, after resting on March 22, made an administrative move to the vicinity of Carlsberg, and during the night of March 24-25 moved to the Frankenthal area in preparation for the crossing of the Rhine.

The 30th Infantry was ordered to an assembly area near Herxheim-am-Berg.

The Division immediately began practicing boat drills and made preparations for crossing. Even while training, one 30th Infantry company captured four Germans and forced them to finish a speed march with them.

The tremendous Seventh-Third Army pocket was now completely eliminated with the exception of a number of stragglers and small groups, and Seventh Army was being grouped for the' plunge across the river.

The Wehrmacht now reeled like a punchdrunk boxer, unable either to duck or parry. Armored spearheads of other United States armies already had broken loose east of the Rhine and were wheeling, almost without opposition, deep into Germany.

Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower's prediction that the war would be won west of the Rhine River was becoming fact.

Shortly after dusk on March 25 the 10th Engineers began bringing boats and river-crossing material to the water front. Because of the high dikes south of the unfinished Autobahn bridge it was necessary for the troops to hand-carry their boats to the water's edge. Work was considerably hampered by mortar fire coming from the town of Sandhofen in the 7th Infantry zone and several boats were lost, as well as nine casualties sustained before the enemy fire was silenced by counterbattery and smoke from Division Artillery.

H-hour was set for 0230, March 26. The 7th and 30th Infantry Regiments were to make the assault. On the left (north) flank the 45th Infantry Division was to cross at the same time.

Division Artillery, with the 250th and 693d FA Battalions attached, opened fire at 0152. It was a terrific barrage. Approximately 10,000 rounds were fired in a 38-minute period. Corps artillery fired a program on towns, enemy artillery, and road nets.

For over half an hour, as assault troops of the 3d Infantry Division tensely crouched on the western bank, shells from friendly artillery burst on the other side, less than 300 yards away, painting the skyline a lurid red. In the 7th Infantry Zone, a chance hit by an enemy incendiary shell on a barn in the vicinity of the regimental CP lit up the crossing area, silhouetting the men and boats, and rendering them excellent targets for the enemy.

As H-hour approached, the boats of the first assault wave were at the water's edge in an inferno of fire. Many boats were splintered to kindling before they could be launched. Those men who could pick up their boats ran quickly to the water, shoved them in and climbed aboard. The boats got off. Some were hit, some capsized. Motors sputtered and died and engineers and men paddled frantically through the smoky, murky haze to the far shore. As the first wave hit the opposite bank a heavy concentration of mortar and self-propelled-gun fire awaited it. Both banks were zeroed in by the enemy. Quickly men of the 7th Infantry reorganized and headed east with the 1st and 3d Battalions abreast.

Ahead lay an open field. Powder smoke burned the nostrils of the men. A bright moon cast eerie shadows against the high bank of the Autobahn as numerous but scattered enemy machine guns, forming the final protective line for Sandhofen, opened up on the troops. Within a few minutes the 3d Battalion, 7th Infantry, minus Company L, was at the cloverleaf north of Sandhofen, while Company L was moving north toward the castle. By 0500 hours, the 1st Battalion closed in on Sandhofen against determined resistance. Forty minutes later the 3d Battalion was at Scharhof, sending elements in a flanking move to the north to take Kirschgartshausen. Without pause 3d Battalion continued to the east until it ran into the direct fire of four enemy tanks, supported and protected by infantry firing from the factories deep in the Viernheimer woods.

Against initially light enemy resistance and artillery fire on the near bank, 30th Infantry, with 2d and 3d Battalions in the assault, had hurdled the Rhine at 0230. The regiment found the east bank defended by a position of double foxholes and squad positions, with a light machine gun in each squad.

By early morning real resistance was encountered in each battalion sector and it became imperative that the movement inland be swift, and the all-essential high ground secured. However, hardened soldiers of the 30th refused to be stopped by anything the enemy could offer ..

By midmorning engineers and regimental vehicles as well as tank destroyers and tanks at the 7th Infantry crossing site were under an almost constant barrage of 88mm fire. This continued to midafternoon.

