522nd Field Artillery Battalion Flag522nd Field Artillery Battalion guidon522nd Field Artillery Battalion in GermanySeventh Army
            Shoulder Patch4th
            Infantry Division Shoulder Patch

LEFT: 522nd  Battalion Flag (Click for larger format), 522nd  Battalion Pennant: Right: Seventh Army and 4th Infantry Division Shoulder Patches

Summary of the 522nd in "The Holocaust Corridor"
Small Camps

Soldiers while on reconnasaince freed slave laborers working to maintain infrastructure in local communities.These actions were not recorded in the 522nd's official records.

Liberation in Popula
r Culture

The popular culture image in the media of liberation is of a combat unit stumbling upon a subcamp filled with starving prisoners, shooting off locks, breaking down gates and fences with their vehicles, and engaging in combat with resisting SS guards.

The reality of liberation is what the 522nd experienced.


The 522nd was a fast moving combat unit. Securing subcamps, caring for liberated prisoners, and the collection of of war crimes evidence was the responsibility of designated Corps units that followed the 522nd.
The location of many subcamps were known to the U.S. Army and units were assigned to them. The 522nd was never assigned to a camp or subcamp. The Dachau subcamps were empty since the SS transported the prisoners as troops such as the 522nd approached. The 522nd met with no resistance at the subcamps they encountered.  Survivors were found hiding in the woods outside of at Kaufering IV encountered by the 522nd but may already have been in the care of  Army Government Affairs and Medical units prior to the arrival of the 522nd.

Unexpected encounters occurred when the 522nd rescued French POWS at Moerlbach, civilian slave laborers by soldiers on reconnaissance, and subcamp prisoners on a death march at Waakirchen.

Liberators of Subcamps  and POW and Death March Rescuers

February, 1945

The 522nd Field Artillery Battalion was detached from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Assigned to the Seventh Army
.

In March 1945, the 522nd was operating as a non-divisional Seventh Army unit assigned to Seventh Army units as needed.

From March 31 to May  1, 1945, the
522nd was attached to the 4th Infantry Division (ID) and operated with the 4th's 12th Infantry Regiment (IR).

The 522nd advanced through the area of the subcamps.

As the
522nd  advanced, the SS abandoned the subcamps and transported the prisoners by death marches.The SS murdered prisoners unable to be transported. prisoners may have attempted to evade being transported.

In the 522nd Battalion Journals documents the 522nd at or near
the Horgau and Kaufering IV, and Turkenfeld subcamps of the Dachau satellite subcamp system.

While, all subcamps needed to be entered, secured, searched for any living prisoners, SS guards, and evidence of crimes, that was the responsibility Corps level units and not combat units such as the 522nd. Combat units such as the 522nd quickly advanced to their next combat assignment.

The SS transported all living prisoners from Horgau before the arrival of the 522nd. Most of the living prisoners had a transported from Kaufering IV before the arrival of the 522nd. A few had escaped SS transport and were hiding in the nearby woods. Those prisoners may already had been taken into the care of Army Government Affairs and Medical units prior to the arrival of the 522nd.

Starting on April 26, 1945 the SS assembled 14,180 Dachau subcamp prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp and Munich area subcamps of the Dachau system.On May 2, 1945 at Waakirchen, the 522nd with elements of the 12th IR, rescued 2,700 to 3,000 surviving prisoners from that death march.

Table: 522nd Locations, Attachments, Assignments, and Units Supported:March 12 to May 18, 1945.

February, 1945

The 522nd Field Artillery Battalion was detached from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Assigned to the Seventh Army

March 27 and 28
: Crossing the Rhine River

From March 21 to March 26, the 522nd was assigned
to the XV Corps Seventh Army. In the  XV Corps the 522nd was attached to the 45th Infantry Division and operated with the 45th's 171st FAB and attached 283rd Artillery in support of the 45th's crossing of the Rhine River at Worms.

From March 26 to March 29, the
522nd was attached to 44th Infantry Division and operated with their 156th Field Artillery Battalion to provide fire in support of the 44th's Rhine River crossing at Frankenthal south of Worms.

