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Armored Division as a combat team and moved unmolested until it reached
Stockheim and Selters, where a furious fire fight took place. It was
disposed of with typical efficiency, however, and the Regiment moved on. On March 30th the Division gained 30 miles, the following day 25 miles. Huge quantities of valuable military equipment were overrun in the lightning drive. White flags replaced the Swastika as the German national emblem. Village after village, town after town, displayed the banners of surrender, delighted that their community had been spared the ravages of war. As in France, the civilians pressed wine and champagne on their American conquerors, while chickens laid eggs exclusively for the delectation of the invading army. It was soon discovered that all Germans despised the Nazis and loved the Americans passionately, a phenomenon which the troops accepted with a skeptical grain of salt. Morale, always good, now rose to the boiling point. Complete and final victory was just around the corner, and nothing in the world was going to halt those troops short of that goal. So rapid had been the advance of the 90th that many wooded areas now began to disgorge roving bands of "guerillas" whose self-assigned mission it was to harass the perilously-stretched lines of communication. Quartermaster convoys were ambushed at night, their drivers killed or captured, their freight and vehicles confiscated. In spite of this new hazard, the 90th Quartermaster Company nevertheless moved supplies through the pockets of "no-man's-land" behind the lines. Losses were grimly accepted, but the steady flow of supplies never failed to reach the troops in the forward areas. One battalion was dispatched to guard the supply routes, and the problem was effectively solved. The Division was now more than half way across Germany, following the 4th Armored Division. But now the orders were changed. While the 4th Armored was to continue its drive northeastward, the 90th was to move eastward on its own. Accordingly, the 90th Division pressed on. It reached the Werra River on April 2nd, crossed immediately, and discovered that here, in a last desperate effort, the enemy had erected a line beyond which the Americans were not to advance. Ignorant of the German determination to hold at all costs, however, the 90th advanced, smashed the line and moved forward. Vacha was taken against stiff opposition, Dippach and Oberzella and Merkers. It was at Merkers that the 90th discovered the end of the rainbow. Two German midwives, hurrying to deliver a neighbor's child, informed a guard that in the subterranean tunnels below the local salt mine was hidden a vast supply of gold. The report was immediately investigated, and the subsequent discovery amazed the world. For here was Germany's entire gold supply and a great portion of its wealth and stolen treasures. |
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