On April 20, E Company enjoyed a relatively easy day in reserve as F and G Companies led the battalion’s attack south, sweeping aside dispersed enemy delaying forces and clearing numerous towns. Bill’s men began the day clearing Erzberg then marching behind G Company to Leukershausen and Waldmannsberg. The battalion advanced a healthy thirteen kilometers that day, but that was not enough to satisfy General Blakeley. After watching the adjacent 12th Armored Division rack up more impressive gains on its way to the Danube River, Blakeley decided the division could not limit its advance to the speed of foot soldiers.1
At 2050 hours, the Assistant Division Commander, Brig. Gen. James Rodwell, visited the 12th Infantry’s CP and told the regiment to hold in place, pending a new mission. That meant E Company could stand down while the divisional and regimental staffs worked out a new plan.2
The 12th Infantry awoke on April 21 to discover that, overnight, the division formed a new fighting organization that would be entirely motorized: Task Force Rodwell. Commanded by General Rodwell, the task force combined the 70th Tank Battalion, a company of the 610th TD Battalion, the 4th Engineer Battalion, a reconnaissance troop, two artillery battalions, and the 12th Infantry Regiment. The trucks necessary to carry the infantrymen came from the corps artillery. E Company would initially serve as the task force’s rear guard.3
TF Rodwell planned to race thirty-five kilometers south, through Crailsheim and Ellwangen, to the industrial city of Aalen in a single day. It would continue farther south, all the way to the Danube River, at the same swift pace. Expecting only scattered remnants of the 19th Volksgrenadier, 212th Volksgrenadier, and Alpenland Divisions, and trusting in the task force’s strength and mobility, General Rodwell intended to use momentum to collapse enemy resistance and reach the Danube before the Germans could organize a river line defense.
The task force assembled into an elongated column near Rudolfsberg. At 1040 hours, a platoon of light tanks led the movement toward Crailsheim. The column bypassed the city on the east to avoid a road-block but ran into a blown bridge three kilometers beyond the city. After an hour-long delay, the march proceeded to a river crossing near Jagstheim where the Germans bombarded the column with mortars, artillery, and rockets. General Rodwell decided the task force could make better time by staying off the main highway, and shifted the column over to secondary roads east of the Jagst River Valley. The column snaked through the countryside before running into another blown bridge and road craters at Stimpfach. The engineers repaired the bridge and used a bulldozer to fill the craters. The lead elements crossed the Jagst River to the west side then stopped for the night outside of Jagstzell.
E Company and a platoon of AT guns protected the task force’s rear while the over-stretched column moved out. In typical “hurry-up-and-wait” fashion, the company had to sit around until 0130 hours the next day before they started moving.4
On the morning of April 22, the task force advanced on secondary roads through wooded terrain, rather than the main highway, but this route proved difficult, too. The retreating Germans felled trees, threw up roadblocks, and blew craters at constriction points. The exhausted engineers pushed, blasted, and dozed their way through these obstacles. Farther back in the formation, the 2nd Battalion rode past several columns of dispirited German PWs slowly tramping in the opposite direction. The men paid little attention to the now familiar sight until someone noticed that the prisoners had no guards.
