by Robert Epperson | 22 Apr 2010 | The Fallen
Lt Arnold set up a telephone in a building near Olzheim, Germany, and realizing the immediate necessity of filling the position when the artillery observer was delayed, took over and telephoned vital information to friendly artillery. Enemy tanks moved up and fired at point blank range at the building and enemy artillery was directed against it. With great courage and devotion ….
by Preston Durrer | 18 Apr 2010 | News
The return of WWII veterans of the “Greatest Generation” to former battlefields is always dressed with a lot of emotions and memories. For many US units, the war ended in the Eastern part of Germany, prior to the encounter with Red Army units at the Elbe...
by Tom Stafford | 17 Aug 2004 | Personal Accounts
I was surprised to read that our Division is credited with capturing only 10,282 German Prisoners of War during World War II. Having been personally involved in the acceptance on May 6, 1945 of the formal surrender of over 40,000 Wehrmacht (German Regular Army) and Schutzstaffel (SS) troops…
by Mitch Kaidy | 22 Mar 2003 | Commentary
In early March, 1945, the impatient Gen. George S. Patton couldn’t restrain himself; he wanted to drive farther and faster into Germany. After breaking out of Belgium and Luxembourg, Patton aimed to catch the enemy offguard and ultimately to ford two key rivers, the...
by Ed Jans | 16 Feb 2003 | Personal Accounts
Towering over a vast stretch of eastern Germany, the hills looked down on cities, rivers, mountain passages and tactical and strategic sites. Most significantly, Hills 648 and 649 were bastions of Germany’s Siegfried Line, a series of heavily-armed and mined bunkers dug into the hillsides.
After helping to free the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, the 87th Infantry Division soldiers were exhausted. And their ranks had been thinned of experienced infantrymen. Yet, acting under orders from Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., the two towering hills were the 346th Regiment’s newly-assigned targets.