When it rained grenades in Hartha 

 

Arndt Schubert saw the Americans march into his hometown. He tells of his experiences. 

 

The time of the war and the one that followed still moves the former Harthaer Arndt Schubert very much today. When he talks about the events that took place in his hometown in April 1945, his voice trembles. Sometimes it even fails. “I've experienced things that are no longer imaginable today. That's why I still feel uncomfortable today, ”said the retired music teacher. 

 

When the Americans marched into Hartha, he was 15 years old. Some of his classmates who were born in 1929 were drafted into the Wehrmacht. He had to go to the Volkssturm. He went there in civilian clothes. “My father said you don't wear a brown shirt like that. I don't need to say that I was disadvantaged because of this, ”said the now 85-year-old. His parents received a letter on April 8, 1945, in which they were asked to ensure that their son Arndt visits the services regularly. He had stayed away from them as often as he could. Police even threatened to take action. “I would have preferred to pursue other hobbies back then. For example, I was fascinated by the music, ”says Arndt Schubert. 

 

He lived with his parents and his two years younger brother in the house on Nordstrasse 7. Father Schubert was a master tailor. 

 

Anti-tank barrier erected 

“In the spring of 1945 fanatical Nazis and Wehrmacht officers had Hartha prepared for defense. Trenches were dug and shelters were built on Schützenplatz, Wiesenplatz and in the adjacent Stadtwäldchen, ”says Arndt Schubert. An anti-tank barrier was built on Leipziger Strasse at the Wiesenstrasse junction. “For this purpose, railway sleepers were rammed in two rows vertically into a trench across the street and stabilized with stones. There was only enough space in the middle for a car to drive through. In an emergency, the hole was quickly closed, ”says Arndt Schubert. 

 

On April 22, 1945, when the Red Army was in Döbeln, the bridge in Töpeln had blown up and the Americans had occupied Geringswalde, the signal for the tank alarm sounded in Hartha. The pensioner remembers: “The Americans came to bypass the anti-tank barrier via the district of Flemmingen. At the corner of Dresdener and Flemmingener Strasse they positioned a tank to cover their rear. The majority of the Americans took up position in front of the town hall. ”The German military had fled to Schützenplatz. The pursuers appeared shortly afterwards at the forester's lodge and also left a tank here as a safety measure towards the market. 

 

American tanks and armored personnel carriers drove down Nordstrasse in the direction of Otto-Buchwitz-Strasse. “We watched what was happening from our windows. I looked into the pale faces of the American soldiers. You could see that they had to expect to lose their lives at any moment. But I also looked into the muzzles of the machine guns which the soldiers sitting on the vehicles had aimed at people who, like us, were looking out of the window. As soon as the vehicles were over, my father called out, the war is over. We were very happy. But my father was wrong, ”says Arndt Schubert. 

 

A fight broke out on the Schützenplatz. The gym was on fire. “We heard the shots,” said Harthaer. At around 5 p.m. the pensioner Alfred Seifert walked through the streets with the Americans as a crier and announced that all weapons had to be surrendered in front of the town hall and that there would be curfew from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. “I had an air rifle from my brother and didn't want to part with it. But then the fear was greater and I gave up the rifle with a heavy heart. There was already a mountain of weapons in front of the town hall, ”said Arndt Schubert. 

 

In the evening the Americans withdrew to Geringswalde. A short time later we saw the Nazis coming from Steina. In the morning the Americans were there again. “That went well until on the morning of April 24th at the corner of Leipziger and Weststrasse an American armored personnel carrier was shot down by a fanatic with a bazooka. The surviving Americans threw hand grenades at the assassin, who could not even be identified later, ”says Arndt Schubert. He looked at the scene shortly after the battle. 

 

Hometown badly damaged 

In the afternoon, an American reconnaissance plane circled over the city. Soon after, a two-hour artillery bombardment began. The artillery had brought up on the Fröhne, on the Geringswalder Chaussee and the heavy artillery in Arras. About 2,000 shells were fired at the city. “Many houses were damaged as a result, the city café and the later shock absorber factory burned out, the school was badly affected. There were roof tiles or slate everywhere on the street, ”remembers the pensioner. 

 

The day after the bombardment, the city was flagged with white sheets - a symbol that the Harthaer population did not want to defend themselves. But there were still fanatical Nazis. 

 

"I can still see a German officer in a raincoat today who shot into the window where a white sheet was hanging," said Harthaer. In the days that followed, the Americans succeeded in penetrating as far as Waldheim and clearing the Hartha area of ​​German military. 

 

https://www.saechsische.de/plus/als-es-in-hartha-granaten-regnete-3096986.html 

 

 

Richard L. McCreedy

Service # 

44th Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored Division

Private First Class U.S. Army

Entered Service From: Iowa

Date of Death: April 24 1948

Buried : Ainsworth Cemetery

Ainsworth, Washington County, Iowa, VS

Awards: Purple Heart, Silver Star