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PHASE II

OVERSEAS COMBAT

On the morning of 14th December 1944, the 574th Bn. boarded the British luxury liner H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth in New York harbor. It was a beautiful morning and from the deck of the ship it was possible to overlook all of Manhattan. Two days later, at six in the morning on the16th of December 1944, the cables and ropes were loosed and while many of the GIs were still in their bunks, the Queen Elizabeth quietly slipped out of New York harbor and down past the Statue of Liberty. The trip across the Atlantic was unusually pleasant, the water was calm and the weather was good.

After five and one half days the ship moved up the Irish Sea between England and Ireland and at 2100 hours on the 21st of December 1944, dropped anchor in the Clyde River at the Port of Glasgow, in Scotland. There were 14,000 troops aboard the ship. The 574th disembarked in the afternoon on the 23rd of December at the village of Gurock, Scotland. The troops immediately boarded a train which departed that same afternoon and sped south across Scotland and England by way of Edenborough, New Castle, Sheffield and Oxford, to Camp Codford, arriving there on the afternoon of 24 December 1944, the day before Christmas.

At 0500 hours on the morning of the 24th, as the train approached the railroad station in the city of Sheffield, the air raid sirens began to sound, and above the train, plainly visible, were the flame jets of German Buzz Bombs flying over the city.

The 574th AAA AW Bn (SP) was stationed for sixty days at Camp Codford, located on the edge of the village of Codford, Wiltz, England. During this period, the Battalion was completely equipping itself for combat duty.
Supplies were received daily from the United States, arriving at various English ports, on many different vessels. Officers and enlisted men were sent to various ports of England to receive and locate supplies marked for the organization. During its stay in England, the Battalion was given the additional task of guarding vacated US Army camps and billets scattered throughout all the counties of southern England.

All the enlisted men of the Battalion were given the opportunity to have a furlough of five days duration, and passes enabling them to visit many of the interesting and historical places in the United Kingdom.

On the 14th of February 1945, Battery A, B, C, and D moved with all their men and equipment to the city of Bournemouth in the south of England, on the channel coast, for AAA firing practice. The half-track vehicles were lined up on the beach, facing the water.

The Battalion put in two good days of firing on a towed sleeve. The practice vas very successful, seventeen targets were shot down. Due to bad weather on the other days, the Battalion actually remained in Bournemouth for eleven days. During the Battalion's stay, the officers and enlisted men were billeted in various hotels in the city. The Battalion returned to Codford on the 24th of February 1945.

On the 25th of February 1945, the advance detachment of the 574th Battalion, consisting of two officers and two enlisted men, departed for France.
The Battalion departed from Codford, Wiltz, England, at 0700 hours on the morning of 4 March 1945, just at the break of dawn. The Battalion traveled in a convoy of five battery serials at five minute intervals. The weather was clear and warm. Route was south toward the channel coast of England to Marshalling Area Camp C/RCFP/1, approximately ten miles north of the English port city of Southampton. The Battalion arrived at the marshalling area at 1200 hours, having traveled a distance of approximately 40 miles. The Battalion remained overnight in the marshalling area and received shipping space assignments for crossing the English Channel.

The Battalion departed the marshalling area at 0600 hours next morning, 5 March 1945, with all vehicles and personnel, except four officers and one hundred eighty eight (188) enlisted men who remained behind to cross the channel on a separate boat, and rejoin the organization in France. After traveling a distance of ten miles the Battalion arrived at the Port of Southampton at 0830 hours. At 1500 hours in the afternoon, the Battalion, its vehicles and personnel, began loading aboard three LSTs (Landing Ship Tank). All loading operations were completed within two hours and by 1700 hours the ships were underway to a rendezvous point at the entrance to the port of Southampton. The three vessels joined a convoy of approximately 50 ships, which set sail from the southern coast of England at approximately 2200 hours. The convoy was protected by three naval destroyers.

After a very smooth and uneventful crossing of the Channel, the convoy arrived at the French port of Le Havre. The officers and men of the Navy did everything possible to make our trip comfortable and enjoyable. Their hospitality was excellent. The trip across the channel took about twelve hours and debarkation operations began at 1000 hours on 6 March 1945. The port City of Le Havre was almost completely destroyed by bombardment during the war, with the result that very few buildings still remained standing. It was a city of complete ruin and destruction. Most of the Officers and men were amazed by it because this was the first real war damage which any of them had seen, except for that in the cities of England.

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When all unloading was completed, the vehicles were formed into a convoy and moved to camp Twenty-Grand, some sixty miles south of Le Havre. The convoy arrived at Camp Twenty-Grand at approximately 1600 hours in the afternoon.

