On 6 April 1945, CCB's objective was the military layer south of Hammelburg and the POW camps to the south. This 240-man company was assigned to the division without a command and control element, the division was also required to staff, arm and equip it. The car was not fired on as it was seen to be flying a white flag. BG Karlstad called for the German camp commander, Colonel Otto Burger, and received an unconditional surrender of the German garrison and the camp. The first allied prisoners to present themselves were Group Captain Willets and COL Goode. As this small, lightly armed convoy, carrying one mounted .30 caliber machine-gun, approached the camp gate, the alarming sight of a large number of armed “Heinies” in the outer yard of the great camp was noted, but Luby took exactly the right action. 99th Infantry Division – (393-IR) – (History) – 1944-1945. The main force, including the 47th Tank Battalion and the infantry of B Company, 68th Armored Infantry Battalion (B-68 AIB), was eight miles to the southeast at Mauern, only four miles from Moosburg. We seek to educate future Americans to fully appreciate the sacrifices that generations of American Soldiers have made to safeguard the freedoms of this Nation. That would come later. Artillery was further handicapped by the shortage of telephone wire. Lieutenant-General Jacob L. Devers, commanding general, 6th Army Group later commented that the Battle of Hatten-Rittershoffen "was one of the greatest defensive battles of the war." [4], The resupply of the division was becoming very difficult due to the constant reorganizing of forces, the evacuation of the wounded and the shrinking perimeter. This outfit was mainly employed as an attachment to the 25th Tank Battalion. Tech 5 Floyd G. Mahoney, also of C Company, “was particularly overjoyed upon finding that his son, an Army Air Forces lieutenant, was a prisoner there.”. Behind them the war was over, but ahead, although it was entering its final days, the war was still very much alive. It was reorganized from a heavy division to a light division on 20 September 1943. TF Hudleson held only a thin line of strong points and screens. Army Armored Division Armored Infantry Battalion. Within 2 weeks some of its elements were in combat, maintaining defensive positions along the Franco-Italian frontier. After reviewing the tables of organization and after allowing the various commands to review and comment on the proposed restructure, the divisional strength of the 14 organized armored divisions was reduced from 14,630 men to 10,937. We were established in 1983 as a member-based, charitable 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. With the tank’s treads spinning, he skillfully backed the tank off the tilting portion of the bridge and onto firm ground before it slid into the river. On learning the details of the German proposal, BG Karlstad sent a radio message to division headquarters at Manching, asking the division commander, MG Smith, for instructions. The rest of CCA set up a defensive perimeter around Moosburg, and began patrolling the west bank of the Isar. The 14th Armored Division was an armored division of the United States Army assigned to the Seventh Army of the Sixth Army Group during World War II. Approaching the town, the leading elements came under heavy small arms fire. On 28 April the 14th Armored Division, commanded by MG Albert C. Smith, crossed the Danube River at Ingolstadt, and passed through the 86th Infantry Division, which had established a bridgehead on the previous day, with the mission of securing crossings of the Isar River at Moosburg and Landshut. The Division's 11-day stand at Hatten and Rittershoffen allowed the VI Corps and Seventh Army to withdraw to prepared defensive positions. There he joined LTC Lann, and with him, moved with the tank battalion in its attack on Moosburg. B Company - PFC Robert C. Drescher on the far right side. The two armored regiments were reformed into three separate tank battalions, the 1st, 4th and 13th; the infantry regiment was split into three separate battalions, the 6th, 11th and 14th, and nor changes in personnel and equipment were effected in the artillery, reconnaissance, tank destroyer, engineer, medical and ordnance battalions. In the center of the 9th Armored sector the 60th Armored Infantry Battalion headquarters at Beaufort discovered that the enemy had cut in between the headquarters and the three companies of armored infantry in the line. The men of the division had done this sort of thing before. The German proposal was written in English. As a result, there was some discussion in the command post regarding MG Smith’s meaning. On 15 January the first German jet propelled aircraft was seen in the area bombing a battery of the 499th Armored Field Artillery Battalion.[4]. It was processing prisoners of war and patrolling its area when the war in Europe ended on 8 May. Arthur William Damphousse 19th Armored Infantry Battalion, 14th Armored Division, Charlie Company, light machinegunner. The rest of his uniform was badly worn and in generally poor condition. At 0130 the 27th AIB was hit hard and the sector held by Company B, 9th Engineers was deeply penetrated, causing the armored infantry to fall back under the protective guns of Company A, 14th Tank Battalion. The Army Historical Foundation is the designated official fundraising organization for the National Museum of the United States Army. We seek to educate future Americans to fully appreciate the sacrifices that generations of American Soldiers have made to safeguard the freedoms of this Nation. The command advanced 75 miles on the first day with the lead elements reaching the town of Lohr. Total strength of the command was about 1,750 men, including support units. Moments later, a battle-scarred M4 Sherman joined them at the main gate. A weary bearded American paratrooper climbed onto a tank and kissed the tank commander as tears streamed down his cheeks. "Mud, Mountains & Armor: The 1. st. Armored Division from Rome to the Alps." Large numbers of German prisoners were being rounded up by Lann’s tank and infantry platoons, including one large group that stated it was the guard of the prison camp. This caused Brooks, the Corps commander, to commit his final reserve force, the 14th Armored, in an effort to stop the German XXXIX Panzer Corps advance. The Division moved north to Rambervillers, 20. th Armored Infantry Battalion, Reels #2205-06 . It called for an armistice in the area around Moosburg, using as a reason the presence of a large prisoner of war camp. His jacket was not the right color and was made of coarse wool. The 14th Armored Division was constituted and added to the roll of the US Army on 28 August 1942; it was activated on 15 November in a ceremony at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas. They raced through the streets at twenty miles an hour without meeting any resistance. The following day, the Times printed a correction: “The Fourteenth Armored Division liberated 110,000 Allied prisoners of war at Stalag VIIA at Moosburg, instead of the 27,000 prisoners previously reported. Large numbers of German troops were falling back on Moosburg to cross the river. The firing ceased except for the occasional sounds of small arms and machine gun fire from the direction of the bridge. 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