At noon elements of the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry, were in Sandhofen fighting fiercely for the town. Every house was a pillbox that had to be destroyed, along with its fanatical occupants.

Enemy troops made a number of attempts to pierce the positions of 3d Battalion, but each fresh assault was repulsed and prisoners were taken continuously. Moving out of reserve, 2d Battalion crossed the river and tied in with 1st Battalion in Sandhofen at" 1415.

Most opposition encountered by the 30th Infantry was in Hofheim, Bobstadt, Burstadt, and Lampertheim. The 1st Battalion, crossing behind the 2d and 3d, circled to Bobstadt and took the town in a brilliant maneuver against withering small-arms, 40mm, and 88mm direct fire. One company drove straight through on the flank and came around from the rear; after this the frontal attack was launched. All Germans in the town were either killed or captured. Eighteen generators and searchlights from German antiaircraft units were captured along with much other enemy materiel.

Bobstadt, reported cleared by another army, had never been entered by United States troops before the 1st Battalion fought for and took it.

By 1000 the 2d Battalion had reached Hofheim and cleared the town immediately thereafter. The enemy then withdrew what he could toward Burstadt, near which town he combined his troops with other forces withdrawn from the Rhine, and counterattacked with armor and Flakwagon support.

Company F took the brunt of this counterattack. Although hampered by lack of supporting armor or other attachments, because they were hit before the bridge was in and after heavy ponton ferry boats had just begun operating, Company F and other 2d Battalion elements fought tigerishly. Using Panzerfaust and bazookas; receiving aid from their battalion antitank-platoon bazooka teams, the company dealt the enemy a decisive blow and repulsed the counterattack. Subsequent interrogation of prisoners revealed that Hofheim had been defended by 200 infantry with Flakwagons and five dual-purpose 88mm guns in support.

The 7th Infantry's fight for Sandhofen continued with unabated fury throughout the day and far into the night as 1st Battalion slowly but aggressively pushed through the town. The enemy resisted the cleaning-up process with mortar and sniper fire, later supplementing it with machine-gun and artillery fire. Every building was employed for protection and concealment by the enemy and our forces. The success of the regimental operation depended upon the taking of Sandhofen, which stuck into the regiment's right flank like a knife.

Under cloudy skies, the 15th Infantry, in Division reserve, crossed during the morning of March 26. During the preceding evening 2d and 3d Battalions had moved to assembly areas along the river just south of the famous old cathedral city of Worms and at 0330 2d Battalion had moved out for the crossing site on the edge of the city followed by the 3d. At 0900, troops of the 3d Battalion piled out of their rubber assault rafts and up the east bank of the river, followed by 2d Battalion an hour later. Both encountered self-propelledgun and mortar fire during the crossings, but little damage was done. The 1st Battalion, assembled in the woods south of Worms, crossed at noon.

Once on the east bank, 3d Battalion was committed almost immediately to clean out the island in the Rhine northwest of Lampertheim. Enemy forces there had been firing on the crossing site with self-propelledgun and small-arms fire, and so effective was the harassment that engineer operations on the bridges under construction had to be suspended for two hours. Several assault craft also had been sunk.

Attacking from the south, the bridge was seized, and within an hour Company K was on the island making good progress, having taken twenty prisoners. By 1400 the entire east side was cleared, and three hours later the entire island was cleared and seven Flak guns captured.

At Lampertheim, five miles from the Rhine, 3d Battalion, 30th Infantry, had met 500 infantry supported by 88s, Flakwagons, and armor, all determinedly resisting. While Companies K and I placed a pincers on the town from the northwest and northeast respectively, Company I undertook the main enveloping role. Company K attacked from the right, bearing into the city almost frontally. Company L, which was defending the battalion left flank and blocking to the north at vital road intersections, ran into intense opposition.

In the attack on the city itself the Company I commander, 1st Lt. Gerald G. Mehuron, directed artillery fire that landed on all sides of him and even fired it to the. rear of his position with great effect.

First Lt. Eldon North of the regiment's Cannon Company, attached to Company L, destroyed a complete battery of 88mm guns with fire from his unit's guns. In addition, Company L bazooka men destroyed two tanks which attempted to counterattack their position. After clearing the woods beyond Lampertheim, the 3d Battalion passed into regimental reserve.

