Latrine communiques indicated that the regiment was going home, but a divisional order directed otherwise – for the present, at least. The end of the war seemed near, and according to General Gavin in a talk to men of the 504, “We want to be in on the finish.” Most men agreed, but opinions differed as to where the regiment should spend the “finish” and how enthusiastically they endorsed the prospect of fighting to the last could not readily be determined.
Col. Tucker and the advance detail left Laon, France, on April 1, and jeeped north some 270 miles to Cologne, to establish the regimental CP at Longerich, in the city’s outskirts. Three days later the regiment, after traveling most of the way in “40 and 8’s”, arrived and immediately took up positions along the West Bank of the Rhine River. The opponents this time were battered Wehrmacht forces who had been trapped in the Ruhr pocket.
Patrols ‘sallied forth each night from the West Bank in boats to reconnoiter the opposite shore where, almost without exception, the enemy was contacted, and brisk firefights developed. Casualties were inflicted upon the enemy, and also by the enemy. Only a few attempts were made by the Germans to reach the 504 side of the river, and these were quickly repulsed with disastrous consequences for those who still thought the Rhine was a German river.
On the other hand, it was not uncommon for 504 patrols to be fired upon by 20mm and machine guns while still in mid-stream, forcing the men to abandon ship and make for shore by means of the more primitive method of aquatic propulsion.
The Ruhr “sack” was ever being drawn more tightly by American divisions which compressed the isolated German pocket from the North, South, and East. On April 6, A Company was ordered to cross the Rhine to seize and occupy the enemy-held village of Hitdorf, which nestled on the east bank of the river.
In the larger sense, there was more at stake in this action than the mere capture of a comparatively unimportant German village. It was hoped by the tacticians of higher headquarters that this venture into what was considered the least heavily defended portion of the pocket would divert badly needed troops from the other hard-pressed fronts.
Loading into assault boats in platoon waves, A Company crossed the Rhine at 0230 on the 6th. Upon reaching the east bank, the enemy was immediately contacted. Under heavy fire, and finding themselves in a minefield, the company momentarily lost control and the first wave split into two parts, each of which separately fought its way to the predesignated objective.
The two groups of the leading wave joined forces, knocked out several machine gun nests, and proceeded to establish a road block. Under conditions similar to those encountered by the first wave, the succeeding waves infiltrated through the enemy and subsequently entered the village.
A CP was set up, a perimeter defense established, and the platoons tied in by wire communications. By 0830, Hitdorf had been cleared of all enemy forces, 68 prisoners had been taken, and as the day got under way, the situation appeared to the paratroopers to be well in hand.
However, this peace was short lived. At 0845, the Germans counter-attacked from the South in company strength and forced 504 forward outposts to withdraw to the village outskirts. Here they formed a line and permitted the enemy to approach within 50 yards of their positions. Upon command, 504 men loosed a barrage of rifle and machine gun fire that stopped the enemy in its tracks. Thirty-three prisoners were taken, and the remainder of the attacking force was believed to be either killed or wounded; none were observed to leave the area.
The enemy’s second effort to dislodge the usurpers of Hitdorf was preceded by an extremely heavy concentration of heavy and medium artillery, which knocked out all wire communication and the artillery OP located in the village church tower. At 1530, the enemy smoked the south-eastern end of the town and attacked from the South and East with two tanks and a company of infantry. Artillery fire was called for from the 376, old 504 standbys, and immediately received. This accurate fire momentarily scattered the Germans; however, within 15 minutes they had regrouped and were again moving in on the town. The third platoon sent a runner requesting additional Panzerfausts; this was the last word heard from the third platoon.
Having broken through the third platoon’s positions, enemy tanks and infantry maneuvered into the town, while simultaneously, another force of 200 Germans overran the second platoon from the North. Out-gunned, out-numbered, A Company, less the third platoon with which all contact had been lost, fought its way through the surrounding enemy to the beach. Here the two platoons established a horseshoe defense, the open end of which faced the water.
