DIRTY SECRETS of WW2: Men of the 10th Armored Division

in World War two 61 United States Army divisions were locked in mortal combat with the enemy the European theater of operations this is about one of those divisions the 10th armored its nickname was the tiger division the 10th armored division was activated at Fort Benning Georgia and the 15th of July 1942 and the Reds Jenny it is known as a part of it it's nicknamed tiny division the commanding general of the tent Major General fault of a new gun was a superb manner carry on orders March maneuver and sheep for his by word no man had more pride in his boots and no general was more revered by his man I'm John drew Devereaux I was a company commander in the tenth Armored Division during World War two we had a marvelous kind of spirit in our division and I think it was due in great part to the training we got from general Newgarden who was our division commander in the States he was killed in an airplane crash before we went overseas now he had a couple of very pet things that he liked one that we had to wear the top button of our coveralls buttoned now this was pretty uncomfortable but after a while we got so that we looked at other outfits who wore them unbuttoned than we thought they look like slobs he had a kind of thing that he'd like to do about the salute when you gave a salute in the tenth Armored Division a tiger salute you lifted your chin up in the air like that that seemed pretty silly too until after a while we got used to it and then we thought we were only outfit knoll army that new out of salute properly in July 1944 a new leader assumed command of the division following general new is death I am Lieutenant General William HH Morris jr. US Army retired with commanding general the tenth Armored Division in Europe during World War two the division sailed from New York on September 14th 1944 a long period of training was over the men were prepared for anything but their wildest imagination could not conjure up what destiny held in store for two days later on the 16th of September Hitler leaving with his most trusted generals made a momentous decision a decision which would alter the course of the war operation Christ Rose the Ardennes offensive a campaign in which the Tigers of the 10th would cover themselves with glory and make military history the division arrived in battle-torn Cherbourg on the 22nd of September and was immediately assigned to general Walton Walker's 20th power which was under control of General George Patton's Third Army General Patton came to visit our division and talked to the officers and noncommissioned officers as he did with all the divisions they were assigned to his army General Patton covered very effectively the combat lessons learned during the war at the squad section and platoon level I'm Colonel Thomas Chamberlain during World War two my commanders eleventh tank battalion about the tenth Armored Division I can remember vividly the first days of combat the first orders we received call Roberts called us into a small churchyard in the town of shallow sore Mar his first words were that reason he called us into this particular churchyard in this particular town were that the this was the place that he had received his first orders to go into combat during World War one and he wanted to use this particular spot to start us off we moved up all afternoon past Verdun and in the vicinity of Metz and then that evening in a beautiful moonlight night that happened to be Halloween night we've infiltrated our half-tracks one by one three minutes apart down a very spooky road through a village in up into a wooded area dismounted and then trucked on up and relieve the ninetieth division I'm William R Desiree I was a battalion commander a major in the tenth Armored Division in World War two the tenth Armored Division was a very well-trained division its first combat was against Mets Mets was you might call the defensive sectors was the 1015 Shane we were supposed to aggressively patrol and we do we silent every instrument at every dragon was fired at least once and I'm we blend Roberts brigadier general US Army retired I was combat command commander of CCB tenth Armored Division in World War two I'm Karl Curtis L hankins I was a battalion commander of the 61st armored infantry battalion and the tenth Armored Division my first encounter with enemy fire was during the defensive operation west of Metz it was here that we learn to sense artillery fire that is determine the difference between outgoing which was friendly fire incoming which was German fire if you could determine with some degree of accuracy where the enemy allow arounds were going to land this would save a lot of wear and tear on your knees and elbows you try to take cover every time the rounds would come over I am Colonel James O'Hara I commanded the 54th armored infantry battalion of the tenth Armored Division I consider that this initial baptism of fire and a defensive position was very good for the battalion it gave us time to gather our thoughts practice some of the things we've been learning in the States get our communications working having the reconnaissance platoon worked with the Free