CHAPTER 8
The 70th settled down to postwar status in Rothenberg on the Tauber River. Patrols were sent out to round up enemy holdouts with the help of the local civilians. Saboteurs were suspected of damaging communication lines, but over time these incidents decreased. The local population reported on suspicious personnel, since they were eager to get back to a peacetime way of life. Captain Brodie was placed in command of a POW camp, which initially received approximately two hundred prisoners. On 21 May, Company D arrived from Sandersdorf and moved into quarters in the “Realschule” with Service Company. There were movies and lectures on redeployment to the Far East and the expected invasion of Japan. However, by mid-August, the war in the Far East was over and the 70th settled into an occupation status, guarding their sector and rounding up those still hostile to the occupiers. A point system was developed whereby a large number of points was awarded to personnel with long overseas service time, allowing them to return home before others who had fewer points. Many of the 70th personnel who had survived since North Africa had accumulated enough points to go home.
Replacements were received as veteran 70th soldiers rotated home on the point system, leaving the personnel in the battalion almost unrecognizable compared to its composition in 1942. On 27 May, a formation was held in the Sportplaz, awarding Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts to 70th personnel.
On 9 June 1945 the battalion received orders to move stateside, and they traveled to a marshaling area near Podeldorf with the 4th Division. The route to the transport area from Rothenburg was through Windsheim, Neustadt, Hockstadt, and Bamberg. The 70th was detached from the 4th Division, having worked with them since 11 March 1944. Gen. Harold W. Blakeley of the 4th signed the detachment order with regret, since the 70th and 4th had a very close working relationship.
During this time, the 70th received the new M26 Pershing tanks with 90mm guns, which could attack German tanks successfully in a frontal assault. The 70th tankers were impressed with the new tanks as they trained with them to prepare for further combat in the Far East. They never got a chance to use them in that theater, as the Japanese surrendered in August 1945. After a month of training, the 70th moved to Panzer Kaserne in Bamberg on 6 July 1945. The 70th settled into a noncombat environment with a tank parking area, an officers’ club, an enlisted men’s club, a maintenance building, and indoor kitchen facilities. Passes were available to the Riviera, Switzerland, Brussels, the Alps, and Berchtesgaden.
The 70th moved to Nuremberg on 4 September 1945, with Companies C and D quartered in barracks just east of the stadium and the remainder quartered on the northern outskirts of the city. Guard posts were set up throughout the town during the Nuremberg war trials. As the 70th reorganized, the new battalion commander, Maj. Harry J. Kenny, realized that there were very few trained tankers in the 70th because the experienced personnel had rotated home. Consequently, a battalion-wide training course was instituted, teaching tactics and how to operate the new tanks, and practice firing at the old panzer range.
The course also involved demonstrations of new tanks traveling over obstacles and crashing through trees, which was a big hit with the new replacements. By April and May 1946, the 70th was deactivated and moved to Fort Knox, to be reactivated on 1 August 1946 as part of the armored school.
