|
OCCUPATION
OF SALZBURG BY US TROOPS
(XV CORPS, MAY 1945 - JUNE 29, 1945; II CORPS, JUNE 29 - OCTOBER
1945)
Sources:
(1) The Seventh United States Army , Report of Operations, France
and Germany 1944-1945, Volume 3.
(2) Third United States Army and Eastern Military District, Report
of Operations, May - September 1945.
(3) Seventh United States Army and Western Military District,
Report of Operations, May - September 1945.
(4) Mission Accomplished. Third United States Army Occupation
of Germany, 9 May 1945 - 15 Feb 1947.
(5) 42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division. A Combat History
of World War II.
(6) Black Hawks Over the Danube, by Richard A. Briggs. The
Western Recorder, 1954.
(7) Rendezvous With Destiny. A History of the 101st Airborne
Division, by Leonard Rapport and Arthur Northwood, Jr. 101st
Abn Div Assn, 1948.
(8) World War II Order of Battle, by Shelby L. Stanton. New
York, New York. Galahad Books, 1991
(9) Headquarters Third United States Army, Troop List as of 17
June 1945
XV Corps, commanded by Lt Gen Wade
H. Haislip and on the left flank of Seventh Army, shifted its axis
of attack towards the Austrian city of Salzburg in the waning days
of the war. It's final operational objective of the war was to capture
the city and block any fleeing German forces from entering the National
Redoubt through the Salzburg Pass. (Salzburg, as an objective, had
originally been assigned to Patton's Third US Army.)
The corps advanced rapidly from the area around Munich toward the
southeast, with three divisions abreast and one division in reserve
(3rd Infantry Division on the XV Corps right flank, the 42nd Infantry
Division was in the center, and the 86th Division on the left; the
20th Armored Division was in reserve following in close support
of the 86th Division.) There was virtually no resistance en route
and the speed of advance was facilitated by the long lanes of the
German autobahn.
The 3rd Infantry Division, entered
Salzburg with elements of the 106th Cav Gp, on May 4 and accepted
the surrender of the city that same day. To the south lay Berchtesgaden
and Hitler's mountain retreat on the Obersalzberg. This was an even
bigger prize than Salzburg and was yet unclaimed. Although the town
was situated within the XXI Corps zone of advance, 3rd Infantry
Division was given the nod by XV Corps to hook back into Germany
and take Berchtesgaden. This was accomplished late in the afternoon
on May 4.
The 86th Infantry Division, was given
the mission to protect the north flank of XV Corps as it attacked
its primary objective, Salzburg, and to seize river crossings over
the Alz and Salzach Rivers. Crossing the Salzach River at Tittmoning
and Burghausen, the Division penetrated into the area north of Salzburg
where it was ordered to halt on May 5.
The 42nd Infantry Division, located
in the Corps center sandwiched between the 3rd and 86th Infantry
Divisions, advanced east from Munich and reached the Austrian border
north of Salzburg, sending patrols across it. Orders were, however,
received for the Division to move into assembly areas along the
border. The Division CP was set up at Palling, Germany. The Division
was occupied with R&R, clean up and maintenance of vehicles
in the area when VE-Day was formally announced.
In
the evening of May 5 came the message from Seventh Army Headquarters
that signaled the end of hostilities, "German Army Group 'G' has
surrendered, effective 1200B 06 May 1945. All units halt in place.
Do not fire unless fired upon." The
operational phase of the war for XV Corps was over, the occupational
phase had officially begun.
Occupation
On May 10, 1945, XV Corps received Operational Instructions No.
153 issued by Seventh Army headquarters. The instructions defined
the boundaries of XV Corps' temporary occupational sector and instructed
the corps to enforce the terms of surrender, occupy its assigned
sector as far south as the Salzach-Enns River Line and assume command
of the sector at 1800B, 11 May 1945.
In addition to that, the 101st Airborne Division was attached
to the corps and the 86th Infantry Division, which had been
classified a Category II unit, was ordered to prepare to move to
Mannheim, Germany, where it would initiate preparations for its
redeployment to the Pacific Theater.
On May 21, 1945, XV Corps was passed to the control of Third Army.
(Third Army had been instructed by 12th Army Group to assume responsibility
for the areas in Austria occupied by US forces until the 15th Army
Group was ready to assume its occupational role in the US Zone in
Austria.) XV Corps was ordered to occupy, organize and govern the
Austrian province (Gau) of Salzburg. It was also instructed to occupy
the eastern part of Tyrol (Kufstein and Kitzbühel) until relieved
by French Forces.
