Photos, Articles, & Research on the European Theater in World War II
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This is one of a series of G.I. Stories of the Ground, Air and
Service Forces in the European Theater, issued by the Orientation
Branch, Information and Education Services, Hq., USFET... Major
General Wm. H. H. Morris, Jr., commanding the 10th Armored
Division, lent his cooperation and basic material was supplied by his staff.
THE STORY OF THE 10th ARMORED DIVISION
At 0330, Dec. 17, movement orders came over the war room ticker. Less than three hours
later, leading tanks and half-tracks clattered down the road — not east toward the
bridgeheads, but north toward Luxembourg! So precipitous was the change in orders that
few men of the division realized the importance of the new mission.
Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt could have told them. Germany's stony-faced West Front
Commander had struck a body blow in the Ardennes.
Men of the 9th Armd.,
4th and
28th Inf. Divs. could have told the Tigers. Their
lines, stretched thin and taut as a bowstring along a
Von Rundstedt, who had chosen to marshal his remaining strength for a single paralyzing
blow, hoped the haymaker might be the knockout punch. He had told his elite SS, Panzer
and Volksgrenadier Divisions they would overrun Belgium, Luxembourg and northern France, and
even penetrate to the Channel coast. This was no idle boast. Von Rundstedt had to be
stopped. The Tigers were the first division called to help stem the raging drive.
That a successful penetration in depth can be only half the width of its base is a basic
military axiom. To punch out a wider base, the Prussian Field Marshal sent a mailed
fist crashing southward along a
The 10th arrived as the fingers of the fist were choking off isolated pockets of
4th Inf. Div. doughs at Echternach and
half a dozen adjacent towns only 12 miles northeast of Luxembourg's capital.
Brig. Gen. Edwin W. Piburn's Combat Command A marched 75 miles in 18 hours Dec. 17, and
the Tigers clawed into Rundstedt's south flank early next day. Task forces commanded
by Lt. Col. Thomas C. Chamberlain, Lt. Col. Miles L. Standish and Lt. Col. John R. Riley
roared forward to meet the Nazis.
For three crucial days tankers, doughs and cannoneers lashed at the Germans, engaging
superior forces, keeping them confused and occupied until III Corps could assemble
sufficient strength for a counter-thrust to push the salient back across the
Sauer River Line. TF Chamberlain blocked the deepest German penetration in
Mullerthal's "Bowling Alley," a deep draw which crescendoed the battle's din. TF Riley ran
a three-mile gauntlet of fire on three occasions to rescue infantrymen marooned in
Echternach; TF Standish slashed north-ward to Berdorf, scene of bitter house-to-house
fighting. A combat team under Capt. Steve Lang, Chicago, killed 200 Germans at Berdorf
in an engagement fought partially at night in the torchlight of burning houses.
Meanwhile, two Nazi divisions were reported heading for a three-mile gap between the
9th Armd. and
28th Inf. Divs.' lines. Lt. Col.
Cornelius A. Lichirie's 90th Cav. Recon
Sqdn. plugged the gap, held fast.
CC A had jabbed and parried to keep the Germans off balance. Now it would deliver
the solid punch. Jumping off at 1100, Dec. 24, the combat command cleared the area
south of the Sauer River within 24 ours. The southern anchor was secured.
As Maj. Gen. William H. H. Morris, commanding the 10th, sent his strong right
arm,
"Stone of Bastogne" Blunts Nazi Blitz
CC B's commander, Col. William L. Roberts, split his command to form a crescent-shaped
arc facing eastward five miles from the city. A task force commanded by
Maj. William R. Desobry went north to Noville, while a similar group under
Lt. Col. Henry T. Cherry wheeled east to Longvilly. Lt. Col. James O'Hara's
group shifted southeast to Bras.
While the Tiger's steel-treaded tanks ground over Bastogne's cobble-stoned streets, the
avalanche of German might rolled westward with increasing momentum.
Capture of Bastogne, hub from which seven main roads spread spoke-like in all
directions, was essential to the swift movement of Rundstedt's panzers. Riding
the crest of a
For the first time since he launched his onslaught, von Rundstedt was stopped!
