[From 346th Infantry: At 0945 May 7 the following message was received from the Division Commander: “Representatives of the German High Command signed the unconditional surrender of all German land, sea, and air forces to the Allied Expeditionary Forces and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command at 0700, 7 May 1945 under which all forces will cease active operations at 0900, 7 May 1945. Effective immediately all offensive operations cease. Troops will remain in present positions. Moves involved in occupational duty will continue. Due to difficulty in communications, there may be some delay in similar orders reaching the enemy troops, so full defensive precautions will be taken.”]

May 8, 1945
Germany
Dear Folks,
Yesterday sure was a great day for me. We attacked on the sixth and were supposed to shove off again yesterday morning. But instead of receiving an attack order, we were ordered just to stay where we were. Then a little after ten o’clock we got the news that the Germans had signed unconditional surrender. Even though it doesn’t take effect officially till tomorrow, it meant that we were though fighting. Boy oh Boy! What a feeling. The Lord has certainly been good to me. I’ve got lots to thank Him for.

The “Stars and Stripes” also brought us some pretty good news yesterday. It said that over half of the combat troops would get a furlough back in the States before they are shipped to the CBI (The China, Burma, India Theater). Don’t plan too much on it because there’s just about as much chance against it as there is for it. But wouldn’t that be great!

Yesterday also I received a box from you and my name was turned in for a pass to Paris. It was the package containing pop corn and it really hit the spot. The corn was still as crisp as it was when you packed it. It would have done your heart good to have seen the fellows (and me) go after it. I wish I could send the box home and let you fill it up again.

If my pass had come a little bit sooner it might have kept me out of a little fighting but I’m glad to get it now. I’ll be going in a day or so. Considering everything that happened, wasn’t yesterday a pretty eventful day for me?

Well it looks like Spring again today. Maybe the weather is doing a little celebrating. We’ve really had some pretty rough weather for this late in the season during the past week. There has even been a little snow. I hope it stays nice now.

It’s been almost a week now since I got any letters but no doubt there will be two or three when they do come.

Hope everything is ship-shape back there. Be good and God bless you.                                              
Love.
Donald

From the Regimental History:

At 1330 on 3 March 1945, the Battalion launched
its attack from Hill 648 debouching from its heavy
woods, passing across the open draw between the
two hills and up the bald slopes of Gold “B” Hill,
after a 20 minute artillery preparation. Under in-
tense enemy artillery, neblewerfer, and small arms
fire, the Third Battalion pressed its attack using
marching fire and knocked out seven enemy ma-
chine guns, capturing the hill, which yielded 150
enemy prisoners of war and inflicting 100 enemy
casualties. At this point, the enemy increased his
artillery and mortar fire on the hill, and the Bat-
talion dug in for the night in a perimeter defense.
The capture of the hill denied the enemy its ob-
servation and the artillery fire on our rear areas
ceased, permitting freedom of movement for our
troops and supply to the front. It also broke the
back of the enemy defenses in that sector of the
Siegfried Line.

A description of the attack by Ed Jans and Mitch Kaidy

A memoir of the assault by Lt Glenn Doman, commanding officer for Company K.