French practice patrolling all these things it's so necessary for a battalion to do I remember my first day in combat we felt very safe in the tank but during this first day I've got you the first tank goodbye ern the beginning it's good but do you know I'm awful scared it would be much of a handicap of doing our job which was destroyed the enemy and we did a very good job at first day my name's John winter I was a tank toon sergeant tenth Armored Division during World War two after fighting for about three weeks around Metz we moved north to the vicinity of the town of Theon ville to participate in the Third Army offensive designed to capture Metz the plan of twenty of coure to which the 10th armored was assigned had two phases to destroy the enemy in Metz and to catch him as he tried to pull out of myths the mission of the tent was to make a deep penetration into the enemy's lines once it had crashed through the German defence the left column combat command B was to advance east and seize a bridgehead over the Czar River named Richard the right column combat command a was to take the division objective including whose anvil which was the centre of arterial highway and railroad traffic running northeast of Metz the enemy blocked the way and fought savagely but the Tigers clawed their way through the German defense by the time the division had completed its first major offensive mission have taken 64 pounds progressed Iran on attacks captured 2,000 prisoners and destroyed great quantities of material but the price was high on December 7 Hitler approved the final draft of Operation Christ Rose now renamed watch on the Rhine Hitler's plan of attack was to break through on the Ardennes with three armies the 6th Panzer army led by the butcher from Bavaria Sepp Dietrich the 5th Panzer army led by Baron hisself on Mon typo and the 7th army led by General Brandenburger they would cross the new river on the second day between Liege and Namur bypass Brussels and reached the great port of antwerp on the 7th day this operation Hitler believed would destroy more than 30 American and British divisions he believed it would be the beginning of the end for the Allies within the next week thousands upon thousands of troops and thousands upon thousands of tons of material were transported secretly from assembly areas to terminals just behind the front lines on the eve of December 15 one quarter of a million Germans stood poised on the line of departure prepared to annihilate the enemy at 5:30 p.m. the following me dream erupted along maybe five-mile point it was great drive to Antwerp had begun on December 16 1944 about 6 p.m. I received a telephone call from general Walker the 20th Corps informed me that was going to be transferred with the entire division to the 1st army and be placed under the 8th call that they had been attacked by the Germans in the vicinity of Luxembourg I merely dispatched my chief of staff to Bastogne the headquarters of the 8-core for orders the chief of staff returned about 2 a.m. the next morning and informed me that the division was to go into a cornering area just west of Luxembourg when the Battle of the Bulge began my unit was in a rest area south of Luxembourg we received orders to be prepared to move north on 24 hours notice short time later the alert was changed to 12 hours a short time later we were on the road the 10th armored division sent two of its combat commands northwest of Luxembourg to go into action there and they say my Combat Command Western or two I'll honor then on to North to Bastogne I proceeded my outfit in the Bastogne and got into Bastogne about four o'clock in the afternoon and found general Milson general Middleton asked me how my outfit fought and how many pieces my outfit would fight in I told him three he said all right send one to noville which is six or seven kilometers north one east along belly and one south east to bra a little sidelight here I'd held up the march of our outfit to to get O'Hara in front because O'Hara had not been in the fighting heavily down around the message area so we got him Harry in front and I sent him out to bra I took my team down this road toward wilts and we stopped for the night opposite the town of warden on our way down this road we passed many American soldiers coming to the rear most of whom seem to be from the 28th division tell me they'd been hit hard further forward when we got to our destination for the night since we see we received our orders at 5:00 in the afternoon and there was not much daylight left we settled astride the road and blocked the road to wilts I arrived in Bastogne just as night was falling I found a MP who led me to Colonel Robert CP it was a very brief meeting of Colonel Robert CP told me that O'Hara had been sent out to the east of the town and was in a defensive position and that cherry was moving out slightly to the northeast of the town and as soon as my column arrived I was to keep moving and moved to the north of the town to a little place called noville if there are any Germans in Neuville I was too knocked them out of the town and to occupy it if there were no Germans I was too occupied noville going no further north because