Battle of Central Germany . . . (continued)

Juggernaut Onaway

IT seemed as though the whole Allied juggernaut was surging forward in a great wave. At main highway intersections one interminable convoy would cross another. The three regiments of the division were coordinating, each unit moving up on a zone eighteen kilometers over the Hesse plain to Lenderscheid. (This was only an overnight stop, but it was the opening of a brief association with XXth Corps, the third corps with which the regiment had operated.)
From Lenderscheid, the regiment moved the next morning by shuttle in organic transportation to Malsfeld, and thence on foot to Melsungen, a city situated on the Fulda River. A few kilometers up the river was Kassel, for which the 6th Armored Division was even then fighting. Here, for the battalions, began a long foot march taking them first to Hessisch-Lichtenau, sixteen kilometers from Melsungen and on to the village of Walberg. Throughout this area, the troops flushed woods and countryside, turning up scattered enemy snipers and small groups hewn out of the larger bodies by the armor where it had, gone through. Towns occupied included Velmeden, Hausen, Frankenhain, Wolfterode, Frankershausen, Hitzerode and Orferode. Beginning at Melsungen, Anti-Tank Company had the mission of protecting the regimental rear and flanks.
Because light resistance eliminated the necessity for artillery preparation, Cannon Company added to its general workaday routine the task of providing security detachments for all towns in the regimental area and of screening Personnel in such towns. In a single day the regiment did a gigantic mopping-up job as far as the banks of the Wehre River. Reaching the Altwehre and Wehre rivers, it was found that two bridges remained intact, and bridgeheads were immediately established here.
For several days, the 304th had been working in close conjunction with the 6th Armored Division, following up and consolidating the gains made by their armor. Now orders were received to move ahead to the vicinity of M|hlhausen and Langensalza--the current tip of 6th Armored's spearhead.
Leaving the densely wooded country which had been reasonably normal and quiet throughout the push from the Rhine, the regimental column moved out into the broad plain of the province of Thuringia in a sixty-five kilometer jump, taking the regimental CP to Schvnstedt, between the cities of M|hlhausen and Langensalza. At M|hlhausen, the regimental commander contacted 6th Armored. The next day, April 7th, the 3rd battalion and one platoon of AT Company were attached to the armored division. Thus began the coordinating operations which teamed the 76th Division with the 6th Armored Division in the final long drive to the east preceding the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht.