The 70th Tank Battalion and the 1st Battalion, at the front of the task force, had a sharp fight with a German force in Neuler, losing one tank to a Panzerfaust. After wiping out several dozen stubborn defenders the column continued south and overran a number of towns before stopping just short of Aalen for the night.5
Friendly civilians tipped off the Americans that five hundred German soldiers defended Aalen. The German commander had pressed the local Volkssturm (Nazi militia) into service as well as any able-bodied teenage boys and old men. Expecting a tough fight, General Rodwell and Colonel Chance planned a deliberate attack to seize the city. The 1st and 3rd Battalions, each with an attached tank company, would attack abreast into Aalen from the north. Rodwell kept 2nd Battalion in reserve to guard the task force’s rear in Wasseralfingen, a reasonable precaution given that TF Rodwell had advanced fifteen kilometers ahead of the rest of the division.6
The two battalions jumped off by 0615 hours on April 23 and pushed into Aalen. Whenever the enemy fired from a building, the Shermans and infantry platoons blasted the spot. The Germans could not match the Americans’ firepower but gave ground slowly. The enemy played some of their old tricks, such as letting tanks go by then popping up behind them to resume fighting. This forced the American infantry to clear each building. As the two battalions approached the city center, the resistance intensified and enemy tanks joined the fight.7 (See Map XVI)
The spirited fight in Aalen gave General Rodwell an idea. He saw an opportunity to trap the enemy force inside Aalen by maneuvering his reserve around the city and sealing off any escape route. At 1200 hours he warned Colonel Gorn to get ready for a motorized attack and attached B Company, 70th Tank Battalion to 2nd Battalion. Gorn assembled his attached tanks, tank destroyers, and halftracks, then ordered Bill to mount his men on the tracked vehicles. The rest of the battalion boarded trucks.8
E Company’s armored formation and the battalion’s trucks followed the 4th Reconnaissance Troop out of Wasseralfingen, swinging around the north side of Aalen. Near Unt-Rombach, the battalion offloaded the trucks and formed for the attack. At 1455 hours, E Company moved south then east to encircle the city. G Company followed Bill’s force and set up a blocking position to seal the southwest exit of the city.9
As E Company moved around to Aalen’s south side, it started taking artillery fire. The mounted force maneuvered out of the impact area but the artillery followed it. Given its accuracy, Bill suspected that the Germans had an observer spotting the rounds. Scanning the area with his binoculars, he spied a tower on an adjacent ridge more than 1,000 meters away.10
Bill tapped the shoulder of the tank commander. “Hey, I think we’re being spotted by an artillery observer.”
“Yes, sir. Do you know where he is?” the tanker asked.
“I see a tower on the next ridgeline. I bet he’s sighting us from there.”
The tanker pulled out his binoculars and searched for the tower. “Yeah, I see it.”
“Can you take him out?”
“Sure.” The tank commander made a quick estimate of the target’s range. He decided to override his gunner’s controls to fire a spotting round then let his gunner adjust onto the target. With his eyes locked on the distant tower the commander elevated his tank’s 75mm main gun. When he was satisfied that he had a good initial range, he hit the turret motor to turn the gun toward the target. The instant the turret swiveled onto the right azimuth the tank commander simultaneously stopped the turret’s rotation and fired.
A second later, the shell scored a direct hit on the tower and blew it to pieces.
“Damn! What a shot,” Bill shouted while the other tank commanders cheered their comrade’s amazing dead-reckoning aim. The enemy artillery stopped a minute later.
Now free of the vexing artillery, E Company rolled toward the southeastern corner of Aalen. One kilometer short of their objective (the highway heading south toward Unt-Kuchen), they spotted a column of German troops and vehicles fleeing east out of the city. The infantrymen jumped off the armored vehicles to let the tanks and tank destroyers engage. Within seconds, 75mm and 90mm shells slammed into the enemy vehicles and machine guns raked the retreating German column. E Company’s foot soldiers charged toward a paper mill next to the highway. A small group of German infantrymen opened fire on the advancing Americans. The rifle platoons pressed the assault. The M4s and M36s, finished with the fleeing German column, then began firing on the paper mill.11
As E Company closed on the objective, 75mm shells exploded in their midst. Two German tanks appeared in Neukochen, a small town a kilometer to the southeast. The American tanks and tank destroyers immediately reacted, jockeying for position to get clean shots. The uneven fight did not last long. An M36 knocked out one of the German tanks, and the other one bugged out.12
Bill’s infantrymen, supported by the tanks and tank destroyers, steamrolled the enemy defending the paper mill and moved to block Aalen’s southern exit. Bill had his men place mines on both sides of the highway and position weapons to cut off any potential line of retreat. This encirclement took the heart out of the Germans. A short time after dark, the forward platoons of the 3rd Battalion reached E Company, ending the battle for Aalen.13
The regiment hauled in over three hundred prisoners from Aalen. The success validated General Rodwell’s maneuver tactics. It also proved that isolated German defensive positions, even ones embedded in urban areas, could not stop the highly mobile Americans.14
Task Force Rodwell had to slim down on April 24 because the XXI Corps Artillery recalled its trucks. General Rodwell decided to advance with just one infantry battalion and one artillery battalion, plus the armor. Colonel Chance left the 1st and 3rd Battalions in Aalen and ordered Colonel Gorn to move with the task force. Once again, Gorn chose E Company to lead the attack mounted on the tanks and TDs.15
Overnight reconnaissance showed that the Germans had blocked the main highway passing through Unt-Kuchen at numerous sites. Rather than attempt to bull through the roadblocks and blown bridges along the highway, General Rodwell chose a new route along roads that ran south through a series of towns on the high ground east of the Kocher-Brenz River valley. Forests covered the high ground but each village was surrounded by farmland forming a chain of clearings.16
The combined arms team turned east from Unt-Kuchen and climbed the steep wooded slopes out of the valley. After three kilometers of winding through the forest, E Company emerged onto an open plateau. Bill formed the M4s and M36s into a spread attack formation and moved south through Ebnat and Niesitz.