Camp Twenty-Grand is located on the Seine River on top of a high hill approximately three miles from the village of Duclair. This camp was a marshalling area used for the purpose of gathering together all elements of organizations, including vehicles, personnel and supplies. The personnel were housed in pyramidal tents, and cots were provided for sleeping. It was necessary that the Battalion remained at Camp Twenty-Grand until the remainder of its personnel arrived from England. During its stay in England, the Battalion was assigned to the Fifteenth Army and the XXIII Corps. On the 6th of March this was changed and the organization was notified that it was now assigned to the United States Third Army and further attached to the 38th AAA Brigade.

The Battalion was notified on the afternoon of the 10th that the remainder of its personnel traveling separately had arrived at the port of Le Havre and a convoy of trucks was dispatched to pick them up. During the time spent at Camp Twenty-Grand, maintenance of vehicles was brought up to date, loads were packed and adjusted, and certain special types of supplies were received.

At 0930 hours, 11 March 1945, the 574th AAA AW Bn. (SP) departed Camp Twenty-Grand on the first leg of its long trip east across the Republic of France. When the Battalion departed it was completely equipped in every respect. The convoy traveled first to the city of Rouen, and then east through the cities of La Feuillie, Gournay, Beauvais, Clermont, and Compiegne to Soissons. On the outskirts of Soissons the Battalion bivouacked for the night and all vehicles were checked and refueled. All along the route of march the civilian population seemed to be eager to see us, for the men, women and children waved and smiled from their windows and the roadsides.

At 0500 hours the following morning, the Battalion departed its bivouac at Soissons on the second leg of its trip. The convoy continued to travel eastward through the cities of Fismes, Reims, Vouziers, Stenay, Montmedy, and Longuyon to a Fortress position of the Maginot Line near the village of Pierrepont, approxemately seven miles southeast of Longuyon. The trip from Camp Twenty-Grand was most interesting as well as educational. The convoy passed through many villages and cities, some of which the war had also passed through and left in its wake destruction, devastation, and ruins. The first touch of spring was beginning to show its effect over the countryside. The farmers were plowing their fields for the first planting and the grass was already a bright green. The weather was warm and the sun shone bright, which made the long trip quite pleasant.

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On the evening of the 12th the Battalion arrived at one of the strongest points in the Maginot Line system of fortifications. These forts, which were originally designed to be impregnable, were now completely ineffective. The Germans had removed most of the guns.

The position at which the Battalion stopped was one of the best-preserved forts in the system. The Battalion personnel spent the entire evening exploring its interior. At the entrance an elevator led down to a point one hundred feet below the ground to a large tunnel which connected together all the strong point gun positions and pill boxes in the area. The tunnel was two or three miles long. Through the tunnel ran an electric train, which transported men, ammunition, and supplies from one point to another. In rooms leading off the tunnel were kitchens, mess halls, sleeping quarters, offices, a hospital and many store rooms as well as rooms containing the ventilating and water pumping machinery.

The Battalion this date was assigned for operation with the 38th AAA Brigade and the 207th AAA Group. On the morning of the 13th of March the Battalion moved from its position in the vicinity of the Maginot Line Forts northward to the City of Esch, located in the Grand Duohey of Luxembourg, arriving at 1300 hours in the afternoon. Battalion Headquarters were established in the Chateau Metz in the center of the city. The Chateau was built in the year 1776 and was once very big and beautiful. By now it was only big, the building contained about forty rooms. The Battalion was given its first tactical mission and each battery was given a particular area to defend. Battery "A" was assigned the task of defending a gasoline supply dump located at Ettlebruch, Luxembourg.

Battery "B" was assigned to defend a gasoline supply dump and bridges at Manceiulles, France.

Battery "C" was assigned to defend the steel mill at Oberkorn, Luxembourg.

Battery "D" was assigned to defend an ammunition supply point at Athus, Luxembourg.

The country of Luxembourg was a Grand Duchy ruled by a Grand Dutchess by the name of Charlotte. Its capital is the beautiful city of Luxembourg. It was a very rich and prosperous country and its chief industry is the production of steel. Luxembourg, although it is very small, being only 900 square miles in area, was the seventh largest steel producing country in the world. The German speaking people were quite friendly and very eager to leave us with a good impression.

The Battalion was relieved from attachment to the 38th AAA Brigade and from the missions it was performing, and reattached to the United States Seventh Army to work and operate with the 13th Armored Division. On the morning of the 19th of March, the 574th AAA AW Bn (SP) left Luxembourg and traveled south back into battered Metz to the French village of Maixe, just east of Nancy, where it rested for six days.

During the early hours of the morning of the 26th of March, the Battalion joined forces with the 13th Armored Division and slowly moved eastward across France to the German border. The sky was dark and it began to rain as dawn attempted to break through the clouds.