Bazooka-armed doughboys and a single platoon of tank destroyers came to grips with
a column of German
German Volksgrenadiers flanked TF Cherry's main defenses at Longvilly and surrounded the
battalion CP. Carbine-firing clerks, cooks and drivers resisted fiercely; converting the
chateau headquarters into a veritable blockhouse. TF O'Hara, lightly hit at first, felt
increasing pressure throughout the first day's engagement.
For eight hours,
Drawing from a seemingly endless reservoir of might, Germans still maintained an overwhelming
balance of power. The outnumbered Americans shifted their defensive arc nearer
Bastogne.
Completely encircled, its CP ablaze, TF Cherry fought back to Mageret as the commander
radioed
Attacked from three sides, the Noville defenders knocked out 31 Nazi tanks in two days. Then,
led by Maj. Charles L. Hustead, they broke through a ring of steel to set up another
defensive line near Foy. TF O'Hara pulled in its left flank slightly, stood fast.
Balked frontally, the German attack swirled around the city, shooting pincers to
the north and south. The night of Dec. 21, the pincers met and closed west of the
city. Bastogne became the "hole in the doughnut."
In the center of the hole, the 10th assembled a highly mobile reserve force to strike
in any direction. Bastogne's "Fire Brigade," as it was called, fought wherever the battle
flamed hottest. This force was Bastogne's indispensable backbone of steel.
The remainder of the epic, like the beginning, is a tale of the individual
soldier's raw courage.
The Tigers saw the fanatical enemy press in from all sides; rocked beneath terrific
artillery barrages and repeated bombing; froze in ice-filled foxholes and along the
snow-covered slopes; watched supplies and ammunition dwindle. Threatened with
extinction, they echoed Maj. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe's reply of "Nuts" to a
German surrender ultimatum. Men of the 10th stood, fought, died.
Fourth Armd. Div. tanks
cracked the ring Dec. 26, but
In 30 days of hell, these men of
Von Rundstedt's spearhead first had been blunted when it struck
Patton Said "Terrify and Destroy"
However, behind the jocular cynicism was the work that fashioned raw steel and green men into a
blend of armored might. The late Maj. Gen. Paul W. Newgarden was largely responsible. A Patton
disciple, he molded a Pattonized armored division. "Terrify and Destroy!" became the 10th's
cry in its battle with a ruthless enemy.
The Tiger Cubs rehearsed diligently for their combat debut. Ft. Benning's Chattahoochee River
crossings prepared them for France's racing, yellow Moselle. Camp Gordon's Boggy Gut Creek
and its fringe of "defensive fortifications" were crossed and stormed just as would be
Germany's Saar River and its Siegfried Line pillboxes. Buffalo Valley and the Tennessee
Mountains were proving grounds for battle along Bavaria's Alpine highways.
July 14, 1944: The reviewing stand on Camp Gordon's parade ground was decorated, bleachers lined
the field and the newly-mown grass glistened in the afternoon sun. All was in readiness for the
division's second birthday anniversary next day.
At Fort Knox, Ky., Gen. Newgarden and Col. Renn Lawrence,
Maj. Gen. Morris took command of the division a week later. Just as Gen. Newgarden was an
expert trainer of men, Gen. Morris was a master tactician.
Two months later, Sept. 12-13, the 10th sailed for France.
"G'wan back to the States, it's all over! What're you guys, Army of Occupation? Whatcha
gonna fight, yer shadow?"
Such were the greetings when the Tigers docked Sept. 23, 1944, in Cherbourg harbor, the
second division to sail directly from the States to France in World
Gen. Patton and Gen. Hodges had recently accomplished the St. Lo breakthrough, crushing a
German Army in the Falaise-Argentan trap and chasing a retreating Wehrmacht across France. Now
Third Army stood poised at the gates of Metz; First Army was astride the "holy soil" of Germany
near Aachen.