The farmland ended against a wooded ridge south of Niesitz. In woods, an unseen enemy soldier with a Panzerfaust could ambush a tank, so the infantry dismounted and led the advance into the forest. E Company’s riflemen hustled to clear the wooded terrain for the tanks while the rest of TF Rodwell waited for the column to pick up speed.
The Germans used these narrow patches of woods to throw up roadblocks. A German engineer unit left behind more sophisticated obstructions than the haphazard clump of fallen trees the Americans usually encountered and reinforced them with anti-tank mines. As soon as the leading infantry discovered an abatis, they secured the area and called up the engineers who reduced the obstacle and disarmed any mines.
By 1055 hours, the company had covered two kilometers through woods to the next clearing with the town of Grosskuchen in the middle. Bill ordered his men to remount the tanks. The combined-arms force resumed its spread formation and plunged ahead through three more towns before coming to another wooded ridge. The infantry again took the lead for the next two kilometers.17
As the force crossed one ridge, scouts located an 88 behind the ridge’s south slope. In that position, the Germans could pick off the American tanks, one by one as they crested the high ground on the road.
Bill and the lead tank’s commander crept forward to observe the German position. Normally, the infantry would maneuver against the gun and force it to withdraw, but the tank commander had another idea. “I can take him out.”
“You sure you want to shoot it out with an 88?” Bill asked.
“Yes, sir. I think we can get the drop on him.”
The tank commander went back to the column and brought forward his tank, stopping short of the crest. The tank commander and his crew dismounted and examined the enemy position. Returning to the tank, the crew repositioned it off the road and aligned it in the direction of the 88. The tank gunner depressed his tube a few degrees to minimize the time he would need to adjust to the target.
Bill could see the German gun crew. Their apparent agitation signaled that they could hear the tank but were not certain where it would appear. The duel came down to which crew could acquire, aim, and shoot first. The unfolding shootout mesmerized Bill and the scouts.
Calling into his intercom, the tank commander ordered the driver forward. The Sherman roared up the last few yards of the incline then burst over the top pointed straight at the German 88. The instant the gunner spotted the target he bellowed, “Stop!” The driver slammed on the brakes. The tank had already aligned itself with the target, it was all up to the gunner.
The German gun crew cranked the 88’s traversing mechanism for all they were worth. Bill could see the big gun’s muzzle turn toward the Sherman.
Boom! The tank gunner fired. Crump! The German gun position blew apart as the 75mm HE round hit home.18
After congratulating the daring tank crew, Bill ordered the column to continue over the ridge. German resistance notched up at Nattheim. A handful of defenders fired on E Company as it approached the town. A few minutes later German artillery began landing near the column. Bill sent the rifle platoons into Nattheim to clear the houses while the tanks overwatched.19
During the brief halt, he climbed onto the turret of the lead tank to confer with the tank company commander, who was standing in his hatch.
Ping! A bullet bounced off the rim of the tank’s hatch an inch below Bill’s exposed stomach. Bill and the tank commander both flinched. A German sniper had them in his sights. The tank commander dropped into the tank, slamming the hatch cover as he did. Bill barely saved his hand from getting chopped off by the hatch cover before he dove behind the vehicle. The American officers moved so fast the sniper had no chance for a second shot.
