612th Tank Destroyer Battalion - Central Europe Campaign

Central Europe Campaign

On 6 March, the battalion jumped-off on the drive for the Rhine. Traveling from the Roer River dams they encountered little resistance, most in the form of road blocks and scattered mines. There were isolated instances of stubbornly defended towns where machine guns, Panzerfaust teams, and Hitler Youth, along with some Volkssturm, slowed down the drive until the infantry dismounted and cleared the towns while the tanks and destroyers covered them with fire.

Continuing the pursuit along the Roer River valley to the Rhine, the companies targeted retreating columns of Germans, often overrun by speeding U.S. troops. On 11 March the battalion reached the Rhine in the vicinity of Sinzig. The companies deployed to protect the famed Remagen Bridge from enemy attack from the water, firing at boats and floating debris suspected of containing demolitions, and boat loads of enemy escaping across the river. Guns were sited to engage enemy targets across the Rhine. Company C was with the 38th Infantry protecting the south flank of the First Army against an enemy thrust at the bridge from the south.

Company A, Company C and Headquarters crossed the Rhine on 21 March, and the battalion command post was established at Honningen. Company C further attached to Combat Command A of the 9th Armored Division drove along with the combat command up the Rhine and then eastwards through Langscheid, Rechtenbach, Bernfeld, and Homberg. The U.S. 2nd Reconnaissance platoon acted as advance point for the spearhead on the drive to Paderborn, closing in the Ruhr Pocket.

However, on 2 May the battalion began a 209 miles (336 km) march into Czechoslovakia, where they relieved elements of the extended Third United States Army in the vicinity of Waldmünchen, Germany. The entire distance was covered in one day through a May snow storm, traveling on the Autobahn to Bayreuth, and east toward the Czechoslovakian border.