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From D-Day to V-Day

April 1945

April 30, 1945 - D-Day + 258

The British Second Army's VIII Corps expanded and reinforced the bridgehead over the Elbe at Lauenburg. The British 6th Airborne Division crossed the river and took up positions on the right flank of the British 15th Infantry Division. The US VIII Corps, composed of the 8th Infantry, 82nd Airborne and 7th Armored Divisions, started to advance along the right flank of the British VIII Corps from the Elbe towards the Baltic. Battalions from the 82nd Airborne Division's 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment crossed the river in Bleckede in tracked amphibian Buffaloes which belonged to the British 79th Armoured Division's 4th Royal Tank Regiment. Other men crossed the river in attack boats. Together, the troops overpowered the German defense and secured a small bridgehead between Bandekow and Stiepelse.

At 1330 hrs, the 125th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron's Troop C under the Ninth Army made contact with units from the Soviet 121st Division near Zerbst.

General Courtney H. Hodges, the commander of the US First Army, met General Zhadov, the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, on the east bank of the Mulde River in Eilenburg at 1300 hrs. The 9th Armored Division was withdrawn to the rear to serve as command reserves. The US V Corps took over responsibility for the sector on the right flank of the VIII Corps located along the Czechoslovak border. At the same time, it took over the command of the 1st and 97th Infantry Division. With the 6th Cavalry Group (Mechanized) on the left and the 97th Infantry Division on the right, the 1st Infantry Division took up positions on the line from Cheb to the area south of Adorf.

Tank columns from the 11th Armored Division's Combat Commands A and B under the US Third Army's XII Corps attacked along the Corps' right flank to the southeast towards the Austrian border. Combat Command A reached the border in Wegscheid, where it quickly defeated the local defense. In the interim, Combat Command B neared the border in the Oberkappel area. It then halted and sent reconnaissance out to Grettenbach, while Combat Command R advanced to Wollaberg and secured the division's northern and western flanks. Battalions from the 26th Infantry Division's 104th Infantry Regiment reached positions beyond Hauzeberg. Meanwhile, its sister 328th Infantry Regiment took up positions along the Ilz River and built a bridgehead at Strasskirchen. In the course of the day, units from the 90th Infantry Division captured the wooded area on Czechoslovak soil east of Waldmünchen. The 13th Armored Division's Combat Command R under the XX Corps crossed the Isar River near Landau. Battalions from the 71st Infantry Division's 14th and 66th Infantry Regiments were deployed along the Isar River. The artillery opened direct fire against enemy troops entrenched in the hills on the opposite bank. Later, under the shroud of a smoke screen, assault battalions started to cross the river in assault motorboats and over two damaged railroad bridges while machinery was hauled across on cable ferries. Soldiers from both regiments secured and expanded the bridgehead to Zeholfing, Zulling, Usterling, and Landau, where combat engineers built a pontoon bridge overnight. The 80th Infantry Division's 318th Infantry Regiment used the railroad bridge in Mamming to cross the river and advance to Dingolfing. The 99th Infantry Division's 393rd Infantry Regiment under the III Corps started to cross the river near Landshut, while its sister 395th Infantry Regiment did the same near Moosburg. The 395th Regiment subsequently secured the Oberpolln – Langenpreising line and provided cover for 14th Armored Division tank units as they crossed the river. The 14th Armored Division's Combat Command R mopped up the northern section of Landshut and moved to Moosburg, where combat engineers built a pontoon bridge. Units from Combat Command A also crossed the pontoon bridge over the river and subsequently headed to the Mittel Isar Canal. Finally, Combat Command B also used the bridge to move across the river that night. After crossing the river, battalions from the 86th Infantry Division's 342nd and 343rd Infantry Regiments continued to the Mittel Isar Canal, which they crossed near Eitting. The attached 23rd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron from the 16th Armored Division crossed the Isar River southwest of Freising.