this would be the limit on the range of the tenth Armored Division artillery which was located in the vicinity of Bastogne this then was the disposition of combat command B on the 18th of December the night of their arrival in Bastogne team des Aubry was at noble team teri at long Billie team O'Hara at worden the total strength of the three defending units was about 75 tanks and 2800 officers and men battering at the gates of Bastogne you were the advanced elements of general month joyful fifth Panzer army and general Brendan burgers Seventh Army approximately 300 tanks and 50,000 men whose mission in addition to taking Cindy in view was to take bostonia and to take it fast Castagna schnitz unum then has come out of an was very important to capture bus Tania fire it was the most important road junction in the 7a of the Audion bat section and in the event general Eisenhower's reserve forces which we suspected we're here has arrived to attack they would have to ask mastani uncommon with Gigot once Unger's it's warden was the indeed him father you go bust Vanya come ich bin gonna ride a fencer tow philosopher none Topher I am hassle occur from anti-fur former general of the Panzer troops and commander-in-chief of the 5th Anthony we completed establishing the defenses of Neuville about midnight actually the defense was a routine traditional type defense we set out roadblocks to the east one to the north and one to the northwest because these were the directions that we expected the Germans to attack us the frame throughout the night was graddic it was a piece of you attack they were his small units from the north and it hit us with small yeast say who's not here without too long Billy came back at midnight and found me asleep he asked that he be allowed to sit on a road out east east of magret short of long Billy because he had found a combat command CCR of the 9th Armored Division in position 10 or 12 tanks a colonel and some artillery I gave him permission to stay where it was cherry never got back to his command in the meantime some of the Panzer Lehr division had cut in behind his outfit at Margaret then he could he never joined however his headquarters went into the little Nephi Chateau at Nephi Chateau cherry had a tank or two and whole few machine guns and his whole headquarters company and he put up a real nice fight all day that evening he had to retire he felt like he had to get out because they were being he was being burnt out Terry lined up his vehicles to go out he was to go out last in a chief he went outside he got to Tommy gun's he emptied one tommy gun to the right got the other up did it to the left finding his Jeep and pulled out the driver was hit the Jeep was hit the Medeco in the back was hit Sarah got out he got a DSC for this my battalion spent the night on the high ground south of worden and all night long we saw no German troops or heard nothing of them however we did have one straggler come to the rear who told us they were east of us in the wilts area about ten o'clock in the morning they came down from the Wealth's road and shout out the artillery observers tank and one or two other tanks we fought on all morning long and part of the afternoon staying in the same position they're keeping the Germans at bay at first the defensive best zone rested with three units of the 10th armored division task force - so brie in the northeast task force cherry in the east and task force O'Hara in the southeast I am General Anthony McAuliffe United States Army retired I was at Bastogne with the 101st Airborne Division in mid-december 1944 the 101st Airborne Division was at a place called Camp MoMA lawn near the city of morass in France we were recuperating from the Holland airborne operation where we had suffered about 30 percent casualties and we were absorbing our replacements and going through a training program general Taylor had been recalled to Washington and I was the acting commander of the division I believe it was on December 18th that we received a telephone call from the chief of staff of the 18th Airborne Corps saying that the division should be prepared to move the following day to the north to the town of verbum on we had known that the Germans had attacked but we didn't know the extent of the attack or the conditions to the north but we made all preparations to get away the following day and the first thing in the morning I preceded the division to the north in a sedan with my aide-de-camp and my operations officer as I drove north I reached a crossroad just a couple miles west of the town of Bastogne I knew that 8th Corps headquarters was located in that town so I decided to drive over to that Corps headquarters and try to learn something more about the situation it was fortunate that I did so because I learned from the Corps commander general Middleton that the orders for the hundred first Airborne Division had been changed and that the division would come to Bastogne rather than to go to Vermont I also met there Colonel Roberts who was a commander of combat command B of the 10th armored division who were already on the scene and already in the fighting des Bree was attacked about five or six times that first day