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Just as it began to get light the convoy crossed the Sarre River near the city of Sarreguemines, and entered Germany. The convoy rolled through town after town, all of which were almost completely destroyed. A week before the German armies had fought to the death in a vain effort to prevent the Allied Armies from crossing the German frontier. They failed. The Battalion established its first command post on German soil in the city of Zweibrucken. When the Battalion entered the city, large fires were still burning in its center, and most of the buildings and homes had been blasted to ruins. People who had fled to the hills for protection were now returning in large numbers. The mission of the 574th, and the 13th armored Division for which it was providing antiaircraft protection, was to occupy German soil and maintain order.

The battalion remained in Zweibrucken from the 26th of March until the lst of April 1945, on which date we moved in the direction of the Rhine River. They stopped overnight at the village of Sprendlingen, and then traveled on the next morning to the city of Gonsenheim, a suburb to the city of Mainz on the Rhine River.

The battalion was relieved of its attachment to the Seventh Army and was again attached to the 38th AAA Brigade, and the 207th AAA Group. The mission of the Battalion was to protect from air attacks the western half of the pontoon bridge across the Rhine River at Mainz. The bridge was the vital link across the Rhine for the troops and equipment of the Third Army.

It was spring and the fruit trees were in blossom. All the fields and vineyards up and down both sides of the surging Rhine were growing again and were a bright green.

As of yet, no enemy planes had dared to cross the sights of our guns, nor had our unit been fired upon by the guns of the enemy.
The allied air forces had done a splendid job of destroying the enemy's communications and industrial might. Strategic bombing had blasted railroad trains as they entered tunnels, blew out all main line bridges and machine-gunned locomotives. They'd burned and destroyed beyond repair railroad cars loaded with the implements of war as they stood in rail yards and on sidings. On all sides could be seen the remains of the completely crippled system of transportation,

Everyone met the D.P., the "displaced person." Those unfortunate men, women and children who were separated from their homes in other countries and forced to work as slave labor on German farms, and in German industrial factories. They were brought into Germany against their will, and now in the wake of the fast moving allied armies, they were free once more. Some were jubilant while others were serious, realizing that many problems still faced them. Most of them wanted to return to their homes as soon as possible. There were French, Poles, Russians, Italians, Belgians, Hungarians, and many others. Thousands were walking with their belongings strapped to their back, on all of the main roads, in the direction of their homeland hoping that some how, some time, they would get there.

Just at dawn on April the 6th, as the first rays of light were creeping above the horizon, the battalion in convoy with the 13th Armored Division, crossed the Rhine River on a pontoon bridge at St, Goar, and spread rapidly eastward to an assembly area in the vicinity of the city of Kassel.

On the 7th of April, the 574th AAA AW Bn together with the 13th Armored Division, were attached to the United States First Army and also the XVIII Corps (Airborne) for the purpose of exploiting the Ruhr pocket.

The First, Third, and Ninth U.S. Armies had moved so fast after crossing the Rhine that the German Armies defending the industrial section of the Ruhr valley were completely surrounded. Trapped in this pocket were 300,000 "Wermacht" troops.

The 13th Armored Division was ordered to attack the pocket from the south and advance until stopped by the enemy.

The battalion was divided into batteries and platoons to provide antiaircraft protection to the various elements of the 13th AD. Platoons of Battery A were assigned to combat command A and combat command B. One platoon of Battery C was assigned to combat command "R" and the other to the defense of the Division command post. Battery B was assigned to Division trains, and Battery D to Division Artillery.

The attack began on the 10th of April along the banks of the Sieg River in the vicinity of the city of Siegburg. Progress was slow but continuous in the beginning. The going was tough in places. On the 1lth the Battalion established its command post at Siegburg. There was practically no air activity on the part of the enemy, and the battle was suspicious by the lack of German air power. On the 12th of April, the third day of the battle, two sections of Battery A were ambushed by German ground troops. They had the mission of providing protection for the trains of the 59th Armored Infantry Battalion. There were approximately fifteen trucks loaded with ammunition and gasoline, and as the convoy approached the village of Urbach, Germany, it was brought under fire from enemy rifles, automatic weapons, and bazookas. The fire came from all directions and was of such intensity as to indicate that the enemy had planned the ambush to destroy or capture the entire convoy. Although obviously outnumbered and realizing that they must fight an enemy who had the advantage of prepared and concealed positions, while they were forced to fight from almost wholly exposed positions, the Officers and crews of the AA section returned the fire and continued to hold off the enemy until three and one half hours later when tanks came and assisted in driving off or capturing the enemy force.

