U.S. NINTH AT ELBE 63 MILES FROM BERLIN; BATTLES IN BRUNSWICK; ESSEN CAPTURED (4/12/45)

It was pointed out on the Facebook World War II 70th anniversary page that the AA gun in photo on pages 1 and 12 is a Japanese Type 96 25 mm. In case you were wondering.

A potentially good weapon made mediocre due in part to small magazine capacity which reduced effective rate of fire to about 120 rpm per barrel versus the roughly 280 rpm effective rate of the 20mm Oerlikon.

232 Regiment 42 Division [cont’d] 70 years ago

At 0800 on 12 April, Companies A and C were organized into a T-Force which, under the command of Major Barret, worked under control of Division G-3. At the same time Company L was organized as a T-Force under the control of Lt Col Babcock. Both T-Forces moved under division control to Schweinfurt. The remainder of the regiment with the exception of the First Battalion was ordered to move to division reserve in the vicinity of Obbach. The First Battalion, minus Companies A and C, was ordered to remain in position to defend the high ground north of the city of Schweinfurt, until relieved by elements of the 242d Infantry.
The Regimental CP was established at Obbach at 1823. By 2100 the Second and Third Battalions and Special Units closed in assembly areas near Obbach.

About this time I was in Schweinfurt looking at the content of safes. They were already opened, I know not how but they were good safecrackers. I did see A Company coming in. I recognized a few of them. Actually I was still assigned to A Company but I was on special assignment to Regiment. [For you that saw Private Ryan. I was the guy with the typewriter]. I saw one regular army guy in particular, he was a Private walking along the street. Back in the States he was the First Sergeant but he wanted to get busted because he liked his chances better. So far so good. Maybe he knew something, the rest of us didn’t. There were few regular army guys left, most of us were late in the war draftees with a lot of ASTP guys. We arrived, inexperienced, in time for the Bulge battle which taught us all we needed to know.

April 12, 1944:

"U.S. Generals Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, and Omar Bradley visit the camp at Ohrdruf, Germany, and view corpses and other evidence of Nazi atrocities.
"SS troops evacuate inmates of the camp at Schönebeck, Germany, to Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia.
"U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt dies. Vice-president Harry S. Truman becomes president."

"Residents of Washington, D.C., seek solace from one another on April 12, 1945, as they absorb the news of the death of President Franklin Roosevelt.
His little-known successor, Harry Truman, struggled to fill the shoes of the beloved president.
Concerned about Jews liberated from the Nazi camps and now confined to displaced-persons camps, Truman pressured the British to allow more Jews to immigrate to Palestine. He also lobbied Congress to permit more displaced persons to enter the U.S.
Truman's efforts faced opposition from segments of the public, the State Department, and some congressmen, including Senator Patrick McCarran, the powerful chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee."

"American soldiers stride among the thousands of corpses that German guards had left to rot at the Nordhausen, Germany, concentration camp.
As was often the case, the first thing that American GI C. W. Doughty noticed about the camp was the stench.
'Oh, the odors,' he said.
'Well, there is no way to describe the odors....
Many of the boys I am talking about now--these were tough soldiers, there were combat men who had been all the way through the invasion--were ill and vomiting, throwing up, just [at] the sight of this....' "

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