VII Corps was finally relieved completely of its sector on the Rose Pocket front and turned its undivided attention eastward to the task of crossing and bridging the Weser, a mission accomplished on April 8th by our infantry divisions. On the following day, armored elements attacked through the infantry's bridgehead, meeting strong resistance from a stubborn enemy tank delaying action, but nevertheless making gains of 20 kilometers during the day. Infantry followed the armored attack, mopping up whatever resistance remained in the wake of the tanks.

50 kilometers more of enemy territory fell to the relentless tank-and-infantry advance on April 10th. Prisoners by the thousand overtaxed our PW facilities, and the enemy organization showed signs of disintegrating. Only fanatical groups defending towns along the routes of advance offered any sizable resistance, and that appeared to lack coordination as our units made deep thrusts into the area just south of the Harz Mountains. While enemy infantry and tanks made determined stands at some points in attempting to delay our advance, other columns met practically no resistance. In one case the enemy effectively defended a bridge crossing by placing heavy artillery fire on the crossing site, but failed to oppose with even small arms fire other crossings of the same river farther south.

A freed Russian slave laborer points out a former Nazi guard who brutally beat prisoners.

The capture of the city of Nordhausen opened our eyes to the sort of people we were fighting and showed us why Germany's surrender must be complete and unconditional. When the leading armored columns drove into the city and began to ferret out its last Nazi defenders, the amazed tankers unearthed one of Germany's most infamous concentration camps. Thousands of slave laborers, men and women displaced from Russia, Poland, France, and other conquered areas, were kept here to operate the huge V-bomb factory built deep into a hillside a short distance out of town. The in-humanity of their living conditions was appalling. The dead far outnumbered the living. Thousands of bodies were discovered in the partially destroyed barracks, lying in the fields, or stacked at the crematory, waiting to be burned. Bodies were found lying where their owners had died, or were crammed into rooms set aside for the dead and so full that the bony remains tumbled out when the doors were opened. It was not a pretty sight. Most of the dead had died of starvation. The living were practically dead, lying in the same rooms, even in the same beds with their dead and dying comrades, too weak to move. Troops seeing this hell-hole needed no urging to get back into the fight against a race that could care so little for human life. In retribution for their parts in this awful crime, whether their parts consisted of active support of those who directed such horrors or merely of passive acceptance of the regime, all the male citizens of Nordhausen were made to dig graves on a hillside overlooking the city and to carry and bury all the bodies in this cemetery which will always bear evidence to the brutish sadism of the Nazis.

Indications of an enemy stand in the rugged Harz Mountains became more apparent as resistance stiffened considerably along the southwestern fringe of the wooded area. All approaches into the mountains were actively defended by enemy tanks and self-propelled guns. By-passing the Harz for the moment, our attack advanced another 45 kilometers eastward against light resistance. Infantry mopped up behind the tank columns and blocked the southern exits from the mountains, and our cavalry entered the western approaches to the Harz area. The wooded hills and narrow roads assisted the enemy defense, and their roadblocks and minefields, defended by small groups of infantry supported by tanks and self-propelled guns, forced the mechanized troops to dismount and fight their way laboriously around these obstacles.

While the Spearhead Division continued its drive eastward to the Saale River, the remainder of VII Corps brought its pressure to bear on the defenders of the Harz Mountains. The 1st Division joined the 4th Cavalry in attacking into the western end of the mountain area, the 104th blocked along the southern exits of the hills, and the 9th, once more rejoining our Corps, attacked north into the eastern part of the mountains. Thus ringed on three sides, the defenders delayed stubbornly in small groups, but surrendered when their positions became untenable. Our prisoner census mounted steadily, gaining from 2,000 to 4,000 or more each day, as the enemy situation became increasingly more hopeless.

As the advance of the 1st and 9th Divisions released the 104th in the Harz area, the Timberwolves resumed their drive eastward to Halle, and the 3d Armored moved on toward Dessau to seize a crossing of the Mulde River there. On April 15th, the Mulde was designated as the restraining line for our advance, and the Spearhead Division withdrew the bridgehead it has seized over that river. The advance of the Soviet forces east of the Elbe was driving steadily westward, and to prevent any accidental class of American and Soviet troops, a sort of no-man's land was established between the Elbe and the Mulde Rivers.