Cpl. Kenzo Okubo and T/5 Harry Ishibashi, Headquarters Battery. are reported to have been the first soldiers to have crossed the Rhine River in a DUKW on a liaison mission.

On March 27 all units except the Service Battery
crossed the Rhine River. The Service Battery crossed on March 28.
Rhine River
                      Crossing
Click on image for larger format

March 28, 1945 12th Army Group Situation Map showing the 44th Infantry Division with the attached  522nd FAB crossing
the Rhine River south of Worms near F
rankenthal on March 28, 1945

Public domain map from the Library of Congress
Rhine River Crossing
Click on image for larger format

522nd crossing the Rhine River on a pontoon bridge south of Worms near Frankenthal on March 28, 1945

Photo by T/5 Henry Ishida, Service Battery from Fire for Effect page 111. Copyright Henry Ishida. Used by permission of Laurie Oue, Henry Ishida's daughter.

On the other side of the Rhine River the 522nd advanced through the area of the one hundred and twenty-three subcamps of the Dachau satellite system. In early April as American troops approached, the Nazis abandoned the subcamps and transported the prisoners on death marches. That is why the subcamps encountered by the 522nd had few if any living prisoners.

Map
Click on map for larger format

Map of the 
522nd's route through Germany showing the locations of the subcamps the 522nd encountered, the location of their liberation of French POW slave laborers, and their rescue of subcamp prisoners from a death march

Enters "The Holocaust Corridor"

Starting April 26, 1945: Death March Begins

In April 1945, the SS decided to exterminate the prisoners of the concentration camps and subcamps.

Starting April 26, 1945, the SS assembled 14,180 Dachau subcamp prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp and the Munich area subcamps of the Dachau system and sent south on death marches.
 

9700 were.Jews from the Kaufering subcamps (9,700/68%). Others were Jews and Slavic Russians from the Munich area subcamps of Allach (2,000/14%), Munchen-Riem (1,500/11%), Munchen-Giesing (500/4%), and Ottobrunn (300/2%),and the Kommando Präzifix (150/1%). Some were German political prisoners.

The prisoners rescued by the 522nd came from the main Dachau concentration camp and the
Allach (2,000/14%), Munchen-Riem (1,500/11%), Munchen-Giesing (500/4%), and Ottobrunn (300/2%),and the Kommando Präzifix Dachau subcamps

April 27: Horgau Dachau subcamp (No Prisoners) (Location of Battalion Headquarters April 27)

Battalion Journal reports the 522nd occupied positions near Horgau from 1330 to 2045.

The 522nd co-liberated the Horgau Dachau subcamp with units of the 12th IR, 4th Infantry Division.

Tadashi Tojo and Robert Sugai, A Battery, were present during the liberation of
the
Horgau Dachau subcamp.

The Horgau subcamp had billets for approximately 550 slave laborers in the village of Horgau. The slave laborers worked in the nearby complex of 21 buildings constructing Nazi combat aircraft.

The SS had evacuated the Horgau Dachau subcamp before U.S. troops arrived.

On April 4,the SS transferred the remaining 274 prisoners at the Horgau subcamp to the Pfersee subcamp A few of at the Pfersee subcamp were sent to the main Dachau camp while the rest were sent on a death march.

The Horgau subcamp prisoners were rescued
at Klimmach from the death march by units of the 12th Armored Division.

At this time, we have no information if the any living prisoners who had escaped or evaded the April 4 death march transport were still at Horgau at the time of his 522nd FAB and 12th IR liberated the Horgau Dachau subcamp.

The Horgau subcamp is among the many Dachau subcamps for which the USHMM has not recognized a liberating division.