Major units in XV Corps on May 21, 1945, were:
| 3rd
Infantry Division, Salzburg, Austria |
| 42nd
Infantry Division, Kitzbühel, Austria |
| 101st
Airborne Division, Berchtesgaden, German |
| 20th
Armored Division, Traunstein, Germany |
| 106th
Cavalry Group, Salzburg, Austria |
|
|
On May 29, the
XV - XX Corps boundary was altered and the 80th Infantry Division
(XX Corps) area enlarged to include that territory as far as the
western boundary of Kreis BRAUNAU. The 80th relieved XV Corps units
in this zone.
In early June, XV Corps was ordered to assume command of the portions
of the Austrian provinces of OBERDONAU, SALZBURG and TYROL under
US control (effective June 9). The 65th Infantry Division and 11th
Armored Division, located in the province of OBERDONAU, were relieved
from XX Corps and attached to XV Corps. (XX Corps moved to Germany
on June 10.) Later instructions directed the corps to prepare to
pass control of its sector to II Corps (Fifth US Army) which was
scheduled to arrive from Italy.
Major units under XV Corps on June 17, 1945, were:
| 3rd
Infantry Division, Salzburg, Austria |
| 42nd
Infantry Division, Kitzbühel, Austria |
| 65th
Infantry Division, Linz, Austria |
| 103rd
Infantry Division, Innsbruck, Austria |
| 101st
Airborne Division, Berchtesgaden, German |
| 11th
Armored Division, Gmunden, Austria |
| 106th
Cavalry Group, St. Wolfgang, Austria |
|
|
On June 29,
II Corps assumed command of the area and the troops under XV Corps
control and established its CP at Salzburg. Relieved of its responsibilities
in Austria, XV Corps moved its CP north to Bamberg where it took
on a new occupational role in Bavaria.
3rd
Infantry Division
The Division's occupational sector during the month of May and June
was the Kreis of SALZBURG. The Division CP was set up at
Schloss Klessheim, outside of Salzburg. Klessheim was a former had
once been the palace of an Austrian Archduke and had then served
Hitler as a Guesthouse for visiting foreign dignitaries.
In the early days of the occupation, the Division performed the
many duties associated with securing its sector including searches
for high-ranking Wehrmacht, SS and Nazi Party personnel. The Division
was able to apprehend one of the most notorious SS leaders, SS-Sturmbannführer
Otto Skorzeny, who had "rescued" Mussolini following the
dictator's downfall in 1943. He had also organized the abortive
assassination mission against high-ranking allied military leaders
during the Ardennes counteroffensive and breakthrough.
In July 1945, the Division was ordered to move to the Seventh Army
area (setting up its CP at Bad Wildungen) where it was to assume
a new occupational role. By Jul 13 1945, the last elements of 3rd
Inf Div had cleared the USFA area en route to Seventh Army. The
Division's occupational responsibilities in and around Salzburg
were assumed by the 42nd Infantry Division which had moved to Salzburg
from Kitzbühel after relief by French Forces (see 42nd Inf
Div history below).
(Anybody having more details on the 3rd Inf Div during its stay
in Salzburg, please contact
me.)
42nd Infantry Division
The initial sector that the 42nd Infantry Division would eventually
occupy as part of XV Corps was originally assigned to the 36th
Infantry Division of XXI Corps. As part of the XXI Corps push
into the National Redoubt, the 36th had crossed into
Austria at Kufstein on May 7, 1945. As the German forces in its
area carried out the terms of surrender and began assembling at
selected places as directed, T-Patchmen streamed in to accept and
control the surrender and to occupy St. Johann, Kitzbuhel; and Mittersill,
in the heartland of a tourist's paradise. Arrangements for the carrying
out of the surrender terms were complicated by the dispersion of
German troops and lack of communications that had resulted from
their hasty retreat.
A highlight of the Division's occupational activities during its
brief stay in Tyrol was the
capture of Hermann Goering, the second most important Nazi
after Hitler.
On May 14, the 42nd (which had been assembled around Palling in
Germany) moved south into the Austrian Tyrol where it relieved units
of the 36th Infantry Division in the Kitzbühel and Kuftsein
areas. (The 36th moved north to Germany to take over a different
occupation sector under Seventh Army.) 42nd Division CP was located
at the Grand Hotel in Kitzbühel. The Division settled down
in its new occupational role in eastern Tyrol where the 42nd assumed
responsibility for the Kreise KUFSTEIN and KITZBÜHEL.