During the early morning crossing, the second tank of Company C, 756th Tank Battalion, which had attempted to cross, was stuck on the river bank. The remaining tanks of an original fourteen in support of the 30th Infantry had "swum" (having been fitted with canvas flotation aprons) across successfully between 0930 and 1130. Of the seven tanks attached to 7th Infantry one was hit and destroyed by enemy artillery fire prior to the crossing. Shell fragments ripped the canvas flotation aprons on the remaining two, which sank, and two more were unable to float on the hastilyrepaired aprons.

The remainder of the tanks in the battalion were ferried across at intervals during the rest of the day.

The 601st TD Battalion supported the crossings with fire and awaited facilities to be ferried across the river.

By nightfall the backbone of the enemy defense in the factory area in the Viernheimer woods was smashed by the 7th Infantry, and shortly before midnight 3d Battalion, 7th, with its attached armor, attacked southeast through the 1st Battalion in Sandhofen, encountering small-arms fire.

The 3d Battalion, 15th' Infantry, after mopping up the island, had sent a patrol to Santdorf, just southeast of Lampertheim, where it was greeted with self-propelled-gun fire from the crossroads. Artillery was called for, the strongpoint smashed, and Company L moved in on the town followed by the remainder of the battalion. More enemy fire was met and artillery fire was once more directed on, the enemy. Again the attack was launched and by 1935 the town fell.

Morning of March 27 saw 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry, in control of Sandhofen as the enemy sought to blast down every building with concentrated artillery fire. As the men reached the Alt Rhine dike to the southeast, all organized enemy resistance in the sector ceased.

Morning also saw 2d Battalion, 30th Infantry, in control of both Burstadt and Lorsch. The entire battalion then mounted trucks, "ducks," and armor and dashed toward Heppenheim.

A patrol of Company E, under Capt. Ralph R. Carpenter, reached the hospital town first and with Company G, commanded by Capt. John H. West, took the town and liberated 300 American hospital patients, including several 3d Division officers and men and some 800 other Allied prisoners in other hospitals. The town was cleared by 1030 that morning.

During the afternoon of March 27, after clearing its sector, the 7th Infantry was relieved by the 71st Infantry (44th Infantry Division) and moved north to Lorsch. The following day, the regiment moved to Winkel and on the 29th made a third move to Reischelshelm.

The 30th Infantry within thirty-six hours after reaching the far bank of the Rhine, had taken 1250 prisoners, an enormous amount of equipment, a number of small towns, and had secured positions on vital high ground.

Appropriating all captured enemy transportation, the regiment became completely motorized and, with attached armor, continued the chase of the major German elements to its front, by-passing numerous small groups as it sped pell-mell eastward from Herpenheim. The terrific pace carried the 1st Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Mackenzie E. Porter, 40 kilometers (25 miles) in one day, and at 0230 March 29, the battalion raced into Lindenfels. When a German force sent to defend the city arrived, the 1st Battalion had secured all road junctions and entrances to the city and the Germans fell back with many casualties.

Late that afternoon, the 30th reached the west bank of the Main River. Company A of the 1st Battalion, commanded by Capt. Hugh S. Montgomery, had seized the town of Worth and 2d Battlion had cleared Trennfurt.

On the second day of the river crossing attack, the 15th, like the other regiments, pushed rapidly ahead, clearing Laudonbach, Bonsweiher, Hembach, Sulzbach and Viernheim and numerous pockets of resistance. A six-man motorized reconnaissance patrol of the 3d Battalion, operating on the highway east of Heppenheim, found elements of the 39th FA Battalion held up by enemy machine-gun and Flakwagon fire some 200 yards outside the town. The patrol worked its way to observation points and was soon engaged in a heavy fire fight, during which the members killed ten Germans, wounded the same number and captured three others as well as putting to flight the rest of the group of forty who were manning the roadblock.

The regiment's attack began shortly after midnight, with the 1st and 2d Battalions jumping off from Lampertheim. Swinging southeast through the woods, the two battalions moved rapidly ahead while the 3d followed closely behind, mopping up by-passed groups of enemy.