The ambush was well planned and the intense fire, which came from all sides of the convoy and at extremely close range, was deadly. Several drivers were killed immediately, causing their vehicles to swerve across the road and block other vehicles of the convoy. Other driverless vehicles overturned before coming to a stop. One gasoline truck and one ammunition truck were set on fire. Shells front the burning ammunition truck began exploding in all directions and continued to explode among the convoy and its members during the entire fight. In the midst of all this and while under direct fire from rifles and automatic weapons emplaced in positions inside buildings at ranges varying from 30 to 100 yards, members of the AA sections remained at their posts, maneuvered their vehicles into firing position and continued to fire until ammunition gave out or until crews were so decimated by enemy fire that remaining members could no longer operate the gun. When they could no longer operate as a crew, the remaining individuals took their small arms and continued to fight. Many individuals performed unusually heroic acts for which they were later decorated. During the battle, Battery A suffered many casualties. One man was killed and twelve were wounded and evacuated.

On the 14th of April, the battalion moved its command post from Siegburg to Dellbruck.
By the fifth day of the battle the trapped enemy forces, besieged from all sides, began to surrender in great numbers, almost faster than it was possible to process them.

On the sixth and seventh day the entire German force began to fall apart. On the eighth day, the 17th of April, the fighting stopped. Of the 300,000 enemy troops in the pocket, all were either captured and taken prisoner, or killed.

On the 19th of April the Battalion reassembled at Neull, Germany, some 40 miles to the east, and rested.

The 574th and the 13th Armored Division returned to the control of the Third Army. In the mean time, the Third Army had moved swiftly across Germany for a distance of three hundred miles, and was driving south and east toward the Danube River and the Czechoslovakian and Austrian borders.

The 574th and the 13th Armored Division were directed to join forces with the Third Army. On the 20th of April the battalion departed Neull with the 13th AD and moved across the heart of Germany. Their destination was Eschenau, a small suburb of the city of Nurnberg, where the battalion spent four more days in resting and maintaining equipment.

During the long and tiresome two and a half day trip the convoy was attacked. Just as it was getting dark on the evening of the 21st of April, a single German aircraft dropped bombs on the moving column. The attack was hit and run and the plane escaped through our fire into the distance. No vehicle of the 574th was hit.

Through all of the cities and towns, which the convoy passed, we could see the expert work done by the mighty combined Allied air fleets to destroy the industrial might of Germany. Those plants and factories were laid in waste by Allied bombings. Cities were destroyed and battered beyond recognition.

On the 26th of April, the 13th Armored Division with the 574th again attached, went operational. But by this time the German Armies realized that this was the beginning of the end and they began to lose faith. They fought no pitched battles, only rear guard actions. They shelled the roads and bridges with their famed 88s in an effort to retard our progress and disrupt our lines of communication. The forces of the Third Army pushed on and the forces of the enemy fell back or surrendered. The 13th Armored Division and the 574th were directed to push southeast to the Danube River, and then due south to the Inn River and the Austrian border.

Progress was swift and on the 28th of April the 574th crossed the Danube River on a pontoon bridge at Regensburg. On the 30th they continued southeast through Straubing to Plattling. By the 2nd of May, the 574th and the 13th Armored Division had reached the objective, the Inn River and the Austrian border. Battalion Headquarters were established in the village of Tann, five miles north of the river. Two of the line batteries established themselves on the River at Simbach. Late in the afternoon on the 1st of May 1945, the second section of the first platoon Btry D moved into position in the vicinity of Reichach to provide antiaircraft protection for the 496th FA Bn.

It was suddenly discovered that a wooded area located two hundred yards from their position was occupied by a numerically superior enemy force. The enemy opened fire on the two half tracks of the section which resulted in the wounding of two of its men. The half track vehicles immediately returned the fire, spraying the woods with 50 caliber machine guns and 37 MM HE shells. The enemy force of five officers and 230 enlisted man eventually surrendered in reply to an ultimatum, after a two and one half hour battle.

German troops were now surrendering by the thousands. They were a bewildered and beaten looking lot. At Tann the only remaining remnants of the once proud Hungarian Army was over run. Officials of the Hungarian Government were forced to flee from Budapest by the advancing Russians.

During the next few days what was left of the German Reich crumbled. The Russians captured Berlin. German Armies in Italy and Austria surrendered to the Mediterranean Commander. German troops in the Holland, Norway and Denmark surrendered to the British Commander. The German High Command signed the terms of unconditional surrender for the General Staff, and all troops still under its control, at General Eisenhower's Headquarters in Rheims.

The 574th was still in Tann on the 8th of May when the President of the United States declared it V-E Day. All fighting ceased and peace once more came to Europe.

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MOVEMENT OF BATTALION HEADQUARTERS,
HEADQUARTERS BATTERY
AND MEDICAL DETACHMENT
FROM 13 MARCH 1945
TO 24 JUNE 1945

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MOVEMENT OF BATTERY "A"
FROM 13 MARCH 1945
TO 24 JUNE 1945

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MOVEMENT OF BATTERY "C"
FROM 13 MARCH 1945
TO 24 JUNE 1945

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MOVEMENT OF BATTERY "D"
FROM 13 MARCH 1945
TO 24 JUNE 1945