Few anticipated the bitter fighting which still was ahead. The 10th soon was to find out
for itself. Joining Gen. Patton's forces outside France's famed fortress city in late
October, the Tigers received their baptism of fire in the shadow of mighty Fort Driant.
"Grab 'em by the nose and kick 'em in the pants!" was the essence of the tactical maneuver
of envelopment. The Tigers were to do the pants kicking in an attack calculated to topple
the Metz bastion for the first time in 1500 years.
The 5th and
95th Inf. Divs. would
pinch the nose with an assault on the city itself. Meanwhile,
the 90th Inf. Div. would
drive northward, bridge the Moselle River on the vicinity of
Thionville. Then the 10th's armor would crack the bridgehead line and play havoc with
Metz's rear communications and supply, cut off the garrison's escape routes.
To meet the threat, the Nazi high command fed precious reserves, intended for the defense
of Metz itself, into the maw of the 10th's ground-gobbling iron monsters. The guns of
France's Maginot Line fortresses were turned against France's ally. Road blocks, mine
fields and seemingly impassable quagmires were other obstacles. Still, the advance
continued. The blue lines denoting armored spearheads on the division's war room map
spread steadily as the Tigers fanned out in the Saar Basin. TF Chamberlain's forces
fought forward 14 miles in two days and on Nov. 18 stood on high ground overlooking
their objective, Bouzonville.
Lt. William Brown rode the point tank as TF Cherry neared the
Two serpentine waterways — the Moselle and Saar — wriggle northward to a
confluence just below Trier, Germany. The Siegfried Switch Line, east-west spur of the
main fortifications, spans the distance between the two rivers to form the base of the
Saar-Moselle triangle.
The Tigers struck at dawn,
Concrete fortifications made armor impotent, demanded infiltration and demolition
by foot troops. Raked by 88s, mortars and small arms fire, doughs and
Lt. Col. W. P. Clapp's engineers slowly and painfully yanked the dragon's
teeth, blasted the Krauts from one pillbox after another. Five days of
steady slugging netted little more than a mile — a costly mile.
Corps postponed the triangle's conquest.
The Tiger's first operation ended Dec. 5. Metz fell soon afterward. No longer
green, the Tigers had (1) liberated 100 square miles of France and occupied 50
square miles of Germany; (2) captured 2000 prisoners; (3) repulsed
11 counter-attacks; (4) destroyed vast quantities of enemy personnel
and materiel.
Warfare had been a brutal, exacting teacher but Tiger neophytes had learned their
lesson well. They were to apply this knowledge with vigor in the Battle of the Bulge
which began two weeks later.
Trier — Prey to Tigers' Claws
Gen. Patton's Third Army had already cracked the vaunted West Wall east of the
Luxembourg border, but the Saar-Moselle triangle to the south, which had served
as a protective screen while von Rundstedt funneled supplies and troops through
Trier for his December offensive, remained an unplucked thorn. Still a potential
marshalling area for a German attack southward, the triangle hung like the Sword
of Damocles over the Allied-held portion of the Saar Basin. It had to be
eliminated before further eastward advances could proceed.
For days, 94th Inf. Div. doughs
had been fighting what they termed their "private war" with
the German 11th Panzer Div. sheltered behind the Siegfried Switch Line. On Feb. 19, these
infantrymen unleashed a mighty heave, cracked the center of the line. Next morning, the
10th's tanks rumbled through the breach.
Tigers had a personal grudge to settle; they had taken a nose-bloodying in the triangle
weeks before. This time it would be different.
It was different. Attacking with two combat commands abreast and one in reserve, the
10th steamrolled over bewildered opposition.
Meanwhile, nine towns in the western half bowed in rapid succession to the persuasive
firepower of Col. Wade C. Gatchell's teams led by TF Cherry and TF Standish. By
nightfall, TF Cherry had contacted cavalrymen who spanned the Moselle to seize
Wincheringen.
