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The Ninth Army drive to the Elbe River was so fast it left in its wake many German troops; which the spearheads had bypassed. Ditford was in one of these uncertain areas, therefore we were on the alert for anything at all times. In taking Ditford, eight hundred American and British prisoners were freed from the Germans. Some of them were captives since the early days of the war on the shores of Dunkirk. As a group they did not look or feel well for they've been forced to march ahead of the retreating German Army on very low food rations. We shared what food, cigarettes and extra clothes we had with them. Three days later they were evacuated to the rear.

While at Ditford we had the tanks outposted to form a ring around the town. These posts did a thriving business in capturing many stray soldiers who did not know we were so deep into Germany. The city of Quinlinburg only a few miles ahead of us was full of German troops digging defenses in anticipation of us attacking. Almost every night our outposts would engage in small scale battles with enemy patrols trying to infiltrate our lines.

We could now begin to see to a certain extent the collapse of their army. Because in our seven days here, we took about two hundred prisoners of which many had deserted the German army and changed to civilian clothes. One morning three enemy trucks were heading towards one of the outposts. After the skirmish was over, without injury to any of our men, we found the enemy suffered four killed, three wounded and the balance which consisted of fourteen men and two women soldiers, were taken prisoner. The trucks were loaded with ammunition and rifles.

On April 22nd, we left Ditford and traveled to Blankenburg. We were surprised to see so many abandoned German vehicles left intact, plus an abundance of weapons and other types of war equipment. After the tanks were parked, the streets looked like a speedway with all the German motorcycles, peeps, and miscellaneous vehicles being tried out by the GI's.

The next day we moved to a small town named Wienrode. It was formerly a German army Horse Cavalry center. Hundreds of good riding horses and new saddles were left by the fast retreating troops. So naturally horseback riding became the Vogue. We were now in the Hartz Mountains and told we would occupy the three small towns around. The Ninth Army had reached the Elbe and was ordered to go no further, so therefore our fighting days in Europe had come to a close.

The Hartz Mts. was full of abandoned German heavy guns, tanks, ammunition and all types of vehicles. Upon surveying the woods closer we found out the reason why. It seems our Air Corps had caught these hundreds of vehicles trying to retreat to the protective terrain of the Hartz Mts. Many vehicles were destroyed in the air corps attack and there were many dead German troops in the woods. We had to destroy all this enemy equipment and blow up their ammunition.

For us, the war was about over, but we had to stay on the alert because we couldn't trust the enemy or it's people.

April 27th 1945 we moved to Hasselfield, Germany. While here, all kinds of rumors and official reports concerning the collapse of the German army were being heard. It seemed like the war would end any day and we could hardly understand why they were still fighting. Here we were occupying because there was no place for us to fight, yet the war went on.

We moved to Northeim, Germany, May 7th, 1945. It is quite a large city and afforded us many means of recreation while occupying. We had a swimming hole behind our tank area, a beer tavern for the company's use, and a good movie in the heart of town.

On May 8th, 1945 at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Armistice came to us in Northeim, Germany. Nobody cheered or celebrated, yet we had all the right to, because we just officially defeated the greatest war machine Europe or any other country had ever produced. But in doing so, we lost many friends because our fare across Germany was paid for in killed and wounded buddies. For those who will never hear of their victory, we salute them, for they will always be part of Company D 36th Tank Battalion.