Divisional History
A History of the 90th Division in World War II
6 June 1944
To
9 May 1945
Chapter 12
The Beginning of the End
The 5th Infantry Division struck swiftly across the Rhine at ten o’clock in the evening of March 22nd, choosing the Rhenish city of Nierstein for its crossing site. Initial resistance was almost nonexistent, and the 5th drove forward virtually unopposed. Bridging operations were immediately begun as the entire weight of the Third Army was thrown into the sector. All roads to Nierstein were crowded with trucks, armor and artillery moving into assembly areas, waiting impatiently for the dash across the Rhine.
Originally the plans called for the 5th to make the crossing, to be followed by two armored divisions, and then the 89th and 90th Divisions in that order. Now, however, those plans were suddenly changed. Corps telephoned, “Assemble two regiments in reserve at once prepared to cross the Rhine tonight.”
Developments followed with dramatic rapidity. Victory was in the air, and American troops sensed that this was the beginning of the final phase of the war. There was no stopping them now as they moved in for the kill.
The 357th Regiment was immediately dispatched to the bridging site, crossed the Rhine on the afternoon of the 23rd, and was attached to the 5th Division until the remainder of the 90th arrived. By this time the enemy had begun to react to the disaster which had overtaken them. The Luftwaffe flew sorties against the bridging site, bombing and strafing in a furious attempt to destroy equipment and personnel, to halt at all costs the endless swarm of troops across the German river. Enemy artillery became active, and disorganized groups counterattacked continuously in an effort to contain the bridgehead.
The 357th relieved elements of the 5th Division at once, and became involved almost immediately in a violent enemy counterattack of battalion strength. The attack was finally overcome with 250 prisoners taken. The Regiment moved forward rapidly, brushing aside resistance as it went.
The remainder of the Division crossed the Rhine via bridge throughout the day of March 24th and took its place in the line at once. The 4th Armored also effected a crossing, passed through the 90th’s sector, and began a powerful lashing drive to the Main River to the North.
By this time, too, the enemy sensed that the war had reached its final catastrophic stage. Gone was the smooth-functioning war machine which had conquered an entire continent; in its place was a milling mob searching hopelessly for an avenue of escape, praying for a miracle, for a secret weapon, even for peace.
Here and there resistance was encountered, but it was confused and sporadic. The enemy had little idea as to the location of the lines. The 915th Filed Artillery Battalion, in occupying firing positions near Klein Gerau, found itself in a fire fight behind the lines. A few rounds of direct fire on the enemy positions wrote “fini” to the fight in short order.
Task Force Spiess was reformed with the mission of taking the industrial city of Darmstadt on the Division right flank. Little resistance was met in the city, and it fell in the afternoon of the 25th. In the morning, the 90th moved forward against a defense consistent only in its inconsistency. It was impossible to predict where the enemy might elect to defend. On many occasions only a token resistance was offered, enough to salve the German conscience, to be followed by surrender. PW cages bulged with captured Germans for whom the war was happily over.
On the 26th the 90th reached the Main River, and by the next morning resistance had ceased on the near bank. The Division was aligned from Hanau on the right to Rumpeheim on the left, just east of Frankfort. The month of March had seen three river barriers crossed; the Kyll, the Moselle and the Rhine. And now the 90th Division prepared to cross the last major river which barred its way into the hear of Germany.
At 0330 on March 28th the 357th and 358th Regiments crossed the Main in assault boats between Hanau and Offenbach. Though the crossing was expected by the enemy, little could be done to prevent its successful accomplishment. A Battalion of Hitler Youth OCS defenders formed a thin line along the river with varying degrees of success and determination. On the left the OCS men fought doggedly to prevent the 357th from expanding its bridgehead, but was unable to succeed in its mission. On the right, in the face of the imminent assault by the 358th, the OCS defenders solved their problem satisfactorily (to themselves, at least) simply by withdrawing and offering no fight whatever.
By noon the bridging of the Main River had been completed, and all elements of the 90th had reached their objectives. The 4th Armored now swept through the zone, utilizing a bridge at Hanau, and proceeded to drive northward. The 6th Armored crossed on the 90th’s Bridge and it too went about its business of driving through the heart of Germany. A six mile bridgehead had been firmly established by the day’s end, and the hills of Hessen loomed on the horizon.
The 359th Regiment was now attached to the 4th Armored Division as a combat team and moved unmolested until it reached Stockheim and Selters, where a furious fire fight took place. It was disposed of with typical efficiency, however, and the Regiment moved on.
On March 30th the Division gained 30 miles, the following day 25 miles. Huge quantities of valuable military equipment were overrun in the lighting drive. White flags replaced the Swastika as the German national emblem. Village after village, town after town, displayed the banners of surrender, delighted that their community had been spared the ravages of war. As in France, the civilians pressed wine and champagne on their American conquerors, while chickens laid eggs exclusively for the delectation of the invading army. It was soon discovered that all Germans despised the Nazis and loved the Americans passionately, a phenomenon which the troops accepted with a skeptical grain of salt. Morale, always good, now rose to the boiling point. Complete and final victory was just around the corner, and nothing in the world was going to halt those troops short of that goal.