Regiment meanwhile, aware of A Company’s precarious position, had alerted I Company and at 0130, two platoons crossed the river and landed in the area still held by A Company. The Germans again counterattacked, this time with a platoon of tanks and 200 infantry. The attack was repulsed and one of the tanks, thought to be a Mark IV, was knocked out with Gammon grenades by regimental demolitionists attached for the mission.
I Company attacked and cleared the beachhead area, then withdrew across the river with their wounded and 13 more prisoners. A Company followed shortly afterward.
With a total of 80 Germans captured and an estimated 350 others killed or wounded, A Company and its attachments – a force totaling approximately 150 men-suffered 9 men killed, 79 missing in action, and 24 wounded in action. In reality, the number of men killed was probably greatly in excess of the figure mentioned, however, darkness and the inherent confusion of 24 hours of continuous fighting precluded the possibility of ascertaining the death of every man who fell.
In view of the excessively high casualties, it is difficult to say that the mission was a success. From the viewpoint of those GIs involved, the operation was a miniature “Dunkirk” with at most, a hollow satisfaction achieved. Fighting men don’t believe in moral victories.
Whether or not A and I Companies served their purpose in diverting enemy troops from a more important sector is impossible to say. In any case, they were hit and hit hard by at least a regiment of troops, plus a platoon of tanks supported by a battalion or more of artillery. With this operation relegated to memory and the flies, the regiment continued its combat activities along the same pattern as before.
On April 13, a 504 patrol contacted elements of the 97th Division as they advanced north along the east bank of the Rhine. Three days later the ” Sack ” had dwindled to a mere blister and the 504 was relieved of its active defense of the Rhine.
From the date of relief from active combat duty until April 27, the regiment was engaged in policing an area of some 360 square miles north of Cologne. Local military government was enforced, and the entire area was searched for unauthorized firearms, ammunition, salvageable equipment, and displaced persons.
Men of the regiment, who had always fought “for souvenirs and for the hell of it,” found a gold mine in German weapons, motorcycles, cars, and the like; however, the existing non-fraternization order presented its problems. It was difficult for paratroopers, not the least romantic of America’s fighting forces, to snub pretty girls – particularly when the pretty girls didn’t want to be snubbed. A division order moving the regiment to an area South of Hamburg failed to relieve the situation, but it did promise more souvenirs and more excitement.
May 1 found the 604 CP established in the town of Breetze, Germany, on the west bank of the Elbe River, awaiting the arrival of the troops who, though they had departed from Cologne four days before by “40 and 8’s,” were just now reaching the Elbe bridgehead.
The 2nd and 3rd Battalions crossed the pontoon bridge constructed during the day and advanced nine miles along the south bank of the Elbe. The 1st Battalion, which was the last to arrive at the LD, remained in regimental reserve.
Resistance by the enemy to the advance was almost negligible. In fact, those German troops which were overtaken, almost without exception, threw down their arms. The Luftwaffe gestured feebly in the direction of the Elbe pontoon bridge, sneaking in at sunset behind the covering Spitfires to drop their ill-aimed bombs.
It was something else that provided the Americans’ biggest headache in their swift advance. The German, ingenious in his desperation, had sewn the routes of approach with undetectable 600-pound explosive charges detonated by gyroscopic sea mine igniters. Activated by the magnetic influence of a passing vehicle, the gyroscopic igniters could be timed to detonate with the passage of the first vehicle or the hundredth, depending upon prior adjustment. Despite the fact that many a vehicle and its cargo were blown to the high heavens, the roads continued to flow with advancing traffic, units taking what casualties they must in the interests of speed.
Tanks were attached to the regiment on May 2, and the 504 once more started in pursuit of the fleeing enemy. Racing forward, they contacted the enemy’s rear guard and promptly disposed of any opposition that was offered. However, for the most part, the Germans were through with the war and by noon were surrendering by divisions. After moving along the north bank of the Elbe for a distance of 40 miles, the regiment stopped and formed a line from Eldena, running along the Neue Elde Canal to its juncture with the Elbe.
Roads were clogged with German troops and the paratroopers, aside from collecting pistols, cameras, etc., concerned themselves exclusively with directing this overwhelming mass of grey-clad humanity to the PW collecting points in the rear.
