The Story of the 10th Armored Division cont.
Road-weary, battle-worn tankers and dough hooked left into the Danube city of Ulm April 23, then crossed the river southeast toward the Austrian-German border. Ulm and Iller Canal to the south proved intial stumbling blocks. These were brushed aside April 25 as the Sherman shook loose for the pulse-pounding race to the finish.
Mile upon mile, through town after town, armor ran rampant. In the 10th's path, swastikas gave way to white flags. The beaten Wehrmacht and die-ahrd SS troops surrendered in droves. In five days, the Tigers took 9000 prisoners, the equivalent of a Nazi panzer division.
TF Chamberlain captured Memmingen, liberating nearly 4000 Allied prisoners. TF Thackston swung saet to flank Landsberg's notorious concentration camp. TF Hankins spearheaded 23 miles April 29 to occupy the world shrine, Oberammergau, home of the Passion Play, and Garmisch Partenkirchen, scene of the 1936 winter Olympics. The same day, TF Chamberlain and Maj. James B. Duncan's combat teams crossed the Austrian border below Fussen in force, first Seventh Army unit to enter the country.
By April 30, the 10th was deep in Austria's snow-mantled Alps, only 40 miles north of the Italian border. TF Hankins had penetrated within 20 miles of Innsbruck, Austria. A week before, the 10th had been on the Danube. Now it was more than 100 miles to the south.