522nd Field Artillery Battalion Flag522nd Field Artillery Battalion guidon522nd Field Artillery Battalion in "The Holocaust Corridor"Seventh 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"
Encountered subcamps:
Liberation in Popular 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 location of many subcamps were known to the U.S. Army and units were assigned to them. For example, the 63rd Infantry was assigned the Kaufering Subcamps.
The camps 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. All subcamps needed to be entered and assessed for any survivors. Survivors were found at one of the subcamps encountered by the 522nd (Kaufering IV). Subcamps needed to be secured for designated units to collect evidence of war crimes.

Unexpected encounters occurred when the 522nd rescued French POWS escaping from slave labor (Moerlbach) and subcamp prisoners on a death march (Waakirchen).

Subcamps Liberators 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 their unit history Fire for Effect, the
522nd reports encounters with the Ellwagen, Horgau, Kaufering IV, and Turkenfeld, subcamps of the Dachau satellite subcamp system. Those correlate with the April, 1945 Battalion Journal.

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.

Ellwagen had been shut down in 1942. Turkenfeld had never been put into operation.

At this time no information is available if the 522nd found any living prisoners at Horgau or Kaufering IV. Other units did find living prisoners at Kaufering IV.

The information in Fire for Effect is incomplete and additional research is needed.

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"

April 22:
Ellwagen subcamp (No Prisoners)

Advanced from Stimpfach to Wasseralfingen, possibly passing through Ellwagen.

 
The Ellwagen subcamp of the Dachau system was opened in July 1941and shut down and abandoned in October 1942.

The 522nd Battalion Journal does not report any contact with the abandoned subcamp.

Starting April 26, 1945:

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.

April 26:
Lauingen subcamp (No Prisoners)

Advanced from Wasseralfingen to Weisingen, possibly passing through Lauingen.

The 522nd Battalion Journal does not report any contact with the abandoned subcamp.

The Lauingen subcamp
was a Messerschmidt facility that assembled parts for fighter aircraft.


The SS closed the Lauingen subcamp
on April 12, ten days before units of the 12th Armored Division liberated it on April 22 and two weeks before the arrival of the 522nd. The 3,000 prisoners were transported to various other locations. Some were liberated by an unidentified American unit, possibly a 4th Infantry Division unit, in the Augsburg area in late April with others liberated at the main Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945.

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 610th Tank Destroyer Battalion and 12th IR, 4th Infantry Division.

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

Tank Destroyer
Click on image for larger format

Forward observers of of the 522nd on a tank destroyer
of the 610th Tank Destroyer Battalion nears Augsburg.  Augsburg is 11 miles east of Horgau.
This illustrates the 522nd and 610th operating together at about the same time and place as the liberation of Horgau.
Undated.


Photo by G. Oiye, C Battery

Photo from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Eric Saul


At the time, the  522nd was operating with the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division and the 610th Tank  Destroyer Battalion was attached to the 4th ID from March 17 to May 9, 1945.

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 U.S. Army Center of Military History 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.

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 operated within its own division'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 liberates 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 and the Crossing of the Loisach River and Canal

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: Dachau Subcamp Prisoners Death March Rescue


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.

May 2: Dachau Subcamp Prisoners Death March Rescue (Unknown Number) (Battalion Headquarters Located at Waakirchen May 2 to 4)

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.. The rescue of the subcamp prisoners from the death march may have been a series of rescues of small groups of survivors along the road.

In two rescues by two units over two days, at least 6,000 (43%) of the 14,180 prisoners that started on the death march were rescued and the east and west sides of the Loisch River. The 57% of deaths were from
murder, disease, medical neglect, exposure, exhaustion, and starvation.

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

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

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 the "The Holocaust Corridor"

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:

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