The Intensity of the Drive Continues
Just as we were ready to leave Regen, C Company passed through us to take the lead. We were happy to see them, as this meant that we would be able to give up the point. It also meant that the engineers had finished constructing a bridge over the Regen River, so supplies and other support systems could come through. Many signs pointed to an approaching VE Day, and we were getting anxious. However, there was no way we could discontinue our offensive drives until we received the cease-fire order.
It was the morning of April 25th. Just as we started out, we passed the medics. I spotted Brig Young, a friend from University of Oregon days, and waved as we went by. As a medic, his duty was to provide first aid and to evacuate any men who had been wounded. It was always a grim reminder to see the medics, no matter how much we appreciated them.
We learned that our commanding officers were determined to rectify yesterday’s situation where we were ordered into battle without artillery support. This day, we proceeded very slowly, giving ample time for the field artillery to set up between each drive. We asked them to burn most of the villages along the route, as we didn’t want to suffer any needless injuries and deaths this close to the end of the war in Europe. As the day unfolded, our advance continued to go well, so it appeared that the backbone of resistance had been broken by our successful campaign on the previous days.
B Company was in the main body of the column, but not at the point, so we were less vulnerable compared with the previous week of arduous battles. In one town that we did not burn before entering, a nice house sat just ahead where the road curved to the left. Patrick Needham was driving, and as we came to that house, somehow the left steering lever wouldn’t grip. Our tank rolled through the living-room wall before we could stop. I checked our crew members and found no one injured, so we moved on ahead and joined our company. I do not recall any previous time when a steering lever failed to grip. No one in the crew seemed to feel a concern for the people whose home we had damaged. It wasn’t our idea to be there in the first place. We couldn’t help but feel that way. We were all exhausted from such a continuous, intense drive without rest.
We had gone only twenty miles that day before being stopped because Company C had met stiff resistance from some SS troops. So our column made a bypass maneuver and left the SS to be cleaned out by the infantry. We moved on and found a clearing where we camped for the night.
An unusual event took place this day to the tank commanders and drivers. Early in the afternoon, those of us who had had our hatches open and heads out began to have severe burning in the eyes. We had noticed that the roads appeared to have a white coating on them and suspected that a caustic agent had been spread to create eye problems and slow us down. Our speed was reduced a bit, but the burning eyes did not stop us. When we ceased our drive for the day, the medics washed our eyes with a saline solution which seemed to take care of the problem.
The next day, April 26th, was equally uneventful, except when our antiaircraft guns shot down two German Messerschmidt 109 planes. We quit our drive for the night at Waldkirchen. To our surprise, we were told that we were to remain there a few days while cavalry reconnaissance went to look for the Russians. I was outside the tank preparing scrambled eggs from the case of eggs that we had picked up in Cham when a Kraut plane strafed us and then dropped a big bomb in our midst. I really dove under the rear of that tank. The bomb did no damage, but it proved that we still knew how to take cover fast.
While we were at Waldkirchen, we were able to perform major maintenance on a number of our tanks. It was there that four of the new Pershing tanks were brought to our battalion, so each company received one. Since we had no experience or familiarity with the Pershings, we relegated them to the rear of our column. It was too bad that we did not have them when we were in tank-to-tank fighting during the Battle of the Bulge. The better-designed German tanks with their more advanced weapons had definitely been superior in that setting. Despite the poor firing power and inadequate armor of the Sherman tank, we found them mechanically far superior to any tank that the Germans had. The Kraut tanks lumbered along at a snail’s pace compared to ours. Besides, we knew how to use our Shermans to the best advantage in the current fast-moving type of combat.
Company C started an attack and advanced eight miles while we stayed behind in Waldkirchen. We broke camp the next morning, April 30th, and moved to join the rear of the column behind C Company. Our company supply officer had obtained a loudspeaker and had it installed on one of our tanks at the last overnight stop. We began a trial of broadcasting messages in German to soldiers and civilians as we went through several towns.