Company A, under 1st Lt. Michael J. Daly, cut the north-south Autobahn just west of Huttenfeld shortly after the attack got under way and Company C, commanded by Capt. Samuel, H. Roberts, moved into Huttenfeld just before daybreak. The enemy retreated so fast that numerous bridges over canals in the area were all left intact, although Company A, leading the push, destroyed an occasional enemy machine gun left to guard them.

The battalion was on the objective of Laudenbach before noon. Company G, under 2d Lt. William T. Nickerson of the 3d Battalion, met heavy opposition outside Hemsbach but tanks and tank destroyers laid a concentration on the town and the battalion moved in. Suddenly the enemy opened up with a hail of Flak fire from the high ground east of the village and Company F, which had just left the battalion and was headed for Sulzbach, was driven to cover. Again the tanks and tank destroyers were sent into action and their deadly fire neutralized the enemy guns. Company F, under 1st Lt. Charles 0. Wigmore, then continued on to Sulzbach, overcame 40mm. fire on its outskirts, and took the objective late that night.

All three battalions of the 15th were in the attack as it was continued on the morning of March 28.

The 1st Battalion overran Juhoe and cleared Bonsweiher while the 2d occupied Nieder-Liebersbach and drove into Morlenbach in time to capture five boxcars loaded with Germans. A sharp fight in Morlenbach and on the high ground in the vicinity was the first organized infantry resistance that the 15th had met since the crossing of the Rhine.

The 3d Battalion, which had been blocking to the south in the Lorsch woods for two days, quickly occupied Rimbach, Burth and Ober Ostern and on the 29th enemy resistance before the 15th had melted away as Hammelbach, Litzelbach and Gros Ellenbach were occupied.

By noon, March 29, the regiment's mission had been completed and it moved into Division reserve in the vicinity of Kirch Brombach and Bollstein.

The 7th Infantry moved out of its positions near Reichelsheim, on the morning of March 29 and with out resistance occupied Rohrbach, Ober Mossau, Rehbach, Steinbach, Zell, Momant and Kimbach. Th 3d Battalion also moved rapidly and occupied Mickelstadt, where 525 enemy in three hospitals were put under guard. The 1st Battalion passed through the 3 and reached the Main River at Laudenbach after capturing a huge ammunition dump en route over a detour made necessary by bad roads.

Resistance in the Division zone was entirely disorganized and only small battle groups were encountered during the final day of the drive to the banks of the Main.

The 3d was now poised for a forced crossing of the Main at Worth, which lies southeast of the large industrial city of Frankfurt.

Although our advance reconnaissance of the river banks in the vicinity of Worth drew considerable smallarms, machine-gun and artillery fire from the enemy, the crossing itself, which began at 0300 on the morning of March 30, was surprisingly unopposed.

The advance plan called for the initial crossing by the 30th Infantry and the securing of the bridgehead by that regiment, which would be followed by the 15th and 7th Infantry Regiments in order.

The crossing was made virtually without incident as the 1st Battalion of the 30th, commanded by Lt. Col. Mackenzie Porter, took to the assault boats and skimmed across the river under cover of darkness. Captain Montgomery led Company A across first, followed by Company C, commanded by 1st Lt. Charles P. Murray.

The battalion captured a number of German gunboats tied up on the east bank of the river and within three hours had cleared out Erlenbach, which is located directly across the river from Worth.

The 2d Battalion, under Maj. James L. Osgard, crossed the river north of Worth, the bridge having been demolished by the Germans shortly before midnight, when the last remnants of the German force evacuated Worth. Company C, 10th Engineer Battalion, commanded by Capt. Robert L. Bangert, quickly threw a footbridge over the wreckage and it was in operation the next day.

The 2d Battalion swung south and east and secured the high ground east of Erlenbach and Klingenberg, destroying three Nebelwerfers in the process.

The 3d Battalion, committed to reserve in the crossing, met more difficulty than the assault battalions when it engaged the enemy in a strong fight at Trennfurt.

After his battalion had destroyed a tank and two Flakwagons and had killed a large number of German snipers, Lt. Col. Christopher W. Chaney, the battalion commander, procured a captured German barge that carried the entire battalion across the river the following day.