he will describe during the morning of that first day one battalion under Colonel pray to the hundred and first Airborne joined him they as soon as Colonel prayed joined they decided to attack apparently at the same time the Germans decided to attack $21 troopers and I tank launched the attack and 1400 hours of German forces launched attack and maybe so we had the situation of the Germans in the American units attacking one another simultaneously points about 700 yards distance actually the Germans were stopped they were through back behind the ridge our paratroopers on the northwest of the town actually gained the ridge the tanks the armored infantry and the paratroopers on the northeast of the town were unable to get to their positions so after a fight of about 45 minutes or an hour we withdrew the paratroopers from the north east back into the town of Neuville deser Brae was hit badly and Colonel parade was killed that evening and I didn't know des brie was hurt for 24 hours he was later captured when the hospital was captured for the next three days and nights the defenders of us none yet slugged it out with a new uniquely superior enemy then on the 22nd of December when the besieged city was finally encircled the commanding general of the 47th Panzer Corps sent the following surrender ultimatum it called for the surrender of the bostonia garrison if the Americans did not comply within two hours fast on you would be completely destroyed and its defenders and Nile ad general McAuliffe's one-word answer nuts reverberating around the world on a 16th of December 1944 Hitler began his great drive to the port of antwerp he Ardennes of this six days later on the 22nd of December strong German forces surrounded the outnumbered and outgunned American defenders of Estonia a key communication center why go to the success of Hitler's plan as a result of this encirclement the commanding general of the German 47 Panzer Corps delivered a surrender ultimatum to general Anthony McAuliffe commander of the bostonia garrison general the flawless reply to the German commander was nuts why didn't a beleaguered City was combat command D of the tenth Armored Division from the beginning of the battle for bath time heavy fog and bad flying weather prevented aerial resupply and fighter support there was a shortage of surgical equipment that not enough blankets for the been suffering from wound top ammunition was running low and some of the artillery batteries were down to less than ten rounds for death but the morning of December 23rd broke clear and full visibility was unlimited from England to the foxholes of histology but every man looked up to the sky prayed their prayers were answered I'm William Linda Roberts brigadier general US Army retired I was combat command commander of CCB tenth Armored Division in World War two the 19th tactical 19th Pacwa column furnished us every half hour a squadron of planes which circled syphilis at the same time by some luck a captain staggered in to Bastogne how he got there I don't know but he was an expert on operating with the air from the ground we had a fine VHF set which could work with the air we set that thing up in the middle of the compound and he he used the air as columns here airplanes carried napalm bomb on night bombs rockets and what he called boards he said I pulled the napalm bombs first then I moved fall next night will the Rockets next then I gave bullets and before I let him go I made him Circle once to give us some Tory I have estimated that yes that the air was equal to at least two divisions in health because they could see in the snow which had newly fallen where the tanks had gone and they were able to bomb all of these all these little woods anytime they found they are moving right toward the fourth I'm at the vision which is battling to to get influence and I think the air in it air squadron sizable group I am general Anthony McAuliffe United States Army retired I was at Bastogne with the 101st Airborne Division in 1944 one of the saddest and most dramatic incidents occurred on Christmas Eve night we had asked for volunteers when we lost our Hospital and a very fine trained nurse the daughter of the village hardware store keeper Rene lemare volunteered she took charge of a group of wounded from the tenth Armored Division in a house on the Main Street of Bastogne but on Christmas Eve a 500-pound bomb struck the house went all the way through and none of the 10th armored addition soldiers nor raining the mayor not a one survived on December 26 elements of the 4th Armored Division crashed into Macedonia the encirclement was broken and for the Germans it was the beginning of the end after we'd been in there about 30 days on the 16th of January we were relieved we left Bastogne and one of the worst blizzards I've ever seen going up long way hill about the 40 miles Wow create big long hill with a gentle slope the tanks just couldn't make it they they were sliding back like like bears on a slippery slide in thinking thinking it over I've decided that if we had been in Bastogne alone without any infantry we couldn't have held ten minutes the hundred and first Airborne without the steel that my outfit