69^th Infantry Division

The 69th Infantry Division landed at Le Havre in January 1945 and entered the West Wall sector in February, relieving the 99th Infantry Division. After securing key heights in early March, the division attacked with three regiments abreast on March 6, pushing rapidly to take Schmidtheim and Dahlem, then crossed the Rhine on March 26 and took the Luftwaffe Citadel and the Lahn River towns of Bad Ems and Nassau the next day.

Campaign map image

World War II Campaign Map of the 69th Infantry Division. Map courtesy of HistoryShots.

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Moving east behind the 9th Armored Division and then assuming the Kassel area, the division crossed the Werra in early April at Hann. Münden before driving on Leipzig. It ran into the outer defenses of the city at Zwenkau on April 16 and reduced Leipzig in house-to-house fighting by April 19 — one of the largest urban battles of the final campaign in Germany. Taking over the Mulde River line, the division secured the east bank in the Battle for Eilenburg on April 23 and accepted the surrender of Wurzen the following day.

On April 25, 1945, a patrol of the 273rd Infantry Regiment made contact with the Soviet Army near Torgau on the Elbe — the celebrated link-up that marked the physical junction of Allied armies advancing from east and west and became one of the most recognized symbolic events of the war's final days. The division held its positions along the Mulde until Germany's surrender on May 7.