Two 504th troopers sort through battle trophies

After fighting that Winter in the Bulge, the 504th was sent back to Sissonne, France to the billets they had come from. They had many casualties and had to refit and rest. Unknown to the troopers of the 504th, one of the most important airborne operations of the war was in the works. The Airborne parachute assault on Berlin itself. This project was called "Operation ECLIPSE". It was to be executed if the collapse of Germany was imminent. The 82nd was to land at the Templelhof Airfield. As it happened, the mission was never executed in favor of Gen. Bradley's moving eastward allowing the Soviets to take Berlin. The 504th was involved in this push to the Elbe.

Col. Tucker, ever the aggressive Commanding Officer of the 504th, deployed two companies south of Cologne across the river to the German town of Hittdorf during the night. They quickly seized the town. Tucker wanted to use the area as a base of patrol reinforcing it every night. Unfortunately, 325,000 Germans had been trapped in the Rose pocket. The German Third Parachute Infantry Regiment and an accompanying German Tiger Tanks attacked the 504th. The Germans used heavy and medium artillery, which knocked out all wire communications. At 15:30 on April 6th two tanks and a company of infantry attacked. A Company's third platoon called for additional Panzerfausts. They were never heard from again. I Company crossed and became involved in the battle. After having destroyed the third platoon, another force of 200 Germans overran the second platoon from the North. Out-gunned and out-numbered, A Company ( less the third platoon), fought its way back to the beach. I Company reinforced A Company and held establishing a horseshoe defense the open end of which faced the water. The Germans again counterattacked, this time with a platoon of tanks and 200 infantry. The attack was repulsed and one of the tanks, thought to be a Mark IV, was knocked out with Gammon grenades by regimental demolitionist attached for the mission (Pfc. McNamara).

I Company attacked and cleared the beachhead area, then withdrew across the river with their wounded and 13 more prisoners. A Company followed shortly afterward. With a total of 80 Germans captured and an estimated 350 others killed or wounded, A Company and its attachments a force totaling approximately 150 men suffered 9 men killed, 79 missing in action, 24 wounded in action.

In view of the excessively high casualties, it is difficult to say that the mission was a success. From the viewpoint of those GIs involved, the operation was a miniature "Dunkirk" with at most, a hollow satisfaction achieved. Fighting men don't believe in moral victories.

May 1,1945 found the 504th in the town of Breetze, Germany on the West bank of the Elbe River. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions crossed the pontoon bridge constructed during that day and advanced nine miles along the South bank of the Elbe. Resistance although light was not the only problem the 504th faced. The German, in his desperation, had the routes of approach mined with undetectable 500 pound explosive charges detonated by gyroscopic sea mine igniters. This was activated by the magnetic influence of a passing vehicle. The gyroscopic igniters could be timed to detonate with the passage of the first vehicle or the hundredth, depending upon prior adjustment. The roads were clogged with German troops and the troopers concerned themselves with the collecting of pistols, cameras and whatever else they could find. The Russians were linked up with on May 3 when a load of I Company men grew tired of waiting for the Russians to come. At Eldenburg, the Americans met and were entertained by a company of Cossacks; they toasted Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill with gallons of Soviet Vodka. While the 504th was in Germany, 140 men with high points left for the states. The 504th along with the 82nd took up occupation duty in Berlin; an honor of the highest order and an operation that fittingly capped a two year battle history during which time the 504 chased the Germans some 14,000 miles through eleven counties.

The 504th near Ludwigslust found Wobbelin Concentration camp. The troopers were horrified and shocked by what they found. Wobblein, although not classified as a death camp, was a work camp where prisoners were neglected and starved to death. Unfortunately for the 504 the SS had left the area and the 504th met only Werhmacht forces in the vicinity. The people of Ludwigslust were forced to pass in review of the horrors of Wobbelin and what Hitler had done in their name. Later under American supervision, the citizens of Ludwigslust buried the victims in the city park where a monument was erected. The Burgermeister and his wife later committed suicide after knowing the full extent of the horror at Wobbelin.

The Chaplain's Burial Address By Major George B. Woods

"We are assembled here today before God and in the sight of man to give a proper and reverent burial to the victims of atrocities committed by armed forces in the name and by the order of the German Government. These 200 bodies were found by the American Army in a concentration camp 4 miles north of the city of Ludwigslust.

"The crimes here committed in the name of the German people and by their acquiescence were minor compared to those to be found in concentration camps elsewhere in Germany. Here there were no gas chambers, no crematories; these men of Holland, Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia and France were simply allowed to starve to death. Within 4 miles of your comfortable homes 4,000 men were forced to live like animals, deprived even of the food you would give to your dogs. In three weeks 1,000 of these men were starved to death; 800 of them were buried in pits in the nearby woods. These 200 who lie before us in these graves were found piled 4 and 5 feet high in one building and lying with the sick and dying in other buildings.

" The world has long been horrified at the crimes of the German nation; these crimes were never clearly brought to light until the armies of the United Nations overran Germany. This is not war as conducted by the international rules of warfare. This is murder such as is not even known among savages.

"Though you claim no knowledge of these acts you are still individually and collectively responsible for these atrocities, for they were committed by a government elected to office by yourselves in 1933 and continued in office by your indifference to organized brutality. It should be the firm resolve of the German people that never again should any leader or party bring them to such moral degradation as is exhibited here.

It is the custom of the United States Army through its Chaplain's Corps to insure a proper and decent burial to any deceased person whether he is civilian, or soldier, friend, or foe, according to religious preference. The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces has ordered that all atrocity victims be buried in a public place, and that the cemetery be given the same perpetual care that is given to all military cemeteries. Crosses will be placed at the heads of the graves; a stone monument will be set up in memory of these deceased. Protestant, Catholic and Jewish prayers will be said by Chaplains Wood, Hannan and Wall of the 82nd Airborne Division for these victims as we lay them to rest and commit them into the hands of our Heavenly Father in the hope that the world will not again be faced with such barbarity."