Teamed with British Second Army
Less than ten days after beginning on its mission of occupation and military government in the Ruhr-Rhine area, the Division received orders for another combat mission. Still under XVIII Corps control, the Division was to travel north by motor to the Luneberg area. The XVIII Corps, which included at this time also the 82nd Airborne Division and the 7th Armored Division, was to attack across the Elbe, east of Hamburg, with the primary mission of protecting the flank of the British Second Army. British units, after crossing the Elbe northwest of the XVIII Corps, were to drive northeast to Wismar, cutting off the Danish peninsula. Operations of the XVIII Corps were to be under Second British Army control; administration and supply under Ninth U.S. Army.
8th Crosses Elbe
Troops of the 13th Infantry began movement to the new area on April 26th, completing the move before nightfall of the following day. On April 28th, the 13th was attached to the 82nd Airborne. On the day following, while troops of the 82nd crossed the Elbe at Bleckede, troops of the 13th held the Walmsburg sector of the Elbe River. By April 29th, remaining elements of the Division and attachments had arrived in the Luneberg-Bleckede area. At 1800 on the following day, the 121st Infantry was attached to the 82nd Airborne Division. At 0100, May 1st, the 121st Infantry, with the 3rd Battalion of the 13th attached, began crossing the Elbe over the pontoon bridge previously constructed by 82nd Airborne Engineers.
Relieving elements of the 505th Parachute Regiment in the bridgehead area during the night, troops of the 121st attacked northeast at 0800. The enemy resisted with scattered small arms and light artillery fire. Chief opposition was encountered at Gulze, where 250 prisoners were taken after a brief fight. Sixteen towns were taken during the day. In most of them, the enemy offered only token resistance to the powerful force of 121st infantrymen, supported by the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion and the 740th Tank Battalion. Gains up to five miles were made, and 678 prisoners were captured.
During the afternoon, the 28th Infantry also crossed the Elbe to join the attack. The 8th Reconnaissance Troop was attached to the 28th for this operation.
British troops, which had crossed the Elbe at 0200 on the previous day, were advancing rapidly against light resistance. The enemy was believed incapable of anything more than token resistance to the Allied drive. Reconnaissance flights detected a large-scale westward movement of German troops and civilians north of the British and American advance, presumably fleeing from the Russian armies.
Task Force Canham Rolls Forward
Task Force Canham, consisting principally of the 121st Infantry, 644th Tank Destroyer and 740th Tank Battalion, and led by the assistant division commander, swung into the attack at 0600, on May 2nd. The powerful mobile force was further supported by the 56th Field and 83rd Armored Field Artillery Battalions, a battery of the 445th Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion, Company C of the 89th Chemical Battalion, Company C of the 12th Engineer Combat Battalion and Company C of the 8th Medical Battalion.
With doughboys riding the tanks and tank destroyers, Task Force Canham began rolling at 0600. Light initial resistance was brushed aside, and the powerful 8th Division force swept northwestward virtually unopposed. Followed closely as possible by the 28th Infantry and elements of the 13th, Task Force Canham drove twenty-five miles before mid-day, halting only upon orders from higher headquarters, when it reached Lake Schwerin. Here contact was made with advance elements of the Russian armies of the north.
Schwerin Falls to 8th
 |
|
|
German soldiers coming in to surrender as the 8th Infantry Division drives north to meet the Russians beyond Schwerin, Germany. |
|
|
More than a hundred cities, towns and villages, including the large air base and city of Hagenow and the 1,000-year-old capital city of the province of Mecklenburg, Schwerin, fell to Task Force Canham and other units of the 8th Division that day. All along the avenues of advance, large groups of enemy troops awaited arrival of American units to which they could surrender.
Enemy Troops in Mass Surrenders
Roads were jammed with columns of prisoners. On foot, on bicycles and horseback, in all types of horse-drawn and motor vehicles, troops of the defeated German armies were moving to the southwest. Men, with their women and children, their animals and whatever worldly goods they could transport, surrendered at the already over-crowded prisoner of war enclosures. The Seventh Panzer Division drove into the 28th Infantry area in tanks to surrender. Eight German generals were among the estimated 55,000 prisoners who surrendered that day.
 |
|
|
German prisoners who surrendered to the 8th Infantry Division, Ninth U.S. Army, near Schwerin, Germany. |
|
|
On the following day, all available troops were engaged in directing officers and men of the disintegrating Wehrmacht into Division prisoner of war enclosures. The convoys of motor vehicles, tractors and trailers, horse-drawn carts and foot columns brought in more than 150,000 captives on May 3rd. Among them were ten more generals, including the Third Panzer Army commander and his subordinates. On the following day, another 39,500 prisoners were counted, bringing the total number taken by the Division since crossing the Elbe to slightly more than a quarter of a million.
 |
|
|
Scene in Schwerin, Germany, as German troops come in to surrender to troops of the 8th Infantry Division. |
|
|
Captured war material reached such huge proportions that much of it wasn't even counted. Panzer divisions obligingly delivered their tanks, armored vehicles and ammunition to Division areas. At the Hagenow air base, a large number of Luftwaffe planes, some of them still crated, fell into the hands of Division units. Vehicles of all kinds, both army and civilian, were picked up—many of them to be later used in the transport of displaced persons and recaptured Russian prisoners of war from the Division area toward their homes. A few officers and men of the 8th Signal Company received the surrender of five German armored railroad trains.
Concentration Camp
 |
|
|
German and Polish political prisoners freed from the Nazi concentration camp at Wobbelin, Germany. |
|
|
Near the town of Wobbelin, in the Division area, medical units uncovered a concentration camp, where approximately 2,500 near-starved political prisoners still remained alive. These men were evacuated and cared for under supervision of the 8th Medical Battalion, as were the patients in numerous hospitals found in the Schwerin area. Several hundred emaciated bodies of men who had been starved and beaten to death in the Wobbelin concentration camp were unearthed and buried after funeral services in the town squares of nearby communities. The civilian population was ordered to attend the burials, and many German men and women were shown through the concentration camp itself.
Final Victory
 |
|
|
Brig. General Charles D. W. Canham and a party of 8th Division men link up with the Russians east of Schwerin, Germany. |
|
|
The 8th Division had fought its final battle in the European Theater of Operations. In ten months of combat, the units of the Division had captured 316,187 prisoners of war and vast stores of enemy war material. The Division had taken a major part in the Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland and Central European campaigns. Enlisted men and officers of the Division killed, wounded and captured during the ten-month period of combat totaled 13,293. Non-battle casualties brought the total number of casualties above 18,000.
On May 4th, announcement was made of the final surrender of all German troops in Holland, Denmark and northern Germany. At 0241 on May 7th, Colonel General Jodl, a representative of the German High Command, signed the unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe, to become effective at 0001, May 9th, 1945.
Previous Chapter | Return to Top
This page last updated on Friday, May 23, 2003 at 08:17 PM