The message, spoken in German, was, “Don’t fight. Stay calm and peaceful and you will not be harmed.” It may not have been translated into perfect German, but they knew what it meant and obeyed instructions.
This was definitely helping us to keep things from exploding, so we decided to use it steadily. Kratz, a friend from University of Oregon days, started addressing the people in German over the speaker. Outside the next village, we noticed that the people were scampering around frantically as we approached. It put us on the alert for possible enemy resistance, but we kept moving and passed through without event. At one town we passed through, a Kraut had just finished camouflaging his truck with paint when he turned to walk away and saw us. What a shocked expression he had on his face. He immediately put his hands over his head and surrendered.
We had followed the column for about twenty miles when, looking at the map, we realized that we were nearing Austria. We were on the highway to Linz, one of Austria’s major cities. Air reconnaissance had informed us that a large number of 88mm guns had been set up around the periphery of Linz to defend it.
We were advancing nicely when, all of a sudden, a few rounds of artillery shells landed around us. It turned out to be another Hungarian unit that had been involuntarily drafted into the German army. They seemed to feel the compulsion to fire a couple of rounds from their howitzers before surrendering. The entire group was sent to the rear to be interrogated by the military police.
Lieutenant Ready was back from pass and assumed command, so I returned to the driver’s position. He asked me at that time to take command of a tank in his platoon, and my preference was to serve in his platoon. However, I wasn’t anxious to command, since the turret where the commander stands is the first part of a tank to be seen as it comes over a hill. I liked driving, and the driver’s position was somewhat safer. Lieutenant Ready and I worked well together, so he agreed to have me stay in his tank.
On May 1st, Company A took the point, and we followed. The 41st Tank Battalion advanced across the Austrian border; we were told that we were the first U.S. troops to enter Austria. By early afternoon we moved into Lembach. Abruptly, Company A hit a heavily defended roadblock and was caught up in a battle against strongly resisting Krauts. Tragically, the company’s highly respected company commander, Captain Scott, was killed there, just one week before VE Day. With his death, it appeared that B Company would be taking the lead the following day, as we were next in turn to take the point.
That night I overheard the “Doctor” (radio call name for the commander of Combat Command B, Colonel Wesley W. Yale) say, “These six check points [villages] ahead will be burned to the ground by nightfall. Those people have got to learn that resisting is useless.” He evidently was bitter over Captain Scott’s death in Lembach.
As expected, B Company took the lead, and we began our drive. Sergeant Bickert, with our third platoon leading, took the point. I was in the second section of the column. We moved out early and went to the IP. There was snow on the ground, so while we waited to start the attack, we built a bonfire. About fifteen feet from the fire lay two dead Krauts. Six months before, we would have shuddered at that, but this day we actually joked about them being so close.
A little later, we started the attack. We advanced through town after town and ran into a blinding snowstorm. We kept moving and reached Zwettl, Austria, where several thousand Krauts voluntarily surrendered to us. There I became a tank commander once again when one of the other commanders had an accident that required his evacuation. Although I had not planned to take such a position on a permanent basis, when I was asked this time, I decided that I should do it.
As we continued through the next village, Kraut soldiers surrendered in large numbers. We signaled for them to drop their weapons, put their hands up, and start marching toward the rear of the column. The doughs retrieved the dropped weapons. We took about 5,000 prisoners there. It was obvious that they did not want to fight and were ready to call it quits. We did not fire a single shot.
As the battalion neared the Danube River, B Company was ordered to turn on a major highway that led to the northeast while the remainder of the battalion continued south across the river. This maneuver cut off all roads from the north into the major city of Linz, Austria.
With such a quick advance, we took by surprise many German trucks of every description that were trying to escape being captured. A group of SS soldiers pulled out of town right in front of us, but we had orders not to fire a shot. It was tempting, but we obeyed orders. Later, these same soldiers came back to surrender to us.