What You’ll Get From This Episode
You’ll hear the story of the U.S. 3rd Armored Division’s historic and fateful armored drive to capture the German town of Paderborn and help close the southern part of the Ruhr Pocket from 25 March-1 April 1945.
Interwoven throughout the story are first hand accounts of soldiers who fought during the operation.
This episode is considered part 1 of two looking at two of the longest armored drives in U.S. military history.
Resources for Topics Discussed in the Episode
3rd Armored Division History Foundation. This is an online archive of the U.S. Army’s famous “Spearhead” Division that includes a very rich array of information about the Division’s participation in WWII, the Cold War, and Desert Storm.
The following books were used to develop the story for this episode, most of them can be found online at your favorite book seller.
Reflections of a World War II Infantryman (Malcolm L. “Buck” Marsh, Jr.)
Another Town, Another River: A Teenage Tank Gunner Comes of Age in Combat – 1945 (John P. Irwin)
The Incredible Year (Donald J. Willis)
Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II (Adam Makos)
Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II (Belton Y. Cooper)
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