Vulnerable

THIRD Battalion was to remain in M|hlhausen only a few hours. Ten kilometers to the rear, a major German counter-attack with infantry and tanks had developed to cut the supply lines of CT 304 and 6th Armored. In their dare-devil plunges of massed American forces, the armored divisions of the Third and First Armies had extended two long slender fingers for miles into Nazi-held terrain. Quick to take advantage of this vulnerability, harried Nazis now hoped to snip off great masses of American armor.
Again we have from the pen of Captain Ryan a quick word picture of the kaleidoscope through which the men were passing.
"In Dingelstddt there was Combat Command B of the 6th Armored there. We took over a big gasthaus with many tables. This was the tavern with the meatmarket room attached and the meat house in the back. We had beaucoup meat, cutlets, steaks and chops there. Only one meal or two from the old gent that ran it. Nice family. A lot of young girls there and a Frenchman who had been living with them for several years and liked them. Had many Frenchmen coming thru; we helped them get some K-rations for food. One of them, a former officer in the French Army, wanted to join our tank forces. He supplied information about large concentration of German men and tanks in nearby town, having just walked thru the German lines. Took him to Col. Barber and he had the colonel of the 6th Armored in charge of the tanks, Task Force Dugas, CC B there meet him. He questioned the Frenchman himself being of French extraction. We were in Dingelstddt April 7th to April 9th. It was a nice town, in peace time had 5,000 population, now crowded with refugees. The armored supply lines were getting long now and needed some shielding. Company went up to take a high hill protecting supply route and near the town of Kreuzebra. They came to a ridge and drew heavy fire. Had 5 - 6 tanks with them-- they threw stuff in and drew more back. After some harassing S/Sgt. Roger St. Louis of K Co. (S/Sgt. Roger J. St. Louis, 16149346) went over the ridge and started down the hill . . . to go forward . . . This was the town the Frenchman had said had a heavy concentration of troops, tanks, etc. Several thousand men he said. St. Louis (our good friend of Orenhofen who with Bark had gotten the plasma back to us), didn't get far before he was hit. Almost immediately Suntan, (Pfc. Thomas Santandrea, 32566932) went over the hill and down to him. With his red cross and a clear day, he was clearly seen yet they opened up on him with everything they had and killed both Suntan and St. Louis who tried to pull himself away . . . . Two darn good boys gone . . . "
The battalion moved by motor with the armored task-force to an assembly area at Eigenrieden, two miles from Struth, the focal point of the attack. Supported by tanks, they moved up with elements of the 65th Division into the still burning ruins of Struth. With overwhelming force now on their side, armor and infantry moved in and broke up the counterattack. Enemy armor was destroyed and the supply line was once more intact. But in Struth, the wreckage of American vehicles and tanks, as well as American dead and wounded, was all that was left of the small defending force which had coped with the attack before aid arrived. It was a grim commentary on the hazards which the 304th would face as a spearheading force with armor. Always present, amid the thrill of fast punches and racing advances, was the threat of having thin lines snipped off and small defending forces mangled. That the 304th was never caught in such a situation is a tribute to the alertness and painstaking security precautions of its officers and men.
Of this sector and the action Capt. Ryan in his diary writes:
"While looking for Col. Barber and Hickman, got into a house which had observation on the town being counterattacked. The name of the town was Struth. When we arrived 4 P-47s were diving and strafing the town. They gave a beautiful exhibition, disappearing behind the town church steeple. Tanks, German and American, could be seen moving on the outskirts. Our tanks moving in and a column of Jerry tanks moving out and being harassed by the P-47s. What had happened was that the 65th had taken 2 towns in the area--Struth and another, . . . and in the night the Germans rode up on 175 or so bicycles, set up flak gun positions on the edge of town, moved tanks into the town . . . They surprised the 65th; the citizens are said to have pointed out the CPs and German troops threw explosives in those houses, . . . In an adjoining town another counterattack had temporarily dislodged another 65th company with heavy casualties. 65th reinforcements were sent in and I and K Companies were added to them. They encircled while the 65th mopped up the towns. They hadn't seen their aid station in two days, i. e., the aid men of the 65th. We treated many of their casualties there. Had lad, with severe jaw and neck wound, there who on shifting position almost died--almost had to do a tracheotomy. (As he lay down the passageway was mechanically blocked off. Had him upright on sofa getting plasma). . . . The other town counterattacked was Dvrna--there a Section Sgt. had been captured and wounded and then when the town was retaken he was freed. In M|hlhausen the town was full of antiaircraft guns, tanks and TDs and all opened up on the ME 109s, knocking one down. The sirens had blown and scared everyone through their doors and no one could get in for protection.
"When things were under control we took off for our next spot supposed to be the town after Struth. As we wound our way through Struth every building in the town was aflame, in retaliation for the civilians pointing out CPs, etc. The streets were narrow, we drove between flames all the way--there was an odor of burned flesh--dead horses and men . . . Germans were lying dead all over the place, Americans too . . . There were many prisoners taken too. Saw 200 to 300 behind one building. . . . Buildings ready to tumble. As we rode on in the night, you could see three towns on fire in the dark. Struth, Dvrna, and another. We expected to stop at K|llstedt but went on thru to the town of Dingelstddt. When we were there for several days, we were the closest American troops to Berlin, about 120 miles away. We were also out on a thumb and had front, left and right flanks open."
While 3rd battalion was fighting in Struth, the regiment had gone on to Langensalza, a significant milestone in its advance through Germany. Here, the 304th took over its first key city, had its first notable encounter with the Luftwaffe.
Langensalza, an important prize of war, was a thoroughly Nazi community which had thrived as a military center. On the outskirts of the city was a large air field and air officer's training school which had also served as a base of operations for Luftwaffe fighters. One side of the city was given over to an aircraft plant, which overflowed into vacant lots with partially assembled fighter planes lined row on row in an open-air assembly line. Most important, Langensalza was a great supply depot. Warehouses within and on the outskirts of the city were jammed with food, in quantity and quality belying reports of a starving Germany. Army clothing and equipment were found in huge stockpiles. The entire countryside was a Nazi storehouse, with the four-billion-dollar gold hoard later uncovered by Third Army in Merkers, only a few Kilometers away.

Viper Venom

IN such a town diehard resisters were "a natural." Thus, although another unit had carried on clearing operations, there were snipers and saboteurs at work days after the regiment entered Langensalza. With hostile forces on three sides of the city, a counter-attack in progress to the rear and no armored spearhead out in front, the regiment's position in Langensalza called for a "guard-up" alertness. 1st and 2nd battalions were in position on a front facing generally northeast of the city, with one platoon of Anti-Tank Company holding a line southwest of Langensalza. The 302nd Field Artillery moved to Ndgelstedt, a village east of the city, to assume positions in support of front-line units. A special mission went to C Company. Reinforced by three sections of tanks of the 749th Tank Battalion and a platoon of the 76th Division Recon Troop, the company went back to clear a large wooded area near Kammerforst, west of Langensalza. The 2nd battalion, with its CP in Thamsbr|ck, was now the leading infantry unit of Third Army.
Then there was the Luftwaffe. For a week, since the crossing of the Rhine, this had amounted to a big, latent, unanswered question mark in the minds of the rank and file. For some strange reason--intuition perhaps, or a sixth sense--this business of enemy air power had never before bothered the men to any appreciable degree. It may be that attention was too closely centered on the enemy directly ahead--and on the ground--to waste too much time bothering about a possible foe aloft--overhead. But inexplicably, from the banks of the Rhine on, there was a new alertness, a watchfulness. Men would catch themselves listening, trying to determine whether the roar of the convoy's trucks in which they were riding or the bellow of tanks beside them or ahead was just that--or perhaps, the zoom of a plane's motors overhead. There was not much talk about it. Probably each man avoided the subject for dread of appearing an alarmist. But it is nonetheless true that of all sights along these roads none were so gratifying at any time as that of enemy airplane wreckage and bombed out air fields.

Luftwaffe

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