5.   CLEANING OUT THE RUHR POCKET

Our new mission was to help clean out the German troops trapped in the Ruhr pocket. Ordered to move south, we left Sande at 0500 on 4 April and moved to Salzkotten but at 1800 that night we continued on to the little village of Dedinghausen where the battalion was given the mission of setting up a defense and constituting a mobile reserve to be committed in case the enemy tried to break out of the Ruhr pocket. At 1000, 5 April, we received orders to move out and pass through Task Force Walker of the 8th in the vicinity of. Schmerlecke. This relief was effected at 1300 and a coordinated attack was launched against Schallen, which was captured and we then continued onward that same evening to take Lohne. The Germans, using anti-aircraft guns as artillery and also for ground defense, made things hot for a while but we overcame the resistance.

In the attack on Scballen, "C" Company got into support firing position from the northeast of town while "A" Company took the left flank position. The assault guns and mortars were placed at the southeast of town. "c" Company, moved into place by a covered route and the attack began at 1500. Against Lohne, "C" of the 36th formed the base of fire with the assault guns and mortars. As soon as "C" Company of the 49th entered the town, the tanks followed, a platoon at a time. The attack began at 1730 and by 2000 the town was ours. Air support had been requested but could not be used because the 95th Infantry Division, in the same general area, stated they would have been within the target area .

On 6 April, orders were received at 1000 to capture the town of Bad Sassendorf. Working again with "C". Company of the 49th, we had the town in our hands by 1230. Acting under orders from the division commander, Brigadier General John Devine, Task Force Van Houten pulled back and made a wide end-run, coming down and going along the edge of the lake south of Soest and then cutting up to our objective, Ost Onnen, two kilometers west of Soest. . .

Taking off to comply with these orders, TF Van Houten passed through TF Goodrich of the 8th at Ellingsen and took the town of Echtrop with a reconnaissance platoon and a platoon of light tanks from our "D" Company at 1430, 6 April. Our men chased out a tank, an armored car, a half-track and a motorcycle, taking 30 prisoners and encountering slight resistance. All along the route we continued to take prisoners and received scattered small arms fire. We also captured a four-truck medical.convey, four antitank guns, ten ammunition trucks, four ammunition half-tracks, four tanks and a railroad train loaded with ammunition.

During this movement, three German tanks played "possum," let most of the column pass by, and jumped out at our "thin-skinned" headquarters vehicles. Though the Germans knocked out and sent up in flames one of our attached engineer half-tracks, a platoon of "A" Company of the 36th was near enough to knock out the three German tanks which were already the target of bazookas fired by our headquarters men. Two more German half-tracks were captured and several German civilian automobiles carrying German officers, who tried, but failed to escape, were also taken.

This operation, one of the most unusual in which we were ever engaged, was in the enemy rear and succeeded in disrupting German communications. With Germans ahead of us, behind us for all we knew, and on both sides of us, we continued on in the surprise maneuver and pulled into Ost Onnen at 2000 and a haU an hour later had control of the city. Our prisoner of war "bag" that day exceeded five hundred, of which 350 were taken in the vicinity of Ost Onnen and we continued to add to the number the next day. They finally overflowed the building in which we housed them and it was necessary to use a large field to hold them until they could be turned over to the Military Police.

On 7 April, at 1400, we received orders again, this time to take Mawicke and West Onnen and establish a base of fire from the vicinity of West Onnen while Task Force Roseborough attacked Werl from the southeast. Accompanied by the burgomeister from Ost Onnen, Captain William E. Hensel, then Battalion 8-2, went into Mawicke and the mayor of that town, following a conference, agreed to surrender the town at 1500. We reached West Onnen at 1600 and though artillery fell into the town, probably from German guns in Werl, we remained there the rest of the day.

On 8 April, Major 10hn Pasco, Ir., Battalion 8-3, received permission to take Werl and the battalion moved out at 1400, taking Ostufflen despite heavy artinery fire from mortars and high velocity weapons. "Recon" platoon led the battalion into the town at 1600. Turning our attention to Werl, " A" Company, now commanded by Captain Robert W. Shaw, who had taken over the company after Rheinberg, acted as a base of fire from positions about two kilometers west of Werl and the attack was launched. The assault guns and mortars were furnishing fire from near Ostufflen and the 399th Armored Field Artillery of the 8th lent assistance with an artillery preparation.

The twin "C" companies of the 36th and 49th assaulted and took the town, the infantry dismounting and following the tanks. The heavy artillery and mortar fire which opposed their entrance gradually became worse as the resisting Germans were compressed. The infantry, working in close coordination with the tanks, mopped up each separate strong point, many of which fairly bristled with machine guns and automatic weapons. "D" Company, under the command of Captain lohn McLaughlin since Rheinberg, and "B" Company of the 49th also assisted in cleaning up the "last ditch" resistance. "B" Company of the 36th which was attached to the 49th, also joined in the task and continued with us in taking the next town. Werl was cleared by 1930 and we thought it would be a good chance to catch up on some of the sleep we had been missing out on lately. However, as it turned out, plans other than sleep were in the offing.

No sooner had Werl been cleared than we received orders to take the towns of Ost Buderich and West Buderich. Opposition was moderate and the mortar platoon was placed on the western edge of Werl to support the attack. Advancing through artillery and mortar fire, the Thirty-Sixth took the towns by 2100. Less than half an hour later, at 2130, we received word that TF Van Houten and TF Roseborough would join forces to take the next town, Unna.

Unna was located 16 kilometers to the west of us. Because our reconnaissance was delayed, General Devine ordered TF Van Houten to move out at 0615, 9 April, and we "tore off," continuing until we ran into tank fire at Hemmerde where the lead tank of the column was knocked out. The two "C" Companies teamed up again and after pouring artillery into Hemmerde for five minutes entered the city and cleared it by noon.

Reorganizing quickly, "A" Company of the 36th and "C" Company of the 49th, plus the assault guns and aided by the mortars, started an assault at 1230 to take West Hemmerde. With that town taken, the two companies continued on to Stockum, which they cleared by 1800.

After spending the night at Stockum, we received orders to take Ost Buren and Kesselburen. Ost Buren offered no resistance so we hopped off for Kesselburen. The twin "C" Companies, with assault guns and mortars furnishing supporting fire an~ smoking both flanks, cleaned out the objective by 2100 and we crawled into our sleeping bags after we were informed that CC "A" of the 8th was to pass through and take Unna. Our task of cleaning up the Ruhr was completed and we were soon to start, the next day in fact, on another mission.

Proven once more to be "tops" in armor, we were proud and justly so of our record in the Ruhr. We had aided in "chewing up" the remnants of several German Panzer divisions as well as infantry divisions attempting to reform in the region. Our total Of captured prisoners was some place in the thousands. We were too busy to count them and merely searched them for weapons and turned them over to the Military Police whenever they managed to catch up with us. Sleep was something we didn't get much of and we didn't miss it too much as the excitement of battle kept us awake. Long drives over blacked-out roads with nothing but a pair of blinking tail lights ahead of us made us sharp-eyed as owls. We were in our stride now and the more Germans they threw at us the harder they fell.