afforded could not have held but the steel of my outfit and the blood didn't flesh of that their outfit made a pretty tough combination it's always seemed regrettable to me that combat command B of the tenth Armored Division didn't get the credit it deserved in the battle of Bastogne all of the newspaper and radio talk was about the paratroopers actually the tenth Armored Division was in there a day before we were and had some very hard fighting before we ever got into it and I sincerely believed that we would never have been able to get into Bastogne if it had not been for the defensive fighting of the three elements of the tenth Armored Division who were first in the Bastogne and protected the town from invasion by the Germans on the 20th of February 1945 much needed rest and refitting the tenth Armored Division was falling and high gear again the mission this time was to clear these are Moselle triangle and kept to the city of three air and importance of eye and communication center and one of the most heavily fortified areas the world this was the job General Patton had started in November of 1934 but left unfinished he cause of the art ends cover of it I am Colonel James O'Hara I commanded the 54th armored infantry battalion of the 10th armored division our division was involved in action and the farmers are final on two different occasions on the first occasion I was very involved and the second occasion that conferral of Bastogne we were told to pass our board as I recall the 94th division which was nephew to be paved the way through the Siegfried line we followed that in Harbor with little incident when we get up to the soy River our division headquarters moved into the town of ale and planned a river crossing for this river crossing general Tyburn who commanded CCA was put in command he was given all three of the armored infantry battalions as his command and told you take them over the river and assault boats and seize the high ground on the other side my name is John drew Devereaux I was a company commander in the tenth Armored Division during World War two I think the river crossing we did on the way to tree air was one of the things that I would least like to have to do again we did it at night and always more difficult to do something at night and it's a lot more scary we carried these assault boats for what seemed like about five miles through the woods when we came out of the woods at the edge of the river we had to go across a lot of open field and over some fences while we were going through there it was pitch dark of course and all of a sudden we walked into a not only a minefield but the whole place was booby-trapped just as the first minor first booby trap went off of course they began to let us have it with mortar and artillery fire and people screaming medic you didn't know whether you should put your foot down again in front of you for fear you're going to step on something whether you should just stay right where you were or what to do it it's about a scarier thing as I've ever been through we finally got to the river cross without too much trouble but I tell you it was a is a great feeling to get on the other side and get on solid ground again we get up to the top of the hill and down on the valley below there we met again with gentle Tyburn there was not too much action at this time and we saw many prisoners coming to the rear however there were a number of pill boxes which had to be cleared out a gentle Qyburn gave us our choice of when to clear these pill boxes out some of them didn't clean them out in the daytime I mean some of our Italians my case I decided to clear these pill boxes at night we'd had a lot of training back in the States on how to take a pillbox so when it came I turned to do this we were fairly well prepared for it we crawled through about 1,500 yards of open field got down into an anti-tank ditch and then the approved routine was that your bazooka man was to fire his bazooka at the observation slit of the pillbox while a couple of the others went around the back and threw grenades in well I turn to the bazooka man and I said okay now you fire at the observation slits and he said okay and he turned around to the rocket man say give me the rocket for the bazooka only to find that the rocket man was lying on his stomach about 1,500 yards way back where we started so there was nothing much to do there but take a couple of enones and pop away at the slit while the platoon sergeant myself went around the back it was was rather like the movies tune sergeant would open the door back to where the pillbox and I take a grenade and throw it in and then we heat slam the door and we both lean on it make sure nobody got out oh we did this pretty well all afternoon and I think about the end of the afternoon we had maybe one hundred hundred fifty prisoners by February 21st 48 hours after the tagged on his arm us he'll try it again the Tigers of attempt together with elements of the 94th Infantry Division at overrun 85 square miles of German River State and captured 23 times thus setting the stage for the subsequent capture of Korea the component was then given the mission taking thought of fear so we kept on