The 504 was outnumbered 100 to one, and had the Germans seen fit to carry the fight a little farther, the regiment’s existence would in all probability have been terminated at this point. The scene was an unbelievable one – tens of thousands of fully-armed German troops, tanks, and selfpropelled guns passing down the road with American paratroopers standing at 100-yard intervals collecting pistols, cameras, and other souvenirs by the jeep load.
Not even a faint estimate could be made of the number of beaten soldiers who trod that Westbound path during the next few days. All that could be said is that there were thousands and that they streamed in a never-ending column along every road leading through the 504 lines.
At 1000 on May 3, a jeep load of I Company men who tired of waiting for the Russians to come and meet them at an outpost on the south side of the Neue Elde Canal, rode 12 miles to the town of Eldenburg, where the Americans met and were entertained by a company of Cossacks, the numerical designation of whom nary a single 504 man could recall. In fact, upon the patrol’s return to regiment, all that they could recall was that they had met the Russians, toasted Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill ; Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt; Stalhill, Churchrose, and Ropeall with gallons of Soviet vodka saved and sweated for the occasion.
During the next several days nothing of tactical importance was noted to have occurred. The Russians visited the 504 and went home “looped”; the Americans visited the Russians and were hauled back to camp by their Eastern allies. In fact, both the Cossacks: and the 504 organized carrying parties to provide transportation for the participants of parties that were being staged on a 24-hour schedule. Paratroopers and Cossacks had their pictures snapped with their arms about one another’s shoulders, there were toasts to everything under the sun, and Americans made several more additions, such as “dobra” and “yaksima” to their already internationalized vocabulary.
The war was over, and May 5, came with GIs wondering when the Commander-in-Chief was going to stop beating around the bush and declare V-E Day. The great day finally came, or was announced, on May 9, 1945. For over two years men of the 504 had promised themselves a big “blowout” when Germany was defeated; the official announcement, however, was an anti-climax. The big “blowout” had been in progress since the regiment first contacted the Russians, and as far as fighting was concerned, the war had been over for days.
Casualties for the 504 during the last month of the war in Europe had been light – only 2 men killed and 29 wounded. The cessation of hostilities, however, brought new dangers that heretofore had been classed in the all-inclusive “c’est la guerre” category; namely, the accidents incurred by the use of enemy vehicles and equipment. German Lugers and P-38s were handed over by the surrendering Wehrmacht to 504 men, who, while cleaning, loading, and examining their newly-acquired souvenirs, managed to shoot each other all too frequently. Motorcycles, cars, and trucks, driven by victory and vodka-happy paratroopers, also took a heavy toll on the regiment and it soon became evident that the captured weapons and vehicles would have to be returned to the Germans in order to prevent the 504 from eliminating itself. The situation was solved, however, when division issued an order calling in all German vehicles and weapons; this order probably was responsible for saving the regiment from self-extermination.
If May 9th was a red-letter day, the 12th – the day by which all points for possible discharge were reckoned – was absolutely scarlet. The points system was announced and in a flurry of paper and pencils GIs added up the critical score. About half the regiment found themselves with at least 85 points, the number tentatively required for discharge eligibility.
While the 504 was still in Germany, one shipment of 70 men left for the States. Two weeks later at Laon another group of 70 men also left for home as the regiment tossed to and fro on the crest of a wave of rumors. However, the dozens of rumors gradually composed themselves into reality, the sum and substance of which was that the 82nd would not be deactivated, that the 82nd would occupy Berlin, and best of all, that all men with 85 or more points would be on their way to the States within two months.
At Nancy, France, the 504 was reorganized to include its new blood from the 17th Airborne Division and shortly thereafter it moved with the rest of the 82nd to Berlin, where in conjunction with the British Eleventh Armored Division and the Russian 5th Cossack Division, they took up their occupational duties.
The presence of the 82nd in Berlin came as a result of requests from both the British and Russian Divisions with whom the 82nd, and particularly the 504, had had memorable relationships in the past. The selection of the 82nd for the occupation of Berlin was an honor of the highest order and an operation that fittingly capped a two-year battle history during which time the 504 chased the German legions some 14,000 miles through eleven countries.