CC B joined the tight the second day. TF Riley's tankers and TF O'Hara's doughs drove
three miles through a thickly wooded area to envelope and seize Saarburg, wine capital
of the Saar Valley. Nestled on the west bank of the Saar River, the triangle's largest
town had been the division's goal three months previous. In the west,
Except for scattered pockets of resistance undergoing speedy elimination by cavalry, the
triangle operation was finished. In two days, the 10th had blitzed 85 square miles of
German territory and seized 23 towns. The Tigers had their revenge but no time to
enjoy it.
Maj. Gen. Walton H. Walker, XX Corps Commander, issued terse orders Feb. 21: "Bridge the
Saar and take Trier!"
Retreating Germans had destroyed the Saar's three bridges. Infantrymen would have to
cross in assault boats, storm the east bank. Then engineers would bridge the river
for the 10th's rolling stock. Hazards of an assault crossing, normally a difficult
and complex operation, were multiplied by enfilading fire from the Siegfried's main
fortifications.
A 94th regimental
combat team moved to the crossing site, eight miles upriver from
Trier and prepared to strike the reeling Germans before dawn Feb. 22. The blow never
fell as planned.
Assault boats trucked from rear areas were delayed by road blocks; other transports
were lost at night along the triangle's tortuous, mud-rutted roadways. The opportune
moment for a crossing passed because of the insufficient number of boats. Nazis gained
precious hours to reorganize and man their defenses.
Attackers soon learned how precious were those hours. With assault boats brought forward
during the day, doughs attempted a crossing at 1630, 12 hours after the first try was
scheduled. By then, the Germans were set. Artillery and automatic weapons raked the
narrow west bank with devastating fire. Most of the assault craft did not reach the
water. The few that did were sunk.
Not until 2300 hours did the infantry, screened by darkness, man-made smoke, and the
greatest artillery barrage Col. Bernard F. Luebbermann's cannoneers ever laid, succeed
in gaining a foothold on the east bank.
On the second day of the bridgehead, engineers attempted to span the Saar. Steel
fragments of German shell and mortar fire ripped their pontons, thwarted this and
repeated efforts tor the next three days.
Three miles to the south, however, two 94th Div. regiments
had punched out a two-mile
area on the Saar's west bank and successfully bridged the river. Gen. Morris then put
his breakthrough plan into effect. Three armored infantry battalions, commanded by
Gen. Piburn, crossed the river to attack southeast.
Next day,
TF Riley's tankers and TF Richardson's doughs met in the little town of Irsch, flushed
100 Germans from 10 pillboxes. Infantry then boarded the vehicles and the armored column
knifed eastward. The stalemate had been broken. The Tigers were rolling!
CC A and
While
Joined by TF Riley and TF Haskell, the trio carved a mile-wide swath through stubborn
opposition. Maj. Warren B. Haskell's troops first glimpsed the spires of Germany's oldest
city early March 1. By 1100 they swooped down the eastern heights into the city and tackled
German barracks which were being used as defensive strong points.
Five additional task forces converged on the city during the afternoon. TF Richardson
entered from the south. TF Chamberlain and TF Norris blocked the southern gateway, while
TF Riley and TF Cherry looped northeast to slam the back door.
"Fester Platz (Fortress Place) Trier-An-Der-Mosel" fell at 1500 March 2. In 28 hours, the 10th
had crushed all resistance in the first major German city to fall to Third Army. So speedy had
been its conquest that the German commander at Trier and his entire garrison of 3000 men
were snared.
Two thousand years before, Rome's Tenth Legion had conquered Trier, and Emperor Augustus
Caesar's engineers had built a sturdy bridge across the Mosel. When TF Richardson fought
its way to the river, the "Roman's Bridge," whose pillars were of the first ancient
structure, stood intact. An inebriated Nazi had failed to blow it.
Thanks to Caesar and the potent Mosel wines, American tanks rolled unhindered across
the river, churned northward without a break in stride. Three miles ahead, the Nazis
pulled back behind the now bridgeless Kyll River, Mosel tributary.
From concealed artillery positions in the steep, pine-clad hills, Germans laid down
impenetrable barriers of shell-fire along the banks near the town of Ehrang. The assault
crossing, the battle of the expanding bridgehead, the repeated attempts to bridge the
river — all were cut to the Saar's familiar, costly pattern.