the road and proposed you helped you tread let me go through a bomb fell 30 by the time with that near the tunnels earth we found that the villains which we had knocked off on the area around the river and retreated just behind Sur and they were xoring about the heavy artillery I had gone Fenster in the morning and found that the town was boiling with artillery didn't see how anybody could live there I moved on up to a battalion that had lost its whole headquarters some sick some absent one killed and my executive and I took over this metallian it was raining it was dark they were they were shelling at the same time General Patton was raising cane with general Walker the corps commander who was raising cane with general morris the division commander who was raising the bevel with me to get into Trier as I said practically all the divisions around here except my little force that was just being relieved observe Colonel Richardson Lieutenant Colonel Richardson was commanding I heard that he was to be relieved with the Rangers in the afternoon he didn't deserve they were yelling over the radio i sat in the headquarters that evening with Roberts my exact can we do we used an old map and decided that we'd play this is a map problem we want to go round to the right but we found out that it was dark we didn't have God's it was loaded with mines we knew this big mine feels up they're afraid to do that the only road was directly into Traer but you couldn't hold a hand up in the afternoon on this road because the Germans were on the ridges on each side so we didn't couldn't figure on this road but all at once it occurred to us that it was black and the German couldn't see anybody on the road so we decided we'd send him down this road Richardson got loose came into the headquarters we told him he's going in he brought his young officers in briefed him I remember he told one outfit I'll take the bridge to the right you take the bridge to the left it happened that we knew that these two bridges were still impact from airplane photographs that day to make a long story short Richardson got into town and that one his bridge blew up front of his face he hadn't heard a boom for the other bridge so he rambled down in his tank to the other bridge found out that it hadn't blown that there was a little shooting from this end of the bridge but it was sporadic and wasn't organized he organized a Pattaya petunia cross the bridge he had his tank and some other stuff fire on the other end of the bridge and fortunately they got a cross they captured the man who the officer who was supposed to blow it he directed them to ten around 11 other officers who would have told on him if they've got away they were in a back of cafe so he got the whole speed my name is John winter I was a tank batoon sergeant of the tenth Armored Division during World War two after trio was taken we shoved onto witless Germany after taking Whitledge we've pulled back to Trier and we promised the rest but my particular platoon and a platoon of infantry was given a mission of on the opposite side of mountain from true to try to take a bridge intact we started out under the cover of darkness and we pushed in this valley where the bridge was supposed to be the Germans percept kt8 and infantry await play that's why most my tank whatever it fit their measly bunt and I'll be on at the top of it dive at the top and run ended a lot of time barn for cover on the 16th of March the entire division was pushing for the Rhine to get there the Tigers dealt with endless enemy pillboxes various key roadblocks worst of all about 100,000 well-trained German poops I'm Carl Curtis L Hankins I was a battalion commander of the 61st armored infantry battalion in the tenth Armored Division one event that I remember on the race to the life concerns the destruction of a German supply collar this took place between hiders Lord and Frankenstein were the end of the Air Force who had a vehicle trying today we were able to destroy an entire German Army's supply train this was recognized as one of the greatest concentrations of enemy equipment of the entire war and General Patton came down to take a look at this and said it was fantastic destruction of an enemy column that he had seen during the entire war the Tigers reached the wine ballot in a little over a week capturing in their Drive eight thousand prisoners very healthy escape from for more than fifty thousand Germans the 20th of March they crossed the line at Worlds for the final cleanup that was to take them flare to the Austrian and ovarian health three days later after heavy fighting the division round through the historic university city of Heidelberg but Tigers were getting fun after six months of continuous vicious fighting the division was now 50% below strength and the men was showing the inevitable signs of wear and tear this was a dangerous situation although the Germans were definitely on the run they still had a murderous walk and the third of April 1945 the tenth Armored Division and the battalion of the 100th infantry division received orders to seize the town of Al Braun and continue East I am lieutenant colonel George hamil during World War two I was a