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100 tons of gold bullion, 5,000,000,000 German marks, 2,000,000 American
dollars, 4,000,000 Norwegian pounds, 100,000,000 French francs, 110,000
English pounds, plus Spanish, Italian, Turkish and Portuguese currency. In
addition there were 1,000 cases of paintings and statutes, priceless art
works of inestimable value. Included were the works of Raphael, Rembrandt,
Van Dyck, Dürer and Renoir. Invaluable tapestries and engravings looted from
the art centers of Europe were found hidden in the underground chambers of
the unassuming salt mine at Merkers. One regiment was detailed to guard the treasure, and the remainder of the Division pushed ahead. All roads were lined with liberated slave laborers, some walking aimlessly, becoming slowly accustomed to their freedom, some walking determinedly, burdened by huge packs, with their eyes firmly fixed on the road that led to home. Allied prisoners of war were liberated in increasingly large numbers, Americans, British, French, and Russians. The Germany army was dissolving into a hodge-podge of Volkssturm, Hitler Jugen, highly disorganized veterans, and a few SS. As usual resistance was encountered only at infrequent intervals, and, as usual, it was quickly overwhelmed. Before the 90th Division lay the forests and mountains of Thuringia. Ordinarily, such terrain would have proved most difficult but the 90th had proved itself in difficult terrain time and again, and Thuringia held no terror for the men who had crossed the Eifel Hills in the cold of winter and the mud of Spring. Indeed the Germans themselves now called the 90th the "Forest and Mountain Division". From Zella-Mehlis, home of the Walther small arms factories, the Division changed directions once again, this time to the southeast toward the communications centers of Hof, close to the Czechoslovakian border. A news blackout had been imposed on the activities of the Third Army for several days. The news-hungry public read newspapers avidly for word of Patton's dramatic drive. For the Third Army nothing was impossible. For all they knew, spearheading elements might already be in Czechoslovakia. (Unreasonable, of course). The answer was not long in coming. When the blackout was finally lifted, the 90th had taken Hof against fanatic but futile resistance, and elements of the Division, duly accompanied by press photographers and war correspondents (sent to immortalize the historic occasion), had indeed set foot upon the soil of Czechoslovakia. The 90th Division thus became the first unit in the ETO (European Theater of Operation) to slice across the German nation, to cut the land in half, to divide Bavaria in the south from the great industrial Germany in the north. The date was 18 April 1945. |
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