So, too, was the first crossing of the armor, made where the 76th Inf. Div. had bridged
the Kyll, six miles north of Ehrang. While
Once across, the 10th's battle wagons moved with lightning rapidity. TF Cherry and
a unit led by Maj. Curtis L. Hankins rolled eastward eight miles to within six miles
of the division objective, the communications center of Wittlich, March 8.
Pressure relieved in the south,
Here the Tigers became better acquainted with a treacherous foe. They hadn't shelled
Schweich because of Nazi pleas that it be declared an open city, since it was "undefended
and used to hospitalize 3000 German wounded." On entry, 10th found Schweich defended by
infantry and 88s, its streets mined, and only two wounded instead of 3000. Minutes after
its capture, the "open city" was being shelled — by the Nazis.
TF Hankins flanked Wittlich to the east and TF Cherry entered the town to clear
the objective March 10. Four task forces mopped up the
Mission accomplished, the division with the exception of TF Cherry, moved back into
Trier. The task force drove 10 miles further northeast attempting to seize a
north-south bridge over the Mosel at Bullay, half way between Trier and Coblenz. Finding
the bridge blown, tankers destroyed a 50-vehicle convoy.
The operation ended March 12, and four days later the 10th struck the Nazis in a new
direction. This was another of the lightning moves that led the 82nd German Corps to
label the Tigers, "Ghost Division."
Armoraiders Stitch Palatinate Pocket
Gen. Patton's Third Army now faced south the length of the Mosel and Gen. Patch's Seventh
Army looked north into the Siegfried Line, both Armies forming the jaws of a huge
nutcracker. The Saar-Palatinate — with its coal, its steel and its 100,000 German
soldiers — was the nut. On March 14, the jaws began to close.
The 10th, at the cracker's fulcrum southeast of Trier, would make the difficult frontal
assault eastward. The
94th and
80th Inf. Divs. dented the Nazi lines and the Tigers' own
spearheads,
The German 2nd Mountain Div. challenged the advance, and the hills rang with the terrifying
sound of screaming meemies, the familiar whoosh-bang! of the 88s and the ripping
sound of lead-spitting burp guns.
At night, Tigers trained anti-aircraft searchlights on overhanging clouds to illuminate
the battlegrounds. Fighting around the clock, the 10th pushed a
Twenty miles to the south, Seventh Army forces were cracking the outflanked
Siegfried Line, pouring through for the first junction with Third Army.
Kaiserlautern was the next target for the 10th's rampaging tanks. Twenty-eight miles east
of St. Wendel, this city of 100,000 was the key supply point for the two German armies
facing the forces under Gen. Patton and Gen. Patch.
Resistance suddenly disintegrated as the Tigers attacked March 19. TF Cherry spurted 22 miles
along the south flank while TF Chamberlain rolled 16 miles to the north. The following day,
task forces swept through and beyond the vital rail center.
Six armored divisions now ran amuck in the dwindling pocket. Driving north, the
Sixth Armd. Div.
criss-crossed the 10th's eastward flight near Kaiserlautern. Of this movement, Time
Magazine wrote:
...Armored divisions sometimes perform feats that would be textbook nightmares. Two
Patton armored divisions once crossed each other at a right angle road junction in the
midst of combat, but only the Germans were confused.
For the Krauts, confusion mounted to panic. They had been forced to blow most of the
Rhine bridges to prevent seizure by American forces driving down the river's west bank. Trapped,
the Nazis fled without knowing where to flee. Air observers reported German columns retreating
in opposite directions. Gasolineless Wehrmacht columns, moving in charcoal burning vehicles,
horse and oxen-drawn carts, or marching afoot, were overtaken by swift armoraiders.
TF Hankins caught the largest enemy convoy 15 miles short of the Rhine on the moonlit night
of March 20. A tank-infantry team, whooping like Indians, traversed the length of the
column, destroyed 300 vehicles, five tanks and 15 artillery pieces.
Nazis fought desperately to hold open a narrow escape corridor to the two remaining
Rhine bridges at Speyer and Germesheim. To slash this corridor, the Tiger juggernaut
wheeled southward.