company commander in the 21st tank battalion 10th armored division the division had been ordered to seize the city of hyaluronic e communication center and our battalion task force Riley had driven up to the very gates of Heilbronn only to find that the bridges across the NECA River were blown in our faces the division was then ordered to attempt to cut off heilbron from the rear task force Hankins across the Necker river north of Heilbronn and made a wide wide sweep into Crale shine they ran in the very little opposition we were ordered to follow Task Force Hankins passed through a trail chime and continue on toward schwäbisch Hall we successfully pass through trail shine through the next large town called is Chauvin penetrated and deeper in the German territory when we came to some blown bridges and were completely stopped by this time the Germans have reacted to this penetration in their rear human reacted with violence it is his biggest display of strength sixty high ends up into maybe a paper trail sign had been cut out by the German suppliers were running low for the Americans in the city and it looked as though another bus study might be in the baby but the Air Force came through again in the next two days transport from the ninth troop carrier command brought the necessary gasoline ration and ammunition to sustain the Tigers despite their ability to beat up one enemy attack after another that Tigers hit maintain supremacy of pale shine without reinforcements and reinforcements were not available as a result the mission was changed the provision ordered to withdraw from the area we all resented I think the fact that we had to give up this terrain that we'd taken and held certainly we were not driven out we withdrew it was a sad disappointment indeed to receive orders to withdraw from Hailsham especially after it appeared that the overall objective had been won from the 11th to the 22nd of April but combat fatigue Tigers speak south by the 23rd of April they stood poised along the north bank of the Danube River southeast of n where the 44th Infantry Division was already fighting and where intelligence reports indicated the first German army friend to make a desperate step the city fell in a matter of a few hours as the lead vehicle passed the outskirts of the town at 8:50 4:00 in the morning immediately sent the message back to combat command and a few minutes later the Paris radio announced that the American forces had captured on when in fact we were still fighting there with the capitulation of all the tents three combat commands raced forward with violent effectiveness town after town was gobbled up in the great rush our division was ordered to attack down through the Bavarian Alps to the Brenner pass to link up with American troops coming north through Italy the Germans had threatened to make a last-ditch stand in what was referred to as the German National redoubt area there had been a lot of talk about undercover activities by what the Germans referred to as werewolves as we approached the Alps we could see them from a distance and it certainly made all of us cause one of what awaited us they were very beautiful great snow-capped peaks but for an armored unit it was also rather forbidding actually when we get into the Alps we found very little resistance and our battalion went down into garmisch-partenkirchen through the town of mer now another column went down through oberammergau while clearing the road block at oberammergau the scene of the world-famous passion play an international red cross representative came up to the other side of the roadblock he had with him a German captain they wanted to negotiate for the city of garmisch-partenkirchen the scene of the 1936 Winter Olympic they wanted us to agree not to shoot up the town after considerable discussion we agreed not to shoot unless the Germans fired at us first when we arrived at the town the International Red Cross representative escorted us through the town and the Germans lived up to their bargain and didn't begin firing until we well beyond the city this ended the war for my task force and I can't think of a better place to end it in garmisch-partenkirchen I'm Colonel Thomas Chamberlain during World War two I command 11th Tank Battalion of the 10th armored division if the staff of the division had spent two years trying to pick out the best place to end the war they could not have done as well as we actually did there there were big hotels on the lakes where the men could go swimming and voting of course plenty of skiing ice-skating position miss there were horses available so that they let's go horseback riding made a fine place to relax after the war the war was over the Tigers of attempt admit and hunted the best of the enemy they had covered 600 bitter bloody miles from surberg to the Brenner pass fighting almost every inch of the way they had taken 56,000 prisoners and 600 cities and towns yes the war was over and one fighting was finished

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Keywords: world war 2, battles, armor, tactical, strategic, mechanical

Id: GxJpoRuiU7I

Length: 56min 35sec (3395 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2015