The 30th went into Division reserve at 0500 March 31. The crossing of the Main by the 15th Infantry came at noon March 30 and although some small-arms fire was received, the 1st Battalion, commanded by Maj Kenneth B. Potter, continued without halting and turned south to occupy Rollfield, Gros Heubach, Miltenberg and Rollbach.

At Miltenberg, the enemy counterattacked after resisting with small arms, and recaptured six German prisoners before being driven back. Two military hospitals, in which there were four Americans and more than 200 German patients, were seized intact with staff and equipment. More than a hundred prisoners were taken at Gros Heubach.

Crossing the river later in the day, the two other battalions of the 15th drove east and southeast. The 2d Battalion, commanded by Maj. Burton S. Barr, pushed through the woods and took the town of Reistenhausen after moving down from the high ground north of the village to defeat the enemy in a short fire fight. Occupation of Fechbach was accomplished without resistance.

The 3d Battalion, under Maj. John O'Connell, captured Smachtenberg and with it a valuable airport that yielded a dozen gliders, a German glider instructor and a number of his students.

The 7th Infantry, last of the Division's regiments to make the crossing, passed through elements of the 30th at about midnight of March 30 and attacked east.

By daylight, the 1st Battalion, under Lt.. Col. Kenneth W. Wallace, had cleared Eschau and was headed northeast, while the 2d Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Jack M. Duncan, had ended the resistance in Wildensee and Hofwildensee, which had been evacuated by the enemy. The 2d had a bitter fight against small arms and automatic weapons at Krausenbach which lasted until noon the following day, when the Germans pulled out after losing a large number of men.

In the meantime, the 1st pushed rapidly through Unter Aulenbach, Wildenstein, Hobbach and Wintesbach.

The entrance into Germany brought strange sights the white token of capitulation that greeted the Men of the Marne as they crashed through town after town with unrelenting power and speed. Panties, bed sheets, nightgowns-anything that was white-flew from windows that for years had displayed the Nazi swastika. A farmer Plowing in the field near Worth attached a white flag to the harness on his horse.

In towns where civilian groups had been organized and armed with Panzerfaust and rifles, and resistance was offered when the doughboys started their house-to-house "canvass." Our tanks and tank destroyers laid down short concentrations and the resistance quickly ended.

As in France and all other countries that the 3d Division had touched, people lined the streets and roads to stare at the oncoming troops, some out of curiosity, some to express their relief at the end of the Nazi regime and some to glare in open hostility.

Many townspeople smiled as the 3d tore through and around the German roadblocks in pursuit of the fleeing enemy army. They called the obstructions "61minute blocks" because, they said, "It will take the Americans sixty-one minutes to get past them. They will look at them and laugh sixty minutes and then tear them down in one."

This derision of German military might and leadership was also demonstrated by the increasing number of deserters and stragglers that poured into the Division PW cage, which handled 6,146 prisoners from March 15 to March 31. Most of these prisoners were taken in battle, but many were Germans who surrendered after seeing their home towns lost or destroyed in the wake of their retreat.

With the crossing of the Main completed and all objectives secured, the 3d Division was assigned a new sector as the April campaign began. Elements of the 42d Infantry Division relieved the 15th Infantry on the Division's right and the 15th replaced elements of the 45th Infantry Division on the left flank.

The 30th Infantry was in Division reserve when the 7th and 15th turned the axis of the Division advance to the northeast April 1.

The advance of the 15th went well until the lead elements reached the spiderweb road junction southwest of Weibersbrunn, a little village hidden in a dense wooded area. The enemy had determined to hold the road net with a company armed with machine guns, small arms and Panzerfaust. The fight continued for several hours before Company L, commanded by 1st Lt. John H. Toole, broke through the defense and entered Weibersbrunn, closely followed by Company I, under 2d Lt. Daniel J. Shulkatis. The companies quickly suppressed the opposition in the town, which was cleared shortly after noon, yielding twenty-five prisoners.

The 1st Battalion passed through the 3d after Weibersbrunn was taken and engaged in a hard fight at Rothenbuck, which was occupied at midnight after two "88's" that had held up the attack were neutralized. Company C, under 1st Lt. Wilmer L. Lee, entered the town first.