TF Cherry neutralized the northernmost bridge by seizing Neustadt, astride the main road
approaches to Speyer. Col. Gatchell's Reserve Command cut through 15 miles of forest and
road blocks to slice the broad highway to Germesheim at Annweiler and Landau.
From Neustadt, Maj. Wheeler M. Thackston's task force battered its way 10 miles southward
to join the Reserve Command in Landau, March 22. Five other task forces converged on this
point the following day, and on March 24, TF Chamberlain contacted elements of the Seventh
Army's 14th Armd. and
36th Inf. Divs. The Palatinate's
last big pocket had been firmly
stitched.
In less than two weeks, the Tigers had booted the Nazis up one hill and down another through
100 miles of the Hunsruck and Hardt Mountains to the Rhine Valley and had captured
8000 prisoners, from 26 German divisions.
10th Armored — "Always Into the Enemy"
The 10th's southward drive in the Palatinate had overrun Seventh Army boundaries and
brought the Tigers under Gen. Patch's command. Seventh Army had bridged the Rhine near
the cathedral city of Worms and was fighting in pulverized Mannheim on the river's east
bank. To join the 44th Inf. Div. there, the 10th rolled across the historic stream
March
From Mannheim, where it empties into the Rhine, the bed of the Neckar River extends
eastward for 20 miles, then curves gently southward through the Wehrmacht arsenal of
Heilbronn. The Neckar became the hinge for Gen. Morris' tri-pronged blow at Germany's
vitals March 30.
Reserve Command and TF Lichirie's swift cavalry reconnaissance troops knifed along
the river's north bank.
At the day's end, TF Chamberlain had struck rough going, smacking into
Germany's 198th Inf. Div., one of the Western Front's strongest. Elsewhere, the sailing
was smoother. Cavalrymen and TF Thackston had dashed 20 miles virtually
unopposed. TF Richardson sped along the Mannheim-Stuttgart superhighway, and
TF Riley advanced 10 miles, pushing through Heidelberg which had capitulated a
few hours earlier to the 63rd Inf. Div.
Beneath Heidelberg's statue of Bismarck, the Tigers found a letter addressed to
Gen. Eisenhower, signed by the "Women of Heidelberg," asking for the "resurrection
of common sense and decency" and "a peace based on wisdom." Ahead were other
Germans, with rifle in hand, who would ask the same — once the rifle
could be taken away from them at the cost of an American life.
Screened by TF Chamberlain, elements of the First French Army hopped the Rhine near
Speyer March 31. The 10th was the first Allied unit contacted by French troops east
of the Rhine.
Tigers cracked the backbone of Nazi defenses in the Rhine-Neckar area April
East of Heilbronn, the crack 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Div. had holed up. While the
100th Inf. Div. assaulted the Heilbronn bastion, the 10th moved in secrecy. When it
appeared next, the "Ghost Division" was 40 miles east of Heilbronn, behind the startled
17th SS, and astride the Nurnberg-Stuttgart highway deep in Germany.
In two days,
The Nazis were swift to recover from the initial shock. A fading Wehrmacht and
dying Luftwaffe suddenly were rejuvenated in demoniacal fury reminiscent of
Germans rocked Crailsheim with concussion bombs and shells, burned it with
incendiaries, assaulted it with whole battalions of infantry. They severed the
defenders' supply lifeline, a thin,
But the Tigers stuck, threw back the Nazis' best. Giant
Of 325 enemy planes attacking Crailsheim, 50 were blasted from the skies by
For four days the fighting at the tip of the Crailsheim finger was the most bitter along
the Western Front. Revised Corps plans now called for the 10th to shift its entire weight
in the direction of Heilbronn, where the 100th Div. still battled.
To attack westward, Brig. Gen. Piburn's troops pulled out of Crailsheim April 10. Two
thousand Nazis went with them — as prisoners. Another thousand Germans were left
behind — dead.