Bill restarted the column shortly after 1330 hours. The combined arms team hurdled another wooded ridge before reaching Oggenhausen, where they caught up with some retreating Germans. The Americans unleashed a heavy barrage on the south part of town that blocked the enemy’s line of retreat. The rest of E Company then moved in, seizing the town and rounding up sixty-two prisoners.20
Among the captured Germans was an SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer (equivalent in grade to a lieutenant colonel), who identified himself as Karl Weigel. Obersturmbannfuhrer Weigel was not typical of the SS officers Bill normally encountered. Weigel did not serve in the Waffen SS, the military arm of the Schutzstaffel. Instead, he was the director of the Pflegesttate fur Schrift und-Sinnbildkunde (Promotional Center for the Study of Inscriptions and Symbols) that was part of Nazi Germany’s Ahnenerbe, a foundation to research ancient Aryan heritage. The organization had the mission of fulfilling Heinrich Himmler’s intellectual fantasy that the Nazis could trace their roots back to pre-historic Germanic tribes. Weigel earned Himmler’s gratitude for interpreting ancient runic symbols in a way that connected them to Nazi ideology. Through Himmler’s influence, Weigel landed a prestigious assignment to the faculty of Gottingen University, much to the chagrin of its legitimate historians. When Patton’s Third Army threatened Gottingen, Weigel had fled south, winding up as Bill’s prisoner.21
After greeting Bill, the Obersturmbannfuhrer unbuckled his pistol belt and ceremoniously handed him his Walther P38. “Sir, I surrender to you and present you with my pistol.”
Bill took the P38 and then ordered one of his men to search Weigel. The pat down turned up a small .25 cal. pistol hidden in the German’s boot. The soldier who frisked him handed the pistol to Bill.
“Wait, that is my personal firearm,” Weigel complained.
“I don’t care. You’re not keeping any weapons.”
“You do not understand. I use that only for my personal protection. I would never use it against you.”
“That doesn’t matter. You’re not keeping it.” Bill stuffed both pistols into his jacket.
The arrogant SS officer huffed but had to bear the indignity of being as defenseless as the rest of the prisoners.
TF Rodwell roared two more kilometers south before hitting one last wooded ridge near Schratenhof. Bill’s column followed the now familiar routine as it moved through the woods. The riflemen took the lead while the engineers knocked down obstacles and removed mines to open the way for the task force’s vehicles. Once past the forested ridge, they moved across an open bowl of farmland to a low bare hill, 1,500 meters short of their next objective, the city of Giengen. In the last hour of daylight, the Americans got their first glimpse of the city.22
An ad hoc mix of a few hundred Volksgrenadieren and SS, backed by artillery, defended Giengen. As soon as the Americans appeared on the ridgeline above the city, the enemy artillery began firing.
The task force dodged the Germans’ preplanned artillery concentrations. Bill got a hold of his artillery FO and ordered a counter-strike against Giengen. Under the cover of artillery and heavy machine guns, Task Force Rodwell bounded forward. Without tanks or 88s, the defenders had no chance of stopping the attack and quickly gave up the fight. Two hundred of them fled the city before TF Rodwell stormed in at dark.23
The general decided to halt the column and bed the troops down for the evening. Despite the easy capture of Giengen, the troops had an uneasy night. Enemy troops remained in the area and German machine guns on the other side of the Brenz River kept up an annoying fire.