 
April 28 or 29th: Units of the 4th ID Liberate a Dachau Subcamp in Augsburg (No Prisoners)
The 522nd Battalion Journal reports that at the time of liberation, from 1630 until 1800 on April 28,1945 the 522nd was positioned at Augsburg-Bergheim, 5 miles south of the Pfersee subcamp and 6 miles west of the bombed out Haunstetten subcamp (see map below). During those 90 minutes soldiers of the 522nd were unlikely to have had time to enter either subcamp before moving 8 miles south to their next position at Bobingen,

All 4th ID units and attached units, including the 522nd are included in the recognition of the 4th ID as a liberating division of a subcamp.
522nd at Bergheim
Click on map for larger format

Top: Pfersee, subcamp location, entered by units of the 4th ID on April 28 or 29, 1945
Left:
Augsburg-Bergheim, 522nd position from 1630 until 1800 on April 28,1945
Right: Augsburg-Haunstetten: Bombed out aircraft manufacturing facility and subcamp

Google. (n.d.). [Augsburg Area Dachau Subcamps and 522nd FAB Location, April 28 & 29, 1945]. Retrieved June 3, 2024, from https://www.google.com/maps/@48.3423151,10.8026312,13z?authuser=0&entry=ttu
Edited by Leonard H. Cizewski, June 4, 2024


April 29:
Kaufering IV subcamp at the Lechfeld Airfield near Hurlach (101st Airborne Division history reports 600 prisoners who evaded transport found hiding nearby by other units)

The Battalion Journal states that the 522nd was at Lager (Camp) Lechfeld from 0940 to 1055.

Lager Lechfeld was the Kaufering IV subcamp at the Lechfeld Airfield near Hurlach.

The 522nd was at both the Lechfeld Airfield and the Kaufering IV subcamp.

1st Battalion, 255th Infantry Regiment, 63rd Infantry Division was assigned to liberate the Kaufering subcamps.

Recognized co-liberators of Kaufering IV

April 27: 12th Armored Division

April 28: 101st Airborne Division

April 29-30: 63rd ID

Kaufering IV was initially a slave labor camp for the Lager Lechfeld Nazi airfield. Later is was a camp for prisoners incapable of transport.

The Kaufering IV subcamp was set afire and partially destroyed when prisoners from nearby subcamps were transported to the main Dachau camp in mid-April. Bodies were still smoldering when the subcamp was liberated. The smell of those burning bodies were the ones that soldiers of the 522nd report In their oral histories and other accounts. At none of the other subcamps encountered by the 522nd or at the main Dachau concentration which the 522nd toured after the war were bodies being burnt.

The U.S. Army counted the bodies of eighty-six prisoners who had been burned to death, plus 274 others of people had died from starvation or typhus or had been shot to death.

From the main Dachau concentration camp, the Kaufering prisoners were sent south on a death march where on May 2 at Waakirchen in the Bavarian Alps they were rescued by the 522nd with units of the 12th IR.

At this time, we have no information if any prisoners who evaded the SS evacuation and killings were present when the 522nd FAB passed through the Kaufering IV subcamp about 8 miles south of the Lechfeld Airfield near Hurlach. Soldiers from other units made contact with those prisoners.

38.5 miles to the east of Hurlach, units of the 45th and 42th Infantry Divisions and 20th Armored Division liberated the main Dachau concentration camp.

The 522nd was operating 26 to 34 miles west of the main Dachau concentration camp. In Fire for Effect the 522nd states that no units of the 522nd took part in the liberation of the main Dachau concentration camp.
KauferingDachau
Click on map for larger format

April 29, 1945: (LEFT ORANGE CIRCLE) The position of the 522nd with the 4th Infantry Division. (RIGHT ORANGE CIRCLE): Dachau concentration camp.
A salient of Nazi troops was between the 522nd and the Dachau concentration camp making it inaccessible to the 522nd. The Dachau concentration camp was across the boundaries of the three co-liberating divisions. The 522nd, including 522nd soldiers on reconnasaince, operated within the 4th ID's boundaries and with its assigned regiment and would not have crossed the boundaries of other divisions. The Seventh Army assigned the liberation of Dachau to the 45th Infantry Division which was later joined by the 42nd Infantry and 20th Armored Divisions.

