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From D-Day to V-Day

April 1945

April 25, 1945 - D-Day + 253

Meeting at the Elbe in Torgau

The British Second Army took over the command of the US XVIII Corps for its final advance from the Elbe to the Baltic coast. British XXX Corps forces were still embroiled in fierce fighting in Bremen.

Divisions from the Ninth Army’s XIII Corps finished their offensive and started to administrate the occupied territory. Regiments from the 29th, 35th, and 84th Infantry Divisions were deployed along the banks of the Elbe, while the 5th Armored Division took up positions in the rear of the Corps. The 75th Infantry Division under the XVI Corps took over the area from the 5th Infantry Division, which prepared to move under the wing of the US Third Army. The 17th Airborne Division was reassigned to the Fifteenth Army. The occupational zone of the XVI Corps was divided into five sections which came under the administration of the 75th, 79th, and 95th Infantry Divisions, 18th AAA Group, 55th AAA Brigade, and 15th Cavalry Group (Mechanized).

In the operational zone of the US V Corps, units from the 69th Infantry Division made contact with units from the Red Army’s 58th Guards Division at Torgau and Riesa. At 1130 hrs the commander of a 3rd Battalion patrol from the 69th Infantry Division’s 273rd Infantry Regiment, Lt Albert Kotzebue, met 175th Rifle Regiment Commander Lt Col Alexander T. Gardiev at the village of Strehla. In the meantime, the 69th Division’s 271st Infantry Regiment crossed the Mulde River in Eilenburg. The 2nd Infantry Division held positions along the Mulde River and sent reconnaissance units out east of the river. The 6th Armored and 76th Infantry Divisions under the VIII Corps finished moving its forces back to the west bank of the Mulde River.

The 11th Armored Division’s Combat Command B under the US Third Army’s XII Corps advanced out of Regen to Tittling, crossed the Olz River, occupied Perlesreuth, and took charge of a bridge over the Ohe River near Prombach. Because Combat Command A came upon a road that was impassable for tanks near Zwiesel, it changed the direction of its advance behind Combat Command B columns through Regen to Kirchdorf, where it rotated to the west to Schwarzach and southeast to Grafenau. Infantry regiments from the 26th Infantry Division reached the Danube in the Neukirchen – Mitterfels – Steinach area. The 90th Infantry Division’s 359th Infantry Regiment, currently reinforced by the 90th Reconnaissance Company, attacked through the positions of its sister 358th Infantry Regiment to the southeast and advanced to the area northwest of Waldmünchen. The division’s 357th Infantry Regiment continued to the Schwarzach River between Rötz and Schönthal, while the 358th Infantry Regiment secured the sector along the Czechoslovak border and mopped up several villages on the Czech side. The 2nd Cavalry Squadron (Mechanized) headed southwards after being relieved by the 97th Infantry Division’s 303rd Infantry Regiment. Assault battalions from the 97th Division’s 386th and 387th Infantry Regiments occupied the hills north of Cheb and launched an attack on the city.

The 71st Infantry Division under the XX Corps received orders to cross the Danube in the night from April 25 to 26, 1945. At the same time, it was to secure fire support for the 65th Infantry Division in its attack on Regensburg. The 71st Division’s 14th Infantry Regiment occupied Donaustauf, while its sister 5th Infantry Regiment advanced to the Danube at Frengkofen. Meanwhile, the division’s 66th Infantry Regiment reached the river in Regensburg and started to mop up the outskirts of the city in the north. The 14th Cavalry Group (Mechanized) under the III Corps occupied Kelheim. The 99th Infantry Division advanced to the Altmühl River, mopped up Diefurt and Kinding, and started to cross the river. The 86th Infantry Division’s 342nd Infantry Regiment conquered Eichstätt and built a small bridgehead on the Altmühl River, while its sister 341st Infantry Regiment mopped up the woods near Gungolding.

The 42nd Infantry Division under the XV Corps occupied Donauwörth. In the course of the day, the 12th Armored Division’s Combat Command A under the XXI Corps secured the bridgehead at Dillingen and finished occupying Wertingen. Meanwhile, Combat Command B conquered Rettenbach and Limbach, and Combat Command R continued to advance along the northern bank of the Danube, making contact with units from the 63rd Infantry Division north of Günzburg. Towards the end of the day, battalions from the 4th Infantry Division’s 8th and 12th Infantry Regiments crossed the Danube at Lauingen. The 63rd Infantry Division’s 254th Infantry Regiment moved along a damaged bridge to cross the river near Riedheim, soon conquering Leipheim and deflecting a counterattack that enemy troops supported by several tanks had launched. In Ulm, the 10th Armored Division’s Combat Command R and troops from the 44th Infantry Division’s 324th Regiment under the VI Corps crossed the Danube. They went on to mop up Neu Ulm, while Combat Command B rode on the bridge built by combat engineers over the Iller River in Dietenheim and moved on to Kellmünz. A column from Combat Command A crossed the same bridge and advanced to the north of Ulm to block escape routes to the south and east of the city. The 44th Infantry Division’s 71st Infantry Regiment crossed the Iller River and occupied Vöhringen, while its sister 114th Infantry Regiment assembled near Laupheim. The 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron was attached to the division to help make contact with French units.