The 7th Infantry began the month with the 1st Battalion moving northeast of Lichtenau, intent on seizing Rechtenbach. Moving through the 3d Battalion in Lowenstein Park, the 1st neutralized a- roadblock at Bischenbernerhof and occupied its objective after overcoming strong small-arms and antitank resistance. An enemy 155mm gun was destroyed during the melee but not before it had disabled one of the tanks of Company A, 756th Tank Battalion, commanded by 1st Lt. William R. Engger. The 756th, under Maj. Oscar S. Long (and later Maj. Edwin Y. Arnold) played a major role in the 3d Division's dash through the Siegfried Line and into Germany.

Rodenbach and Wombach, on the banks of the Main, were the 7th's next objective and the 2d Battalion moved to the attack early in the morning of April 2. A spirited battle for Rodenbach took place against an enemy force comprising officer candidates, Luftwaffe pilots and other personnel. The battalion took 160 prisoners and chased the remnants of the enemy force south along the Main River, returning to establish the battalion command post in the town, after which the assault elements moved northwest for an attack on Wombach.

While the remainder of the troops were fighting in Wombach, a reinforced platoon of Germans attempted to destroy Lt. Col. Jack M. Duncan's headquarters at Rodenbach but the personnel of the CP fought off the attack; they killed at least five enemy and captured fifteen others.

Movement of the Division came to an almost complete standstill April 2-4 while the 14th Armored Division passed through the 7th on April 3 to seize Lohr, located about a mile north of Wombach on the Main. The armored unit made the capture after losing several tanks at the town's approaches. The 7th occupied the high ground on three sides of the town, after Wombach fell late on the night of April 2.

The 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry, remained in Rechtenbach until noon of April 3, when it moved north and took Steinhalerhof without opposition after a difficult March over hilly, densely-wooded terrain.

Without incident, the 2d Battalion crossed the Main River south of Lohr in "ducks" and assault craft to occupy Pflochsbach the same afternoon, and completely cleared the peninsula formed by the loop of the Main River northeast of Lohr the following day. The battalion remained on the peninsula during the night of April 4-5, prepared to shield and cover proposed bridging operations of the 14th Armored Division but the plans were changed and the battalion crossed the Main for the third time during the morning of April 5, following an intensive artillery preparation. A great deal of trouble was experienced in getting the "ducks" into the water, for the enemy had felled a number of large trees along the river bank at one point.

The battalion was across the river east of Gemunden at 1400 hours and immediately set out for the town, meeting stubborn resistance along the railroad tracks south of the town from well dug-in Germans equipped with Panzerfaust. After taking seventy prisoners during the morning battle outside the town, the 2d entered the village under heavy mortar fire shortly after noon and by 1530 hours had cleared the village, capturing a number of German marines and sailors committed as infantry.

Early in the morning of April 4, Company G of the 15th pushed down the valley of the Main River and secured a bridge west of Langenbrozelten while the rest of the 1st Battalion occupied Wohnroth, Fellen and Aura.

The 3d Battalion of Col. Hallett D. Edson's 15th Infantry, however, met one of its stiffest fights in weeks at Rieneck, just west of the Sinn River, moving southeast from Rengersbrunn. Maj. John O'Connell's 3d Battalion completely surprised the enemy who were digging in on the western slopes of two bald hills that guarded the town from the west. Tanks, TDs and Flakwagons, placed on the wooded nose of the hill along which the battalion had advanced, added to the slaughter that followed the assault. The German officer who surrendered his troops found only two of his men unaccounted for. By actual, count, eighty-five had been killed, the remainder wounded or captured.

Following the surrender, Company 1, commanded by 1st Lt. Robert L. Hawkins, remained behind and dug out a number of civilian snipers who persisted to the end.

After being in Division reserve for five days, the 30th Infantry went back into the line April 5, leaving its assembly area west of Rieneck early that morning. Attached "ducks" were used as infantry carriers and with the available armor and organic vehicles, the regiment spent the day seeking fire fights and strongpoints as it proceeded rapidly northeast toward Wolfmunster, which forward elements of the 3d Battalion entered late that night.