So rapid had been the advance of the 90th that many wooded areas now began to disgorge roving bands of “guerillas” whose self-assigned mission it was to harass the perilously-stretched lines of communication. Quartermaster convoys were ambushed at night, their drivers killer or captured, their freight and vehicles confiscated. In spite of this new hazard, the 90th Quartermaster Company nevertheless moved supplies through the pockets of “no-man’s-land” behind the lines. Losses were grimly accepted, but the steady flow of supplies never failed to reach the troops in the forward areas. One battalion was dispatched to guard the supply routes, and the problem was effectively solved.
The Division was now more than half way across Germany, following the 4th Armored Division. But now the orders were changed. While the 4th Armored was to continue its drive northeastward, the 90th was to move eastward on its own. Accordingly, the 90th Division pressed on. It reached the Werra River on April 2nd, crossed immediately, and discovered that here, in a last desperate effort, the enemy had erected a line beyond which the Americans were not to advance. Ignorant of the German determination to hold at all costs, however, the 90th advanced, smashed the line and moved forward.
Vacha was taken against stiff opposition, Dippach and Oberzella and Merkers. It was at Merkers that the 90th discovered the end of the rainbow. Two German midwives, hurrying to deliver a neighbor’s child, informed a guard that in the subterranean tunnels below the local salt mine was hidden a vast supply of gold. The report was immediately investigated, and the subsequent discovery amazed the world. For here was Germany’s entire gold supply and a great portion of its wealth and stolen treasures.
An inventory of the mine revealed that it contained: 100 tons of gold bullion, 5,000,000,000 German marks, 2,000,000 American dollars, 4,000,000 Norwegian pounds, 100,000,000 French francs, 110,000 English pounds, plus Spanish, Italian, Turkish and Portuguese currency. In addition there were 1,000 cases of paintings and statutes, priceless art works of inestimable value. Included were the works of Raphael, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Durer and Renoir. Invaluable tapestries and engravings looted from the art centers of Europe were found hidden in the underground chambers of the unassuming salt mine at Merkers.
One regiment was detailed to guard the treasure, and the remainder of the Division pushed ahead. All roads were lined with liberated slave laborers, some walking aimlessly, becoming slowly accustomed to their freedom, some walking determinedly, burdened by huge packs, with their eyes firmly fixed on the road that led to home. Allied prisoners of war were liberated in increasingly large numbers, Americans, British, French, and Russians. The German Army was dissolving into a hodgepodge of Volksstrum, Hitler Jugen, highly disorganized veterans, and a few SS. As usual resistance was encountered only at infrequent intervals, and as usual, it was quickly overwhelmed.
Before the 90th Division lay the forests and mountains of Thuringia. Ordinarily, such terrain would have proved most difficult but the 90th had proved itself in difficult terrain time and again, and Thuringia held no terror for the men who had crossed the Eiffel Hills in the cold of winter and the mud of Spring. Indeed the Germans themselves now called the 90th the “Forest and Mountain Division.”
From Zella Mehlis, home of he Walther small arms factories, the Division changed directions once again, this time to the southeast toward the communications centers of Hof, close to the Czechoslovakian border.
A news blackout had been imposed on the activities of the Third Army for several days. The news-hungry public read newspapers avidly for word of Patton’s dramatic drive. For the Third Army nothing was impossible. For all they knew, spearheading elements might already be in Czechoslovakia. (Unreasonable, of course.)
The answer was not long in coming. When the blackout was finally lifted, the 90th had taken Hof against fantastic but futile resistance, and elements of the Division, duly accompanied by press photographers and war correspondents (sent to immortalize the historic occasion), had indeed set foot upon the soil of Czechoslovakia. The 90th Division this became the first unit in the ETO to slice across the German nation, to cut the land in half, to divide Bavaria in the south from the great industrial Germany in the North. The date was 18 April 1945.
Corps now ordered the Division to move south, generally using the Czechoslovakian border as its left boundary. The troops moved swiftly, meeting resistance occasionally, disposing of it with relative ease. Marktreadwitz was taken, and here were discovered 13 American soldiers, haggard and emaciated as a result of the starvation diet and harsh treatment imposed upon them by their SS captors. Plans called for an overnight halt at Marktredwitz, but upon learning of additional Americans in a similar plight at Fuchsmuhl, one Company with tanks and TDs formed a Task Force to rescue the Americans there. Sixty-three Americans were found at Fuchsmuhl, all so seriously ill as a result of malnutrition that it was necessary to rush them immediately, via ambulance, to the nearest collecting company.