Without much resistance, forces from the Seventh Army's XV Corps mopped up Munich and took control of the intact bridges over the Isar River. The 12th Armored Division's Combat Command A under the XXI Corps advanced to Schwaiganger and later received orders to assemble in the Murnau am Staffelsee area. In the meantime, Combat Command B waited in Sindeldorf until engineers built a bridge over the Loisach River. The 36th Infantry Division plowed through Weilheim and advaned to the southeast. The division's 142nd Infantry Regiment commanded by Col George E. Lynch reached the Murnau – Eschenlohe line. The 10th Armored Division's Combat Command A under the VI Corps headed out of Garmisch-Partenkirchen towards Innsbruck, advancing to Klais. Meanwhile, CCB attacked the Fern pass and rode through Lermoos, but was halted by highway barricades on hairpin turns before the Fernsteinsee. Troops from the 44th Infantry Division's 71st Infantry Regiment advanced closely behind CCB tanks and occupied Reutte and Lermoos, while its sister 114th Infantry Regiment went through the pass behind the Haldensee and advanced as far as Weissenbach. Soon afterwards it headed along the Lech River towards Forbach. The 44th Division’s 324th Infantry Division conquered Jungholz. The 103rd Infantry Division's 409th Infantry Regiment, currently advancing with the 10th Armored Divsion's Combat Command A, headed for Innsbruck. Its sister 411th Infantry Regiment advanced southwards to Farchant, and the 410th Infantry Regiment carried out reconnaissance around Garmisch-Partenkirchen. 101. The 101st Airborne Division was deployed in the Kaufbeuren – Saulgrub – Kempten area during the day. Units from the French 1st Armored Division under the French First Army's French I Corps encountered strong enemy resistance near Immenstadt. Meanwhile, the French 5th Armored Division advanced to Staufen and Lindau, crossing the Austrian border at Bregenz. Army Group DA Atl landed at the Island of Oleron and, with French naval and American air support, started mopping up operations.

That day another battle for the Bohemian Forest was waged on the territory of Czechoslovakia. Cpt Catlett, a member of "Patton’s Ghosts," as the men from the 42nd Squadron were nicknamed, was riding through the small village of Růžov near Bělá nad Radbuzou when his jeep came under enemy fire. A nearby building provided shelter for the ambushed group. The radio operator reported the ambush to the command in Hostouň and asked for assistance. Suddenly, several armored vehicles came charging out of the village. Fire was exchanged for several hours in Růžov, even involving troops from the 97th Infantry Division's 387th Infantry Regiment. On the American side, Private Raymond E. Manz was killed in the battle for Rosendorf, as Růžov was called during the war, and another four men were injured. One of them, Owen W. Sutton, died the following day. Today a poignant memorial on the main square in Bělá nad Radbuzou pays tribute to "Patton's Ghosts." The site where the actual battle took place now stands empty. After the war, the village turned into a ghost town. All that remains is a small section of wall bearing a memorial plaque with the names of Owen Sutton and Raymond Manz. A little further away, an information sign describes the events that occurred here on that fateful day at the end of World War II.

At the same time a battle was being waged for Růžov, a drama was being played out in nearby Trhanov which came to a tragic end. It was almost one o'clock when three American pilots from the Ninth Air Force's 362nd Fighter Group led by 1/Lt Kirkham spotted a German truck convoy on the road between Trhanov amd Klenčí pod Čerchovem in the district of Domažlice. "We found several cars on a narrow road that was well-sheltered by trees. We had opened fire when 1/Lt Kirkham's left wing got caught by a treetop during the low approach. The lead aircraft suddenly flipped over and crashed into a nearby hill at full speed," Kirkham's colleague, 2/Lt Holland, reported. It was 12:50 p.m. when the American P-47 Thunderbolt fighter bomber with serial number 44-89700 piloted by 1/Lt Virgil Paul Kirkham hit the wooded slope of Draženovský Hill north of Trhanov. "With its force, the airplane plowed over a 330 foot long, 26 foot wide strip of trees before breaking up. The engine catapulted away in the explosion, and parts of the aircraft scattered far from the site of the deadly crash. The pilot burned to ash in the aircraft," the chronicles in the nearby village of Újezd reported on the tragedy. "People immediately rushed to the aircraft. They carried pieces of it back home. There were two large heaps of wreckage from the airplane.

Much later, the heaps gradually started to disappear as people took pieces as souvenirs," the report about the crashed Thunderbolt which the pilot had nicknamed "Lady Jo-Ann II" added. The pilot was buried by local residents at the site of the crash, but soon after liberation his body was exhumed and taken away by American units. Now the grave of Vernon P. Kirkham, the last American pilot to be killed in action on the European front, is located at the American military cemetery in St Avold, France.

Lives were lost on the Dunkirk front that day as well. In the east part of the perimeter, the Germans carried out a mortar attack that killed Candidate Sergeant Martin Kopaničak (b. 1913), a member of the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade's Signal Company. Martin was born in the village of Lengvarty, Slovakia.