March 20, 1945 – The Americans arrive
Barely three weeks before the German surrender on May 8, 1945, American troops were on the advance through Rhine Hesse and were about to cross the Rhine. In the course of this advance, Harxheim was liberated on March 20, 1945, and survived that day without fighting or casualties.
The end of the Second World War was looming. On February 27, 1945, Allied bomber units flew the final and devastating attack on Mainz, leaving the city in ruins.
On March 18, 1945, the 90th U.S. Infantry Division (Tough `Ombres) in the XII. Corps as part of the 3rd U.S. Army under the command of Tank General George S. Patton advanced through Rheinhessen toward the Rhine.
TO meant Tough ‘Ombres and was the mark of the 90th U.S. Infantry Division. The letters also stood for Texas and Oklahoma, the U.S. home states of many of the division’s members.
Image source: Archive Heinz Leiwig
Memorial of the 90th U.S. Infantry Division in Normandy at the Utah Beach landing section.
Image source: Siegfried Schäfer
The 357th, 358th and 359. Infantry Regiment (IR) of this division was ordered to advance toward Mainz. While the 358. IR was moving north of Nieder-Olm towards Mainz, the 359th IR took the road. IR the route via Undenheim, Selzen and Mommenheim. Our neighboring community was considered an important fork in the road to Nackenheim to the Rhine or via Harxheim and Hechtsheim to Mainz.
The 357. IR was initially intended as a reserve unit, but later helped break Hahnheim’s resistance.
The American regiments carried motorized and armored combat teams (task forces) equipped with Sherman main battle tanks, fighter tanks, half-tracks, and jeeps. Their mission was to liberate village after village from German resistance.
If armored barriers were erected at the entrances to towns or if resistance was expected, division or corps artillery was immediately deployed and the way was cleared without regard to casualties.
American half-track on the advance in Rheinhessen
Image source: Archive Heinz Leiwig
A strong German anti-aircraft unit fought fierce defensive battles with advancing American troops in and around Hahnheim from March 18 to 20. The fighting claimed seven lives on the German side, and 105 soldiers were taken prisoner by the Americans in the “Hahnheimer Kessel”. On the evening of March 19, the Americans were in Mommenheim. The Spiess, Wagnon, Dye and Dragon battle groups met here and assembled for the advance that was to take place the next day, advancing via Harxheim to Hechtsheim and via Lörzweiler to Nackenheim to the Rhine.
“It was early Tuesday afternoon. The 20th was a clear March day and we were already walking barefoot,” Toni Fritzsch reported, “from the hill of the Protestant church we saw the tanks rolling in from Mommenheim in a cloud of dust. On top of them sat heavily armed colored U.S. soldiers. For us children this was a sensation. We had never seen people with dark skin before.”
In accordance with orders, the people of Harxheim had erected an anti-tank barricade on the level of the Protestant church in Gaustraße in the days before, using beams and tree trunks cut in the cemetery. Alois Basten, responsible air-raid warden, convinced other Harxheim citizens to join him in clearing the roadblock. He was well aware that this plan could have directly resulted in a death sentence by a court of law.
This decisive action opened a free passage for the approaching Americans (Kampfgruppe Spiess) and most likely avoided a direct bombardment of the entrance to the village or the community. As a sign of surrender, the Harxheim farmer Otto Stefan had attached a white sheet to the steeple of the Protestant church in the morning, visible from afar in the direction of Mommenheim. The Americans briskly checked the local streets and various buildings. There was no resistance. Mayor Adam Böhm was subjected to intense interrogation.
With this march through, the Second World War was over for the population of Harxheim. One day later, the ground assault on Mainz was launched from the outskirts of the Mainz suburbs. On March 22, 1945 the city was liberated.
General G.S. Patton, General of the 3rd U.S. Army, thanked his pioneers in Undenheim on March 26, 1945 for the successful bridge-building near Nierstein.
Image source: Archive Heinz Leiwig, End of the war in Rheinhessen. Mainz 2016, p.50
Several houses in Harxheim were seized a short time later by advancing American troops and occupied as living quarters. The local command was established in the Peter Lotz winery. However, the buildings were released after a few weeks and the residents were allowed back into their homes. Peace returned to Harxheim. From now on, the streets in Harxheim were given their original names again. A new era began.
Harxheim survived the war unscathed, apart from an incendiary bombing in 1942, which caused only minor damage, and two low-flying air raids, which had no consequences. Some of our neighboring communities, on the other hand, suffered considerable damage to buildings and, as in Hahnheim, among others, civilian casualties.
Grave of corporal Bertram at the Harxheim cemetery
Image source: Siegfried Schäfer
Karl Bertram, a Wehrmacht corporal who was not a local resident, was shot by American soldiers coming from Mommenheim on March 31, 1945, before the town border, while attempting to make his way home through the already occupied territory. Carrying a weapon became his undoing. His grave is today in the Harxheim cemetery.
Among the male population of Harxheim, the Second World War took a very heavy toll. 47 men, almost 17% of the male population, did not return from the war or from captivity. A Harxheim woman lost her life in the bombing raid in Mainz on February 27, 1945
References:
- Leiwig, Heinz (2016): End of the War in Rheinhessen. Mainz. S. 53-75.
- Various military archive material from the Heinz Leiwig archive, Mainz.
- Eyewitness interviews and reports from 2016 to 2021, own research.