It had been an exhilarating day for TF Rodwell and E Company. Bill’s combined arms team had moved more than thirty kilometers, overrun nine German towns, and captured more than 150 prisoners while losing only one KIA and fifteen wounded.24
By this time, Bill had been in command of E Company for nearly eight weeks. In that time, he had developed a comfortable relationship with his lieutenants, sergeants, and men. He kept tight discipline and made quick, sound tactical decisions. The company had performed superbly and, consequently, the men gained confidence in themselves and their commander. They had even given Bill the nickname “Little Caesar.” As someone explained it to him, it stemmed from his “reputation for bringing so much firepower on an objective.” Of course, it may have had other connotations. Regardless of the innuendo, Bill liked the moniker so much that he asked his driver to stencil it on his jeep.25
Little Caesar and the rest of TF Rodwell motored out of Giengen the next morning at 0800 hours. They followed the Brenz River valley toward the Danube—against no resistance. That changed after they drove through Hermaringen.26
Boom! A single artillery round impacted off to one side of the column. A second shell landed on the opposite side of the company a few minutes later. The experienced soldiers realized the Germans were trying to “bracket” them with spotting rounds. Once they had done so, they would “fire for effect” with all the guns in their battery. Each time a spotting round landed, Bill shifted his column to get outside the bracket. But the spotting rounds followed the Americans’ every movement. Bill figured the German observer had them sighted from an excellent vantage point.
Bill pulled the column into the woods to keep it out of sight. Using his binoculars, he scanned the horizon for the observer’s likely position. A tall church steeple appeared in the distance.
The best way to confound an observer was to throw smoke on his position and blind him. Bill called up the four-deuce mortar platoon to request a 4.2-inch round loaded with white phosphorous (WP). The WP rounds—which everyone in the Army called by their phonetic acronym “Willie Pete”—burned with extreme intensity and threw off a dense white cloud that could obscure a target. Bill gave the church’s coordinates to the mortars then ordered, “One round Willie Pete, will adjust, over.”
“Roger, one round, Willie Pete, out.”
A couple minutes later, the section called back. “Shot out.”
Bill lifted his field glasses and focused on the church steeple. Once the spotting round landed, he intended to adjust the next round to bracket the church before calling “fire for effect.”
Several seconds went by as the round soared overhead. They called again to alert Bill of the impending impact. “Splash, over.”
As Bill stared at the target, the Willie Pete round hit the top of the cross on the top of the church steeple. Plumes of smoke rolled in waves down each side of the steeple completely covering the target. Within seconds, a fire broke out inside the church.
A single mortar round, with its high-arcing trajectory, had hit a target only a couple of inches wide—an impossible shot.
The mortars called back, disturbing Bill’s moment of wonder. “Do you have an adjustment, over?”
“Negative, target destroyed, out.”27
Bill led the task force into Brenz, where they were greeted by an incongruous sight. The town’s residents stood by the roadside and waved at them, as if the American troops were on parade. The column passed through Brenz then turned toward the city of Gundelfingen, nestled within the Danube Valley. The Ivy Division’s soldiers crossed the same broad, fertile plain where Marlborough and Napoleon had triumphed. Elements of the 12th Armored Division greeted them as they entered the city. The linkup with the tankers fulfilled the mission of Task Force Rodwell and completed the division’s charge to the Danube. With the arrival of the 4th Infantry Division, the XXI Corps could now launch a full-scale offensive across the Danube River.28
The 2nd Battalion offloaded their vehicles in Gundelfingen. From there, they marched two kilometers south to Petersworth while trucks brought up the rest of the 12th Infantry. At 1600 hours on April 25, the regiment notified Colonel Gorn that Task Force Rodwell had been dissolved. General Rodwell resumed his normal duties and Colonel Chance once again reported directly to General Blakeley.29
For five days, Task Force Rodwell led the division on a dash to the Danube River that had covered ninety kilometers, inflicted heavy casualties, and swept up hundreds of prisoners.
The Germans could do little more than slow down the charge with roadblocks and occasional blocking positions. When they chose to fight at Neuler, Aalen, and Giengen, the Americans overwhelmed the pitiful defense they offered.
Bill and his men—as well as many other Allied soldiers—must have wondered what purpose any further fighting served. So too many Germans. A staff officer of the XIIIth SS Corps remarked, “In an increasingly vocal way the question was being asked, what did we hope to achieve with this senseless fighting?”
Yet, for many reasons—fanatical devotion to Hitler, hope in some miraculous change in fortune, or the promise of a “wonder weapon”—the pointless fight continued. American troops would risk their lives, more Germans would die, and more towns would be demolished—all to fulfill the death wish of a deluded dictator.30