Tirschenreuth, Flossenberg, and Weiden were captured, names familiar to members of the Division who were to comprise the occupation forces at the conclusion of the war. At Flossenberg, men of the 90th learned that propaganda and truth are sometimes the same. It was here that they saw with their own eyes a vivid example of the cruelties of which the enemy was capable. Flossenberg, one of the most infamous concentration camps in all Germany, was the first encountered by the 90th. Bodies of inmates were stacked grotesquely like cords of word. The ovens used for disposing of the bodies were on display. More than 1,100 inmates, living under indescribably hard conditions were liberated by troops of the 90th, to whom the nature of the enemy was now revealed fully and graphically. With memories of Flossenberg etched indelibly in their brains, they moved grimly on.
Waldumnchen and Further were captured as the 90th skirted southward along the Czech border. Far to the north contact between the American and Soviet armies seemed imminent. In the south the 11th Armored was nearing the Austrian border, and contact with the Russian troops in Austria could not be long delayed. The 90th was now given the mission of defending along the Czech border, preventing the German troops in Czechoslovakia from entering the southern Redoubt area.
Scattered resistance continued. The 345th Field Artillery Battalion became involved in a fire fight with 200 enemy troops. They leveled their howitzers at the enemy and at short range fired. Those who survived surrendered.
Patrols and limited objective attacks were the principal business of the Division as April came to a close. The Sudeten hills as formidable a defensive line as the Eiffels, ranged darkly and forbiddingly against he Tough ‘Ombres. Patrols, venturing into the vast wooded area before them, met sharp opposition as elements of the battle-wise 11th Panzer Division barred their way. It was determined, therefore, that the high ground on the Division’s left flank must be cleared.
The attack was launched on April 30th northeast and southeast of Waldmunchen, and met stubborn resistance consisting of enemy small arms, artillery and armor. The dense woods made progress double difficult. On the following day the attack was continued, but still the almost impenetrable forests and the constant snipe fire made movement hazardous and difficult at best. On May 3rd the mayor of Vseruby surrendered the town after Germans had fled. The Division now held its objectives.
Corps now ordered the 90th Division into reserve, but it was not destined for the Division which had been in the thick of things throughout the conflict, to be out of the lines at the close of the war. Plans were abruptly altered on the morning of 4 May when a representative of the 11th Panzer Division entered the 90th’s lines under a white flag of truce, bearing the following letter:
Division CP 3 May 45
11th Panzer DivisionCommander
The development of the military and political situation makes it desirable to me to avoid further loses on both sides.
I have therefore ordered the Major, the bearer of this note, to negotiate with you the cessation of hostilities.
Von Wietersheim
Lt. General and Division Commander
The bearer of the surrender note was blindfolded and taken to the Division CP, where the arrangements of the “unconditional surrender” of the 11th Panzer Division were completed. At four in the afternoon Lt. General von Wietersheim arrived at Vseruby to confirm the terms of the unconditional surrender. General Earnest of the 90th accepted the capitulation, and one hour later the long columns of the surrendering division poured in a seemingly endless stream into the collecting points and enclosures. When the final count was made, 9,050 Germans had been added to the prisoner total of the 90th, 700 trucks with a wealth of guns and material were now in American hands.
In the meantime, inside Czechoslovakia, the citizens and underground forces of the capital city of Prague had sprung into open revolt against their German oppressors. Ill armed, the citizen rebels were helpless against the superior equipment and numbers of the German forces garrisoned in the vicinity. Fighting with their backs to the wall, the patriots of Prague seized the city radio station and issued a desperate call for help.
On May 5th, in accordance with orders from Corps, the 90th Division embarked upon its final combat mission . . . the rescue of Prague. The mission was that of clearing a route through the Regen Pass in the Sudeten Mountains through which the rampaging 4th Armored could pass The 90th would then follow the 4th Armored to Prague itself and wrest Czechoslovakia’s capital from the remnants of Germany’s armed forces.
Opposition was light as the attacking regiments moved forward toward their objectives. Only in one village, Zhuri, was opposition worthy of the name encountered. Here elements of the Division were ambushed by 100 Officer Candidates who inflicted 20 casualties on a single company. The Americans, enraged at their losses so late in the game, fought into the town. In hand-to-hand engagements they killed 24 of the enemy and captured the remainder.
The following day the advance northward continued, halted only while the 4th Armored Division rolled through the lines en route to Prague.
On the morning of May 7th the 90th moved forward once more, only to be halted almost immediately. Division Headquarters had received a message of historic importance:
"A representative of the German High Command signed the unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Forces and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command at 0141B Central European Time 7 May 1945 under which all forces will cease active operations at 0001B 9 May 1945.”
EISENHOWER
And so ended the combat history of the 90th Infantry Division, a history which began on the beaches of Normandy and wound through one thousand miles of hedgerows, plains, hills, rivers and forests half way across the continent of Europe, where the men with the T-O patch stood triumphantly at last on the liberated soil of Czechoslovakia.