Austria

The War Comes to an End
Austria the Best Part of the War
 

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May 2, 1945

Moving to the border of Austria. Germany's army
surrendering by the thousands.

Prisoners were giving up by the 1000's now. As the 103rd 
was advancing 30 to 40 miles a day, they often would see
 columns of German soldiers walking along the side of the
road and unless they were an officer they didn't even stop
 but just wave to them which way to go and surrender.

They were so ready to surrender one example of jokes told 
was "I woke up this morning in the house we were staying in
 to a knock on the door and so I put my pants on and
answered the door and 500 uniformed German soldiers were
 standing in the street, one character said in broken English
 , Is dis der place ver ve surrender?" Report after action. 
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Free to Play His Music


Richard Strauss  in Garmisch  1938

The 103rd in searching for displaced persons and Nazis 
found the famous composer Richard Strauss. He had been
 under house arrest. He had a Jewish wife but he was too
 popular for Hitler to touch so they were untouched and he
 remained free of being a Nazi as well. He was so happy to
 be liberated and was hoping his new compositions could be played now.

Richard Strauss the famous composer of works like Also
 Sprach Zarathustra better known as 2001 Space Odyssey.

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May 5, 1945

When the 103rd got into Innsbruck it was a confusing 
situation. Some resistance soldiers along with some of the 
German people's army had taken over the town and thrown 
the German officers in prison. 

They were happy to see the American soldiers come in. You
 could even hear shouts like "Heil Americans".However the
 German officers refused to officially surrender the town.
 The situation was sticky and so to make a long story short 
the commanding officers had to locate the proper German
 authority to get a surrender issued which was read by one
 of our lieutenants that spoke German  over loudspeakers to
 the city.

The 103rd made their CP (Comman Post) inside the Central 

Hotel . This was really living now. No more cooking on field

 burners and K rations. They had full use of the hotel kitchen

and bar and rooms to sleep in.

Modern day picture of the Central Hotel 

  

Churchill Rifenburg explains what is going on to the townsfolk of Innsbruck. 

Frank Block with a girl on the street in Innsbruck. She is wearing a traditional dress of the area. 



Finally The Official Surrender 

On May 5th General Erich Brandenberger officially surrendered the German 19th army in Innsbruk. 

Official signing by Erich Brandenberger. He wasn't smiling.

After this the soldiers could hardly believe it. Innsbruck greeted the 103rd as heroes. Girls climbed up on the jeeps and tanks to kiss the boys. They folks threw flowers and screamed cheers as the troops advanced into town. 

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May 9, 1945

The surrender announcement comes over the radio and
someone gives a half-hearted whoop, as if it were expected.
 You feel no particular exhilaration. The damned war had 
ended too gradually. You always pictured V-E day as a
sudden out-of-the-heavens blast of news. You expected to
go mad with joy. To jump up and down in the streets and
 get drunk. But instead things are a bit quiet, and everyone
 is already discussing future plans.
from ....Report After Action

On May 9th the 103rd showed the city of Innsbruck what

 they used to smash the Wehrmacht. Some of the

equipment used to batter through defenses of 

Germany.Tanks, ramming devices, jeep mounted mortars,

 anti-tank weapons, and other ominous looking weapons as

 well as a well disciplined marching army of soldiers.

 The 103rd now was running the city of Innsbruck. They

 ferreted out any SS Nazis that were hiding, directed traffic. 

Frank Block's duties were often policing fights among towns 

folk. 

Frank and Larry Potter enjoying a glass of wine in Innsbruck

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June 5, 1945

Lager Schlatt or Camp Schlatt from what little I could research was some kind of Nazi camp that was taken over and we used it for a place to put the displaced people that were captured and used as slaves for the Germans. There also was some high tech operations for the Nazis going on there as the U.S, destroyed some high tech very large military rockets.  

Displaced Slave that they hired to help serve the 103rd at
 Lager Schlatt, Looks like the can of peaches went through
 the war itself. 

Waitresses from Lager Schlatt but very happy to be free.

The Nazis had taken many of the city folk from France, Italy and Poland and brought into Germany and Austria for the Nazi  families to use as household slaves. After the Nazi's fled they had free reign of the house. So they would invite the Cactus boys in to rummage for souvenirs and other things they could use and drink some fine wine or Cognac also. 

Displaced Persons, Frank thought they were from Poland, very happy to be free. 

Frank Block with Joe Norman at Lager Schlatt  holding a mortar they found in Austria 

1  ladies that was a displaced Polish person and 1 that was a
waitress at the Central Hotel in Austria. 

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June 16, 1945

 The 103rd spread out their occupation role from Innsbruck all the way down to Brenner Pass at the border of Austria and into Bolzana Italy.  Also up North in Germany and Frank's platoon continued to take care of displaced prisoners and get them back to their country. 

Bill Parsons near the Border of Italy and Austria entering Brenner Pass.

It was over except for ......................
The Final Days

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Links
The surrender of General Erich Brandenberger 


Only reference to Lager Schlatt