In its first days in Tyrol, the Division continued the ongoing collection
of thousands of German soldiers who had retired into this area of
the National Redoubt for a final stand. In addition to the Wehrmacht
and SS units, there were also Nazi officials who had fled to the
mountains in the hope of evading capture by the American troops.
The Division stopped all movements in the area and established road
blocks every few kilometers. Civilians were not allowed to travel
outside of their towns without a special pass and every military
vehicle was checked. In the towns every person was questioned by
men of the Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC), a process known as
"screening." Every road and trail was patrolled and every
mountain cabin or hotel which could possibly serve as a hideout
was investigated again and again.
On occasion, this net yielded some big fish as Division patrols
captured SS General von Oberg, the infamous "Butcher of Paris,"
and German General Schoener who was the commander of all German
forces in Czechoslovakia.
Under the guidance of German staff officers from the First German
Army, which had been in the area at the time of the surrender, the
German soldiers held in the PW enclosures were organized into companies,
German officers were placed in charge and convoys were organized
with the Germans using their own vehicles. The remnants of the Wehrmacht
in eastern Tyrol were then moved to huge PW camps in Germany immediately
north of the border.
Several times while the Rainbow was occupying the eastern part of
Tyrol its occupational boundaries were changed. When the Division
first moved into the area, it occupied both the eastern portion
of the Tyrol and portions of Landkreise ROSENHEIM, AIBLING and MIESBACH
immediately north of it in Germany. On May 19 the area was extended
to include all of these three German areas and also the adjoining
Landkreis EBERSBURG. It was into this area of Ebersburg and Aibling
that 200,000 surrendered German troops were being moved and the
task of guarding them, was assigned to the 232nd Infantry. On May
24, however, other troops took over in these areas and the 232nd
was relieved.
On May 23 a training program designed
to prepare the Division for its expected redeployment to the Pacific
was inaugurated. Emphasis was placed on Japanese tactics, range
firing, physical conditioning, and the information and education
program. Occupational duties greatly hampered the program and made
it necessary for training to be repeated several times in order
that all men would receive instruction. (At a later date, the 42nd
Infantry Division was placed in Category I (occupational unit) and
training for combat against the Japanese in the Pacific was discontinued.)
On June 12, the Division was relieved of all the area which it occupied
in Germany in a move designed to reconcile unit boundaries with
political boundaries to simplify military government problems. At
the same time and for the same reason, portions of the Kreise KUFSTEIN,
KITZBÜHEL and SCHWAZ not previously occupied
by the Rainbow were taken over from the 101st Airborne Division
and the 103rd Infantry Division.
This left the Division occupying the three eastern most Kreise of
the Austrian Tyrol. The 103rd Infantry Division occupied the western
section of Tyrol and the 101st Airborne Division occupied Land Salzburg
to the east.
These boudaries remained unchanged for the remainder of the time
the Rainbow occupied the Tyrol.
Early in July orders were received to move the Div to the vicinity
of SALZBURG as the French were to take over the occupation of the
entire TYROL. The new Div area was in and immediately surrounding
the city of Salzburg. The Rainbow began its move to the vicinity
of Salzburg on July 8 and its area in the Tyrol was formally turned
over to the French 4th Moroccan Mountain Div at Kitzbühel at noon
on July 10.
The 42nd Infantry Division was to remain in Austria as an occupation
unit for many more months. However, on June 29, the 42nd passed
to the control of II Corps which replaced XV Corps and assumed control
of the US Zone in Austria. The occupation history of the 42nd Inf
Div during this subsequent period will be presented in the II
Corps section. (I will try to get to it in the next few weeks.)
86th Infantry Division
At the end of the war, the 86th Infantry Division moved its CP to
Neu Oberndorf and its subordinate units went into billets in the
beautiful Austrian countryside. The 341st Infantry Regiment moved
forward to Moosdorf. The 342nd Inf Regt set up its CP at Seeham
and the 343rd Inf was located at Gundertshausen.
The Division conducted limited patroling and guarded German PW's.
But the Division's stay in Austria was to be short-lived, as it
was relieved on May 14 by the 20th Armored Division. Boarding long
trucks convoys, the Black Hawks moved back into Germany. Arriving
in Mannheim on the Rhine River on May 15, the Division initiated
preparations for redeployment back to the States and, eventually,
the Pacific Theater.
