H. K. Brown's WW II 1944--1945 Diary

Part 11 of 11
     Apr. 23, 1945: We were told that our stay in reserve was over and that we were to 
wait for a detachment of tank destroyers and begin to take some towns. We were 
scheduled to approach the town of Bohringen in the Black Forest area of southern 
Germany. Just about dusk we crept over a small hill overlooking the town but were 
driven back by machine gun fire from the houses nearest us. After dark we sent in 
4 men to check the road for mines and pick up information available. It was very 
cold and I got no sleep. Shortly after midnight a huge explosion shook the hillside. 
Only 3 of the men returned. After daylight we could see the remains of the 4th man--
just part of his torso. He had tripped an antitank mine placed on the road. Our recon
had gotten only to the first turn in the road and had reported antitank mines all over. 
We then pulled back and walked around the other side of the town and in company 
strength approached the town again. This time our tank destroyers cut across open 
pasture; the half-tracks made short work of the marshy ground, and with very little 
opposition we entered the town. The enemy had left during the early morning, with 
his equipment, that is. There remained about 100 German soldiers, if they could be 
called that. They were either less than 16 or more than 50 years old. I was one of 
about a dozen GIs to escort these prisoners back about 15 miles. We left before noon 
but it was slow going, even though all the way was down hill and very steep at that. 
Fortunately, we got a ride back but by that time it was almost dark. Our squad took 
quarters in a house at the extreme northern edge of town. We set up the machine gun in 
the doorway of the house, half in and half out. To our front was a sloping field, empty 
except for a few patches of snow. One of our rifle companies had men stationed outside. 
I was fast asleep when all hell broke loose, or so it sounded like. What had happened--
a German soldier, making his way back to the town, apparently from spending time
elsewhere, and maybe with a little too much to drink, came wandering down the slope 
toward the house. The rifleman ordered him to halt but he kept on coming so the machine 
gun opened fire. The noise of the gun inside the room was tremendous--it sounded like 
the world was coming to an end. No more sleep for the rest of the night. The next morning 
was a beautiful day once the fog cleared. The sun shone brightly on what was left of 
the wanderer; our machine gun had practically cut him in two.
     We left Bohringen on the 25th of April. At one town we stayed in some of the fellows 
had time for fishing--with grenades. They caught several fish but had to give them to a 
local family because we were moving out. We still continued south until we came to 
Lechbruck (meaning, bridge over the Lech River). There I stayed with a family that 
operated the city switchboard. We had to wait until a Bailey bridge could be 
constructed. I asked the telephone operator to get me Herr Hitler in Berlin. She thought 
I was serious--she said it was "Verboten" to call the Reichsfuhrer unless it was official 
state or military business. It was academic anyway since a GI from communications 
was posted at the switchboard and wouldn't let any calls in or out.
     The bridge finally was ready, so we hopped aboard new tank destroyers and rode in 
style across the Lech River. Traveling about 25 miles per hour, we buzzed across the 
countryside. As we approached a town, either we were met with rifle fire or by white 
sheets flapping from every window in town. When it was rifle fire, the TDs would 
place a couple of rounds in the house hiding the sniper and usually nothing more 
happened. Several days of this--actually traveling too fast for prisoners to be taken. 
In one town we came across about 10 GIs who had been captured in Italy. They 
resented our intrusion. It seems that they had free run of the town, I think it was Krumbach. 
Their captors had deserted them and they were catching up for lost time. Of particular 
difficulty were the conditions at night. It was very dark--no moon. One time while 
I was standing guard, a German soldier came right up to our position. I ordered him, 
in German, to hold his hands up and finally after fumbling around in the dark got my 
ammo bearer to take him by the arm back to the CP. I got chewed out for not 
properly disarming him as he still carried a P38 pistol on him when we was escorted 
into the company CP.
     Much of the time we rode on the famous Autobahns. The only problem was that 
each little bridge was bombed out and we had to detour over the side, across the 
stream and up the other side. The further south we went the colder it got. The largest 
town we came to was Ulm on the Danube. The river was anything but blue and running 
bank high. We headed further south into the area of Oberammergau, Garmish-Partenkirchen,
Mittenwald and Seefeld.  This was the winter sports area of Germany and the heart 
of its highest mountains. There was plenty of snow everywhere. Soon we were watching 
many human skeletons standing by the road in striped pajamas. Everyone was ordered 
not to feed them anything since the medics would care for them. Finally we came to the 
last turn overlooking the Inn Valley of Austria. Several half-track vehicles were overturned 
along the side of the road.  Later we heard that their brakes had failed and the drivers 
had run up against the ledge on the high side of the road and overturned them rather than 
go down the steep hill and off the outer edge.
     The Inn River and valley were totally different. Here it was hot and sunny. Soon we 
passed the airport of Innsbruck--many German planes were still parked on the runways.
Downtown Innsbruck and house to house search for weapons. Finally billeted across 
the river as the war officially came to an end on May 9, 1945.
 
 
(The foregoing is a result of notes taken in shorthand, in a diary maintained during the period
 covered, an extract of events described in letters written during the period covered, and
 recollections during the first year following the period. It was written, for the most part, in 
 1946.)
 
 

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