Task forces led by Lt. Col. Riley and Maj. Richard W. Ulrich hurdled the Kocher River
Fanatical Hitler Jugend and aged Volksturmers resisted entry into the town, firing
bulbous panzerfausts — Nazi bazookas — and automatic burp guns. The 10th's
artillery delivered a softening-up punch with a "time on target" barrage, cascading shells
from 52 cannon timed to burst simultaneously on a pinpointed area.
Oehringen fell April 13 and armoraiders drove through to link with 100th
and 63rd Inf. Divs. six miles east of Heilbronn. The circle was complete. Now the
Tigers crouched between the two infantry divisions, prepared to spring southward
toward the Danube River.
Ahead lay some of the most rugged terrain the 10th had yet encountered. Bavaria's broad,
undulating hill country graduated into the high Schwabische Alb plateau guarding the
Danube's northern approaches. Two rivers, the Rems and the Fils, streamed across the
intended path, posed further obstacles.
The Tigers leaped April 16, struck a stubborn line for two days, then broke into the
clear. This was the 10th's specialty — this broken field running. Like fleet-footed
halfbacks, six armored columns of three combat commands streaked through the opposition's
backfield. The objectives — Schwabische Hall, Wielandsweiler, Gaildorf, Goeppingen,
Lorch, Kirchheim — flashed by in rapid succession.
Task Force Hankins grabbed bridges across the Rems and Fils Rivers intact, rolled
Two days later TF Chamberlain and TF Richardson stood on the goal line — the
fabled Danube River. Fleeing Nazis had no time to destroy one of the river's spans
near Ehingen. The Tigers'
The 10th poised above the vaunted National Redoubt. Here, the Nazis, by their own
admission, would resist to a bloody end. Resistance was there — but when struck
by the Tigers' mailed fist, it crumpled like a wind-filled paper bag.
Road-weary, battle-worn tankers and doughs hooked left into the Danube city of Ulm
Mile upon mile, through town after town, armor ran rampant. In the 10th's path, swastikas
gave way to white flags. The beaten Wehrmacht and die-hard SS troops surrendered in
droves. In five days, the Tigers took 9000 prisoners, the equivalent of a Nazi panzer
division.
TF Chamberlain captured Memmingen, liberating nearly 4000 Allied prisoners. TF Thackston
swung east to flank Landsberg's notorious concentration camp. TF Hankins spearheaded
By April 30, the 10th was deep in Austria's snow-mantled Alps, only 40 miles north of the
Italian border. TF Hankins had penetrated within 20 miles of Innsbruck, Austria. A week
before, the 10th had been on the Danube. Now it was more than 100 miles to the south.
This was the finish line for the Tiger Division; it was relieved April 30. Eight days
later — May 8, 1945 — Victory-in-Europe Day was officially proclaimed.
These triumphant Tigers were tired. The last big push had been 69 days and nights of almost
continuous contact with the enemy, of little sleep, of bone-jarring road marches, of
battle-strained nerves, of rain, snow and cold. Now it was finished.
The 10th could relax and reflect on a brilliant combat record. Tigers had spearheaded
600 miles through five foreign countries, seized 450 towns and cities, fought in three
of America's four active Western Front Armies, taken 35,000 prisoners. Driving "Always
into the Enemy," the Tigers had met and beaten Germany's best.
At the end of Victory's trail, they paused, remembering comrades who had fallen in the
blazing of that trail. The resolve now was firm:
"... that these honored dead shall not have
died in vain."
TEAMWORK is essential to any successful combat organization, but in few instances
does it surpass that found in the armored team. In the breakthrough type of
fighting — mechanized warfare — tankmen and motorized infantry invariably
are surrounded by the enemy. They advance swiftly, placing lives in the trust that
engineers can clear mine fields and road blocks, that artillerymen can destroy a
strongpoint, that signalmen can maintain communications, that ordnancemen can
repair, replace damaged vehicles; that medics will care for the wounded.
The story of the Tenth Armored Division is the story of one such
team — a winning team!
Photos: U.S. Signal Corps
Printed by: Desfosses-Neogravure, Paris. Crete, Corbeil.
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