Although the City of Halle was by now encircled, its defenders fought desperately in a house-to-house battle that lasted for five days. 5,000 to 10,000 new prisoners flooded our PW camps daily, and, as the pressure in the Harz area increased, more and more Germans surrendered. Our air support was active, and enemy vehicular losses were heavy as their remaining forces, compressed into a smaller and smaller area, became targets for our dive-bombers. Organized resistance was rapidly disintegrating except for small fanatical groups, and on April 20th it ended in the VII Corps portion of the mountains with the capture of over 18,000 prisoners. Opposition from the remaining troops in that area was disorganized and in-effectual as the key terrain features and towns were cleared by our forces pushing northward to link up with elements of the XIX Corps. This juncture was accomplished on the 21st. Farther east in the VII Corps sector the enemy were cleared from all the towns, and on 23 April 1945 all resistance in the Corps zone ended. VII Corps' last combat mission of the war in Europe was accomplished.

For several days Corps units rounded up stragglers of the broken Wehrmacht in our rear areas and apprehended many more Germans fleeing westward from the Soviet advance to surrender voluntarily to the American forces.

The initial contact between Americans and Soviet troops was made by Major General Emil F. Reinhardt's 69th Infantry Division on April 25th. The contact point was just south of the VII Corps zone, and on the following day patrols of the 9th and 104th Divisions met elements of Marshal Koniev's First Ukrainian Army along the Elbe.

On April 28th the VII Corps zone was enlarged by the addition of the area and troops of the V Corps, including the 69th and 2d Infantry and 9th Armored Divisions. Operational emphasis was now placed on the organization of the Corps zone for military occupation and government, centered about the Corps Headquarters located in Leipzing.

Lt. General Collins greets General Baklanoff of the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Army on his visit to the VII Corps Headquarters in May 1945.

Civilians in an American-occupied town in Germany read the latest Military Government proclamations. The Yank is reading the English translation also posted.

After eleven months of operation under First U.S. Army, VII Corps was placed under operational control of the Ninth U.S. Army on May 6th, as First Army, its European mission accomplished, prepared to become non-operational. On the occasion of the end of the war in Europe (9 May 1945) and of the separation of VII Corps from the Army Headquarters under which it had served during its entire period overseas, General Courtney H. Hodges, the Army Commander, addressed the following letter of commendation to Lieutenant General Collins, who had lead the Corps through all its combat service:

"On the cessation of hostilities in Germany, I want to congratulate you and to express my appreciation to you, and through you to your staff, Corps troops, and divisions under your command, for the outstanding record you have made since the landing on D-Day, nearly a year ago.

"Your brilliant direction of the rapid advance of VII Corps from Utah Beach to Cherbourg and your successful assault against that vital port contributed significantly toward the establishment of a firm foothold on the Continent. Our careful timing and coordination of the successful break-through at Saint Lo, coupled with the magnificent fighting qualities of your men resulted in the rapid drive through northern France and Belgium spearheaded by the VII Corps.

"After liberating Liege, with your usual drive and dynamic energy, you captured Aachen and advanced to the Roer River. When the Germans attacked on 16 December, your Corps was shifted to the south where it sealed off the point of the enemy penetration, then counter-attacked to hurl the Germans back to the Rhine. Your rapid reduction of Cologne and swift advance across Germany east of the Rhine are tribute to your outstanding skill as a commander and to the selfless devotion to duty you have inspired in your subordinates.

"Yours has always been our spearhead corps. I desire to commend you on the outstanding performance of that corps. I desire to commend you on the outstanding performance of that corps as well as on your own tactical abilities, inspiring leadership, and personal courage.

"My best personal wishes to you and to VII Corps for continued success wherever you may go."

Another addition was made to the Corps sector with the attachment of the 8th Armored Division, and there were further adjustments of troops and areas as the corps continued its occupation and government of 47 German political areas (stadtkreise and landkreise), totalling approximately 8,000 square miles. Each division occupied and secured a number of these political subdivisions, and the Corps troops, - the antiaircraft, armored, cavalry, chemical, engineer, field artillery, medical, military police, ordnance, quartermaster, signal, tank destroyer and other units whose continued functioning and supporting assistance played such a big part in achieving the magnificent record of the VII Corps, - these troops likewise had occupational duties to perform.

At midnight, 11 June 1945 (D+370), VII Corps Headquarters became non-operational, relieved of its command by XXI Corps, and two days later began its redeployment back to the United States, where leaves and furloughs for its personnel would be followed by a new assignment, a new mission to be accomplished.

Lt. General J. Lawton Collins bids members of his staff goodbye as he returns to the United States, his mission accomplished.