HQ 12th Army Group Situation April 30, 1945 Map in the public domain edited by Leonard H. Cizewski. The April 30, 1945 situation map most accurately depicts the position of 522nd at Lechfield Lager on April 29, 1945.

Jets Four photos by Staff Sergeant George Oiye, C Battery  of 522nd soldiers of the planes that were being assembled by slave laborers from the Kaufering subcamp at the Lechfeld Airfield. The Kaufering subcamps are 6 to 8 miles south of the
Lechfeld Airfield  h.
Link to
Online Archive of California to the George Oiye Album from the Japanese American National Museum

April 29 - 30: Turkenfeld Subcamp (No Prisoners) (Location of Battalion Headquarters April 29 to 30)

The Battalion Journal reports the 522nd was in positions in the vicinity of Turkenfeld from 2100 on April 29 to 1215 on April 30.

A Dachau subcamp was constructed at Turkenfeld but never put into operation.

April 30: Morlbach (Unknown number of French POWS ) (Location of Battalion Headquarters April 30 to May 1)

The Battalion Journal reports that at 2000 the 522nd liberated French POWS, The number is not reported.


After providing immediate security and care, the 522nd would have transferred liberated French POWs
to the XXI Corps who would then transfer them to the French First Army..

April 30, 1945: The Death March Breaks into Small Groups After Crossing of the Loisach River and Canal; Prisoners are Rescued at Least Four Locations by Units of the 4th adn 36th Divisions

On April 30, 1945, the survivors of the death march that began on April 26 reached the bridges over the Loisach River and Canal near the Herrenhausen farm near Eurasburg. While crossing, the SS detected approaching American troops. With prisoners crossing, the SS blew up the bridges, killing hundreds and stranding thousands on the west bank, mostly Slavic Russians.

May 1: Rescue at Bolzwang by U
nits of the 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division

On the west bank, the SS marched the prisoners north towards Bolzwang. On May 1, after the SS abandoned the prisoners. Units of the 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division rescued 3,000 survivors at Bolzwang.

May 1: Rescue at the Buchberg Subcamp by
Units of the 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division

The  SS had abandoned about 1,000 death march prisoners from the Allach and Kaufering XI subcamps at Buchberg subcamp of the Dachau system Many were Jewish. On May 1, units of the 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division liberated the Buchberg subcamp including both the subcamp and death march prisoners.

May 2: Rescue at Waakirchen by the Units of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion

On the east bank, the SS resumed the death march and and on April  30 and May 1 continued to murder prisoners as they marched the prisoners east from the Loisch River and Canal crossing through Bad Tolz towards Waakirchen.

On the morning of May 2, 1945 the SS abandoned the survivors. By the early afternoon along the road from Bad Tolz to Waakirchen the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, along with units of the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, arrived and rescued 2,700 to 3,000 survivors. About 990 were Germans, mostly political prisoners from the main Dachau concentration camp. About 100 were Slavic Russian along with a few Slavic Poles from unidentified Dachau subcamps. Approximately 2,000 were Jews from the Kaufering subcamps.

The subcamps prisoners were scattered in small groups along the road.


The 522nd stayed with them to provide security and care for two days until May 4 as that is probably when Third Army Medical and Civil Affairs units arrived.

Security was required as the war was not over as members of the SS and other armed Nazis remained nearby in the foothills of Bavarian Alps.

The May 1945 Battalion Journal records the 522nd Battalion Headquarters at Waakirchen from 1745 on May 2 to 1315 on May 4. No mention is made of the rescue.
 
MemorialThe 522nd Field Artillery Battalion and the Waakirchen Death March Rescue: An Illustrated Record

May 2: Rescue at
Dürnbach by soldiers of the Command Post of the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment

At Dürnbach to the east of Waakirchen another 300 Dachau subcamp prisoners from Dachau and Munich area subcamps were rescued. Dürnbach is 1 mile east of Finsterwald. Finsterwald was the May 2, 1945 location of the command post of the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.
Dürnbach was probably being patroled or within the the picket lines of the the command post of the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment making that the most likely rescuing unit.