101st Airborne Division
On May 25, elements
of the 101st Abn Div moved to Berchtesgaden where it was to take
up occupational responsibilities under XV Corps.
Though individual
troops for weeks continued to come down out of the mountains and
even straggle over the Alps from Italy, the bulk of the Germans
was collected in the first few days of the peace. But not so the
individual German military and political big-shots. The Berchtesgaden
area (and the Austrian mountains to the south) had been a place
of final refuge for many Nazi party officials and high-ranking SS
and Wehrmacht officers and for weeks the hunting remained good.
Any GI might make a name for himself by turning up a Hitler or a
Himmler and there was no lack of amateur detecting. The 101st picked
up its share of disguised Nazi leaders, including two of the twenty-four
who would eventually go on trail at Nürnberg.
One of the big fish caught by the 101st in the first days of peace
was Doctor Robert Ley who had served as the leader of the
German Labor Front (DAF). He was captured by troops from the 502nd
PIR near Marquartstein. Ley was one of 24 Germans who were indited
by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. However, Robert
Ley hanged himself before the trial began.
A week after Ley's capture, men of the 502nd S-2 section captured
Julius Streicher, editor and publisher of the Nazi newspaper
"Der Stürmer", in a farmhouse near Waldring. Streicher
was later hanged after being found guilty of crimes against humanity
during the Nuremberg trials.
While the Division was busy uncovering important persons, it was
also busy truning up treasures. The town of Berchtesgaden, because
of its close association with Hitler, Goering, and the Nazi movement,
was a prize in itself. Few places in Germany held the attraction
of this resort town with the nearby mountain homes of Hitler and
Goering topped by the Eagle's Nest (Adlershorst) mountain-top retreat
on the Kehlstein mountain.
By the first of June, an average of three thousand visitors (primarily
soldiers) and as many as ten thousand on Sundays came to visit the
Eagle's Nest. Men of the 101st Airborne acted as guides and guards.
Another the several other tourist attractions operated and guarded
by the 101st was the "Herman Goering Art Collection" located
at an inn at Unterstein and Herman Goering's private train.
Most of the units of the Division, after an average of two or three
moves during the days immediately following the surrender, managed
to settle down in one area and to remain there with a possible single
additional move, until leaving Austria or Germany (for Berchtesgaden
was a finger of Germany sticking into the Austrian mountains, and
sometimes a battalion would have companies in both countries).
By the middle of June, in or very close to Berchetsgaden itself
was Division headquarters with such units as the MP Platoon, the
Reconnaissance Platoon, the Band, the Signal Company, and two regiments,
the 327th and the 501st, the latter having come up from Mourmelon
in late May. Twelve miles away, in the ehalth and sports resort
town of Bad Reichenhall, and occupying the big mural-covered barracks
formerly used by the Wehrmacht, were the Division Quartermaster,
medical, and Ordnance Companies. This used up the large towns in
the Division area; the rest of the 101st was scattered throughout
the villages and small towns.
The 502nd had the responsibility for the western part of the area
with regimental headquarters at Kössen. The 506th had the southern
sector with headquarters in Zell am See, an attractive resort on
the Zeller See, a 2½-mile long lake. (Many of the hotels here were
German military hospitals, filled with wounded soldiers.) At Bayer
were Division Artillery Headquarters and the 463rd Parachute Field
Artillery Bn; the 907th was at Karlstein, and the 321st at Gmain.
The 81st AA Battalion was in and about Inzell, and the 326th Engineers
at Lofer.
In June, the 502nd had moved from its area in the west down into
the villages along the valley of the Salzach River in the south
adjoining the 506th area. Regimental headquarters was in Mittersill,
twenty miles west of Zell am See; twenty miles southwest of Mittersill,
over the 12,000-foot snow-topped Gross Venediger, lay Italy. Division
Artillery Headquarters and the 321st and 463rd Battalions, moved
to Saalfelden, a dozen miles north of Zell am See. The 907th Battalion
moved from Karlstein to Lofer, the 81st from Inzell to Tamsweg,
and the 326th Engineers left Lofer for Schwarzach.
The 101st Airborne
Division was to remain in Austria as an occupation unit for another
month. On June 29, like the other divisions in Austria, the 101st
passed to the control of II Corps which assumed control of the US
Zone in Austria. The occupation history of the 101st Abn Div during
its last month in Austria will be presented in the II
Corps section. (I will try to get to it in the next few weeks.)
|