The 15th Infantry, like the 30th, swept through village after village that day and the 1st Battalion, spearheading, took Detter and Seissenbach before noon almost without a fight.

In the afternoon the 1st swept through Modlos, Bruckenau, Breitenbach and Mitgenfeld while the 2d moved out from Fellen to Heiligkreuz, cleared through the 1st Battalion and attacked toward Heckmuhle. A small delaying force was met and overcome outside Heckmuhle, which had been evacuated by the enemy; the battalion pushed elements through Ober Geiersnes and by the following morning had reached Ober, Leichterbach.

Meanwhile, the 3d Battalion had blocked for other regiments of the Division from positions near Rieneck and had pulled stakes to join in the 3d's mad rush through western Germany. Passing through Reidenbach and Oberbach, which had been cleared by the 14th Armored Division, the 3d Battalion won another short fight at Wildflecken, which purportedly was to be defended by SS troops. The defense melted before Major O'Connell's battlers and the short fight that ensued ended as all other German resistance had ended in the last several weeks-with the Marnemen in complete control of the situation. A huge German chemical warfare plant and great quantities of guns and other war materiel were taken in Wildflecken, which was also the site of an enemy army camp capable of housing approximately 40,000 men. Striking southeast from Wildflecken, Company L quickly occupied the nearby town of Langeleiten.

Late that night, the 2d Battalion moved up to Wildflecken and attacked northeast to Ober Weissenbrunn, from where Company G, commanded by 2d Lt. William Nickerson, struck out to seize the village of Frankenheim, which was protected by a roadblock manned with small arms and self-propelled guns, designed to delay our advance. The battalion deployed and wiped out the enemy force; Company G entered the town before noon of April 7.

Early in the morning of April 6, the 7th Infantry had driven north, with the 2d Battalion riding "ducks" to a point where it seized the high ground in the vicinity of Michelau and continued on to the area near Sc'honau, while the remainder of the regiment, in successive marches, moved to the vicinity of Geroda, preparing to force a crossing of the Saale River.

Under cover of darkness and with the 1st and 3d Battalions abreast, the 7th turned sharply east and advanced over bad roads, strong enemy roadblocks and blown bridges during the rest of the night. Company A, commanded by 2d Lt. Floyd W. Clark, had a sharp fight before seizing Aschbach but found no opposition at Grossenbach. Company B, under Capt. James B. Rich, Jr., crossed the Saale River with only slight resistance and occupied Bocklet, one mile northeast of Aschbach. The enemy infiltrated our positions later from the north and attacked the Company CP in Bocklet, burning the building to the ground. This adventure cost the Germans dearly as virtually every member of the attacking force was either killed or captured in the fight that followed and in which Company A took part. The rest of the battalion entered Frauenroth and Stralsbach and found both towns clear.

Major Flynn's 3d Battalion picked its way over the rough roads and rugged terrain to Stangenroth, from where it jumped off to take the deserted villages of Premich and Steinach. Continuing north, the battalion approached a roadblock consisting of three Mark V tanks, three antitank guns and nearly a battalion of enemy troops southwest of Steinach. The battle raged all night long and into the next day, when two of the three tanks were destroyed by accurate fire of Company A, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, commanded by 1st Lt. George Philipovich. The Germans brought down artillery and salvos of Nebelwerfer fire and rushed additional armor into the fray in an effort to stem the tide but finally retreated before the continuous pressure of the 3d Battalion. In all, the enemy lost twelve Mark V tanks during the struggle.

The advance of the 30th Infantry had been a succession of occupations and small fire fights for two days and the regiment gathered several hundred prisoners en route. The battalions seemed to be spread out like so many claws and when they contracted they were filled with German PWs. For instance, one patrol of Company E, under Capt. Ralph R. Carpenter, engaged in a fire fight northwest of Hammelberg at 1715 hours April 6 and one hour later reported back with thirty-five prisoners.

Windheim, Unter Thulba, Elfershausen, Seeshof, Witternhausen, Hetzlos, Thulba, Albertslauter and Lauter all were seized by Col. Lionel C. McGarr's regiment, although three of the towns did not fall without resistance.

