The 20th Armored Division arrived in France in February 1945 and advanced through Belgium into Germany as the Allied front moved east. By April it was driving through Bavaria with the Seventh Army, covering ground rapidly as the German command structure disintegrated and resistance became sporadic and localized rather than coordinated.

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World War II Campaign Map of the 20th Armored Division. Map courtesy of HistoryShots.

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Its defining action came with the capture of Munich on April 30, 1945. The Bavarian capital held political significance beyond its military value — the city was the cradle of the Nazi movement, site of the 1923 putsch and the annual party rallies that had marked the movement's early years. German resistance in the city included SS-controlled installations and barracks whose defenders fought with more determination than most, but the division cleared them in a day of fighting that ended with Munich secured.

After Munich, the division pressed southeast toward the Alps and the Salzburg approaches, its forward elements covering the final miles of the war in the shadows of the mountains as the German surrender became a matter of days. Its brief active campaign — concentrated in Bavaria's final weeks — ended with one of the symbolically weightiest urban objectives of the closing campaign secured.