The Last Battle ~ A Memorial Day Tribute

Throughout history, men and women, parents and grandparents and even kids have risen up to defend freedom. Since our battle for independence from Great Brittin and Mad King George, the people of these United States of America have been members of the profession of arms. The Army, the Navy, The Marine Corps, the Coast Guard and later the Air Force have stood between us and the despots of the world. Many have given their lives for the freedoms that we enjoy today. This post is about one battle, in one war but stands in Tribute to all those brave men and women, kids grandparents and parents who gave their lives for us. This Memorial Day, let us remember them and all that they have given. Let us also say a prayer for them as we say thanks.

The 102nd Infantry Division fought from Cherbourg, France through some of the roughest fighting, the Bulge, the Roer, the Rhine facing the German 2nd Paratroop Division, the atrocity at Gardelegen and which I posted on here and on to the Elbe At a bridge in Northern Germany, the Tangermunde Bridge, elements of the 102nd Infantry Division watched the last battle between the Russians and the fleeing Germans. This is their story. Reprinted in its entirety from the 102nd Infantry Divisions Official History

DASH TO THE ELBE

On April 12th the Ozarks continued to press east toward the Elbe River, following the spearheading 5th Armored Division. From this point on no further enemy resistance of any magnitude was expected nor encountered. Without reserves, transportation, food or ammunition the enemy had little choice but to surrender. For the most part they either retreated north and across the Elbe or gave up. Those that were retreating didn't take the necessary precautions to destroy bridges left in their paths. This only helped the pace at which the Allies advanced.

The 102nd, 84th and 35th Infantry Divisions were advancing so quickly that the only danger lay from by-passed German units that could not always be tracked down in the forests.

The 102nd, 84th and 35th Infantry Divisions were advancing so quickly that the only danger lay from by-passed German units that could not always be tracked down in the forests. Potential pockets of resistance and ambushes awaited around every turn. By days end the 405th Regiment, 3rd Battalion had traversed approximately 30 miles east to Meine. Their 2nd Battalion made it to Rotgesbuttel and the 1st occupied Rethen. The 406th Regiment was slightly north in Gifhorn.

The next day the 406th, 3rd Battalion after covering about 25 miles ran into a small but stiff pocket of resistance in the woods Northwest of Schwiesau. It would take them until the 14th to clear the woods and head south through Gardelegen to Erxleben. The 2nd Battalion of the 406th headed northeast from the Gardelegen Highway to Osterburg, a town just west of the banks of the Elbe. The 405th Regiment's 1st Battalion advanced to the Elbe into Stendal, near Tangemunde. The 3rd Battalion of the 405th also made it to the Elbe this day. They were south of the 1st in Burgstal. The Ozarks had unequivocally reached the Elbe.

The 405th, 2nd Battalion advanced on Gardelegen from the West and met intense small arms fire. Paratroopers determined to protect a Luftwaffe airfield located within the moated town were soon overrun by two platoons of tanks. No sooner had the 2nd Battalion emerged from the town than they once again found themselves under heavy fire. Unbeknown to the Ozarks at the time, but the enemy was trying to delay the inevitable. The men of the 405th Regiment were about to discover one of the most horrific atrocities of the war. Click here to go to seperate section describing the Gardelegen atrocity.

The Russian Army was pushing the Germans west toward the Elbe. It was agreed upon by the Allied Command that they would take Berlin and the 102nd would hold the Elbe. This did not sit well with the GIs of the 102nd. They had fought their way across Germany and earned a much-deserved reputation as being a division to be reckoned with; only to be stopped short of grabbing the brass ring. But there was still plenty of work to be done on the Elbe. The next two weeks would be spent establishing control of all roads and villages on the west bank of the river. The 102nd relieved the 84th and 35th infantries and 5th Armored Division and set up a defensive position between Osterburg to the north and Burg to the south. A distance covering some 50 linear miles.

A final pocket of organized resistance existed along the Elbe east of Stendal. A town located roughly half way between the two aforementioned defensive perimeter boundaries. For nearly a week the Germans protected a demolished railroad bridge across the Elbe. On April 21st the 405th Regiment captured the trestle following a surprise attack. Sixty German soldiers gave their lives defending this tactically worthless piece of real estate. Perhaps they didn't realize the end was so near for the Third Reich.

On April 25th as the Russian Army was attacking Berlin, just forty-eight miles east of the Elbe, German soldiers and civilians began surrendering en mass to the Ozarks. As far as they were concerned their war with the Allied Forces was over. Germany's once proud army feared the Russians so much that an organized crossing to the west bank of the Elbe could not wait. Fear stricken hordes crossed on anything they could find; rafts, inner tubes, planks, and tubs. The once elite Panzer Troops stripped down and swam across the river naked. German soldiers fought each other for debris to swim across on. Thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers arriving in trucks surrendered to the 102nd in Tangermunde. Their generals and colonels argued as to who was there first to surrender.

As chaotic and unbelievable as things had appeared for the past week it got worse on May 7th. Morning light brought the Russian Army. Their infantry crossed a four-mile square meadow leading up to the rail/traffic bridge at Tangermunde. Some Wehrmacht, with the end of the war only hours away, refused to surrender. From the west bank the 102nd could only watch as the Russians fought those that refused to surrender. The Russians literally walked up to the bridge approaching the fleeing mob surging across.

Some German soldiers, who at first sight of the Russians crossing the meadow, had taken cover behind bushes and in tall grass. The Russians,in their haste to get to the bridge to stop the escaping enemy, bypassed the hidden soldiers. It was a mistake both sides would regret. The hidden Germans ambushed their enemy. The Russians fell back and the Germans made a mad dash for the bridge. The Russians opened up on the bridge area with an artillery barrage. Shells fell upon soldiers and civilians alike. The Ozarks, under military law, could only stand by and helplessly watch. In a short while the shelling stopped and the Russian Army once again advanced on the bridge and linked up with the 102nd. The war in Europe would officially end the next day, May 8th, on the banks of the Elbe River.

By war's end, the 102nd suffered:

Killed in Action: 932
Wounded in Action: 3,668
Died of wounds:145
Prisoners taken: 147,358

These were among the greatest generation, one that conquered fascism, who left their blood on the beaches of Normandy, across the hedgerows, the Bulge, across France and the Siegfried line, across the Rhine, through to the Elbe and victory over the forces of darkness. Men who fought in North Africa, Sicily, up the boot of Italy, Salerno and Monte Cassino, the liberation of the Phillipines, Iwo Jima, Guam and all the other places where Americans shed blood, not gladly, but willingly to preserve freedom and democracy where-ever possible

This Memorial Day, say a word of thanks for all these brave men, women and sometimes kids who lied to get in the fight and having got there, gave the ultimate price, their lives.

God Bless America!

UPDATE: Not all of our Heroes die in a shooting war, sometimes they die in a cold war ~ Five Days In May

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Posted by GM Roper at May 29, 2006 12:56 AM | TrackBack