Company 1, commanded by 2d Lt. Gerald G. Mehuron, fought a small enemy group before entering Hetzlos; Company L, under 1st Lt. Phillip B. Larimore, shoved the enemy out of Ober Thulba after a 25-minute tussle while Company G, commanded by Capt. John H. West, met determined opposition and called for supporting fires before Seeshof was finally cleared.

Leaving Ober Thulba, Company L pushed directly east, with patrols out toward Bad Kissingen, a worldfamed watering place noted for its fine springs and numerous resort hotels, twenty-eight of which had been converted into German military hospitals, whose redcrossed roofs had saved the city from Allied bombing.

One of the patrols, led by 2d Lt. Emil T. Byke, moved along a road leading into the city and met an officer delegation from the hospital community whose spokesman announced a desire to surrender the city intact.

After summoning Lt. Col. Christopher W. Chaney, 3d Battalion commander, Lieutenant Byke placed his men at advantageous points on the hills surrounding the town while Company M, commanded by 1st Lt. Harold J. Saine, brought up mortars and placed them in firing position "just in case."

Colonel Chaney, with Capt, Carroll McFalls, Jr., 3d Battalion S-3, went to the city hall with the delegation and laid down surrender terms to a ranking German field officer who had been recuperating at one of the hospitals.

Bad Kissingen is an important rail and highway center and its spacious buildings could easily accommodate corps and army troops, making it a highly desirable military prize. Thus, Colonel Chaney made it clear that the 3d Division would not accept Bad Kissingen as an "open city" but that it would be used as a military base for United States troops. This being acceptable to the negotiators, the colonel sent for Col. Lionel C. McGarr, regimental commander of the 30th, who, accompanied by two Division staff officers, Major F. C., Spreyer and Capt. Henry Huguenin, restated the American's conditions and accepted the surrender of the city and 2825 German soldier-patients as prisoners.

As a denouement, the battalion moved through the city to an assembly area on the outskirts of town while Company F, commanded by Capt. Robert L. Fleet, was brought in from Witterhausen to guard the public buildings and hospitals.

The Saale River divides Bad Kissingen into halves and both vehicular bridges that connect them were destroyed by German demolition crews who always worked in small groups, hiding in areas until our troops were within striking distance before detonating their charges. Company C of the 10th Engineers, commanded by Capt. Robert L. Bangert, had one of the bridges replaced a few hours after the city surrendered.

While the 3d was taking Bad Kissingen, the 1st Battalion, moving on the regiment's north flank, ran into a battery of "88s' that was silenced by our artillery and by the regimental Cannon Company, commanded by Capt. Norwood L. Snowden. The 2d Battalion, meanwhile, encountered artillery fire falling in Aura; and destroyed an enemy antitank gun in Euerdorf.

After winning the armor-infantry battle at the crossroads outside Steinach, the 3d Battalion of the 7th Infantry met more enemy armor at the edge of town and another pitched battle took place, featuring an increased amount of enemy artillery and Nebelwerfer fire. After several hours of bitter fighting, the resistance weakened and when the tussle ended the enemy had lost the remainder of his twelve Mark V tanks to our TDs and bazookamen, who led the battalion into the city.

The 2d Battalion moved down from the heights near Schonau and rejoined the regiment with the mission of taking the town of Haard. At 1010 hours, the battalion was in the western outskirts of the town, where a one-hour fire fight was staged with members of a German cavalry training battalion and of the 2d Panzer Division, who had been committed as infantry'. Moving through Haard, the battalion continued east to clear the high ground beyond the village; the advance was speeded up considerably and was only lightly contested because the 14th Armored Division was just ahead of the 2d and was leaving only scattered enemy remnants in its wake.

Around midnight, the 3d Battalion's command post and OP was attacked by a large number of reassembled German stragglers intent on making an opening for an enemy artillery unit to pass through. In the early stages of the surprise attack, the enemy took five prisoners, shot up four jeeps and destroyed one of our TDs. At daylight a great number of German dead were found, fifty-five prisoners had been taken and the battalion had acquired four German horsedrawn 155mm howitzers.