Forces from the French First Army’s French II Corps advanced to the Reutlingen – Sigmaringen line to destroy remaining enemy units in the Swabian Jura area. In the zone of the French I Corps, the enemy attempted to escape from the Black Forest and fight its way to the Bavarian Alps in the area between Villingen and the Swiss border. Reinforced by the French 5th Armored and 3rd Algerian Infantry Divisions, the Corps dashed the enemy’s plans with support from the air. The US Eighth Air Force sent three hundred Flying Fortresses out to attack the Škoda Works in Pilsen. To this day there are questions as to why the raid was ordered when US land forces were already fighting in the Czech city of Cheb. The current prevailing opinion is that the attack was not politically motivated, but rather Škoda was yet another strategic target that had to be destroyed. There was a real threat that the war would continue at the legendary Alpenfestung, and it is evident that the Americans believed that the site of national redoubt truly did exist. In order to keep the number of casualties among factory workers and the civilian population at a minimum, the raid was announced in advance on the Czech language broadcast of the BBC. This was unprecedented in the history of the air war over Czechoslovakia. In addition, the crews had been ordered to bomb the target only upon visual contact. As a result, in the Pilsen region alone anti-aircraft artillery brought down four Fortresses piloted by Lieutenants Ferguson, Mauger, Evans, and Fisher. Another bomber made an emergency landing in the Tachov region. Unlike other craft that had come down in the Protectorate, this crew was lucky – they survived. The huge stream of bombers from several bombing groups split up over the target. One was to hit the industrial heart of Pilsen, while the other was to bomb the local airport in Bory. In just thirty minutes, over 580 tons of incendiary bombs and standard explosives were dropped on Škoda. The destruction was absolute, with 70% of all equipment and buildings destroyed or damaged. Extensive fires finished off the job. The overall damage was estimated at more than 12 billion crowns – not adjusted for inflation. Due to an early warning only six people were killed in the demolished factory. The raid had tragic consequences on the nearby blue collar neighborhood of Karlov, where 66 people lost their lives. The US Eighth Air Force lost twenty aviators in the downed bombers over Pilsen.

On the same day the Fortresses from the Eighth Air Force attacked the Škoda Works, the Americans lost a photo reconnaissance F-6D aircraft from the Ninth Air Force. Lt Norborne A. Thomas made a smooth landing with his damaged Mustang near Volduchy (Rokycany) and ran off. The pilot apparently spent the rest of the war in “brief but unpleasant German custody,” as official American sources report on what happened to Norborne A. Thomas, a pilot from the 10th Reconnaissance Group’s 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron. The Eighth Air Force also lost a fighter that day when Lt William B. Hoelscher’s P-51D Mustang from the 4th Fighter Group crashed near Milostín in the district of Rakovník. Before the aircraft damaged by flak came uncontrollably crashing to the ground, the pilot bailed out and parachuted down to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Thanks to the bravery of Czech partisans, he was hidden and saw in the end of the war in Rakovník.

For the bombers from the Mighty Eighth Air Force, this was their last raid of World War II. Those twenty young men fell in the course of the final mission that closed an unforgettable chapter on the fight against Hitler’s National Socialism. The aviators from the 92nd, 379th, 384th and 398th Bomb Groups who were killed in the immediate vicinity of the city during the Eighth Air Force raid on Pilsen, are now remembered in memorials located in Litice, Čemíne and Křimice. While the Eighth Air Force settled its score with the armaments factory in Pilsen that manufactured huge quantities of much-feared 88mm anti-aircraft guns that could cause trouble for Fortresses throughout Europe, about 60 miles northwest of Pilsen a battle was in full swing between members of the US 97th Infantry Division and German Wehrmacht soldiers who were skillfully backed up by staunch Nazi supporters. The war for Cheb, which ended one day after the victory by the men from the 97th Infantry Division, cost over 50 fatalities and injured 150 men in the division alone. A memorial standing in downtown Cheb pays tribute to the men. First unveiled in 1947, the communist leadership had the memorial removed four years later. The memorial did not reappear for another 39 long years.

April 25, 1945 was a memorable day for the Czechoslovak fighters operating in the No. 310, 312 and 313 Squadrons of the RAF. The pilots from the No. 310 and 313 Squadrons completed their last combat flight, escorting Heavy bombers over the coastal battery in Wangerooge, Germany, as part of Operation Ramrod 1555. The mission of eliminating this target was given to 460 Halifaxes and Lancasters. On this day the Czechoslovaks finished their incredibly long series of Rodeo, Circus, Roadstead, Ramrod, and Rhubart missions. They flew their very first as early as in June of 1942. From that day up until the end of the war, they flew dozens – and many pilots were never to return.