Related 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division Documents:

May 2, 1945: Units of the 12th IR report armed SS in civilian clothes in the area. That is why the 522nd provided security for the prisoners rescued from the death march.

May 3, 1945: Report of communications between units of the 12th IR and 522nd regarding artillery support.

May 4, 1945: 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division: Ordering one platoon of I Company to send "displaced persons" in a single file to the location of K Company  on May 5, 1945.. "Displaced Persons" refers to liberated subcamps prisoners. Those may include the subcamp prisoners rescued from the death march by the 522nd or other subcamp camp prisoners liberated by 12th in the area.
Companies I and K. 12th IR appear to be operating on the road between Bad Tolz and Waakirchen where the 522nd is providing security for and caring for the rescued subcamp prisoners.

At least 6,000 (43%) of the 14,180 prisoners that started on the death march were rescued at four locations on the east and west sides of the Loisch River. The 57% of deaths were from murder, disease, medical neglect, exposure, exhaustion, and starvation.

Undated and Unrecorded Small Camp Encounters During Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance was the responsibility of the Battalion S-2 (Intelligence) Officer Captain Billy Taylor and the Headquarters Survey Sergeant, Staff Sergeant Don Shimazu. They were responsible for the placing of the guns of all three batteries from three to seven miles from their previous position (Fire for Effect, page 105). They also maintained contact with neighboring units.

While performing those duties, they encountered civilian slave labors maintaining infrastructure in local communities. Some were held in small camps then trucked to their work sites. Those small camps may not have been documented by the SS or documentation was lost when the SS destroyed records. The USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia has not found documentation for every small Dachau camp

Captain Billy Taylor and Staff Sergeant Don Shimazu reporting freeing some of those slave laboers at such facilities by breaking the lock on the gate.

The 522nd was instructed that they were on combat and not humanitarian missions and to leave the freed slave laborers for the following Army government affairs and medical units. Captain Billy Taylor and Staff Sergeant Don Shimazu may have shared their rations. Soldiers were warned against sharing their high calories rations with prisoners who were starving such as those at Dachau. Slave laborers were not starving as they were fed enough to be able to work. Captain Billy Taylor and Staff Sergeant Don Shimazu would not have harmed those slave laborers by sharing their rations.

Captain Billy Taylor and Staff Sergeant Don Shimazu were instructed not to record such encounters in the official records.

Between May 9 and November 1945: Postwar Tours of the Main Dachau Concentration Camp: (32,000 prisoners at liberation on April 29, 1945)

As early as May 9, 1945, one day after the end of the war in Europe and ten days after the liberation of the April 29, 1945 liberation of main Dachau concentration camp, as the first units of the 522nd deployed from Schaftlach to Donauworth,Germany for occupation duty, soldiers of the 522nd had the opportunity to tour the main Dachau concentration camp.

The camp and town Dachau were the center for the care and processing of the 32,000 prisoners initially liberated and the liberated prisoners from the 123 Dachau subcamps.

The soldiers of the 522
nd took photos and described their tour in their oral histories and memoirs.

Recognition of the 522nd as a Liberating Unit


The 4th Infantry Division is a recognized liberating division as its 8th IR was the 4th ID unit assigned to Augsburg.

The U.S.Army Center of Military History (CMH) established criteria that only recognized divisions as liberating units of camps and subcamps. Attached units, including non-divisional units when attached to divisions, are included in that recognition. Therefore if the day or days of the liberation of Haunstetten by the 4th ID correlates with the April 28, 1945 attachment of the 522nd with the 4th ID, then 522nd is included in that recognition.

522nd Related Sites in Germany Today


The 522nd Field Artillery Battalion: Memorials, Markers, Cemeteries, and Landmarks Today in Germany

Sources and Researchers

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All items not in the public domain c2021-2024
The 45th Infantry Division in World War II: An Unofficial Guide to Resources

Co-administrators: Leonard H. Cizewski & Judy Erwin Branham

Last Reviewed:
Posted:April 19, 2021
Update,Revision & Correction History:

July 12, 2024
August 19,  2024
November 21, 2024
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