The battle of Struth was more important than the size of the town involved. Approximately 1,000 enemy, led by armor and SP guns attacked the exposed left (north) flank of the 65th Division at Struth, where the 3rd Battalion, 261st Infantry had located its CP the previous day. The objective of the drive, as revealed later through documents and prisoners, was the retaking of Muhlhausen.
At 0230 on April 7, a "K" Company, 261st Infantry, outpost north of Struth fired a BAR at a shadowy figure; a hand grenade landed in the foxhole of another. Isolated battles, of the type which the Division was to wage constantly until V-E Day, began this simply -- with men asking how many opponents were out in the darkness.
At 0500, a tank-led drive swung west of the town towards the motor park area. A platoon of "L" Company met the first shock of the assault. A simultaneous infantry attack infiltrating through the town from the north was stopped by "K" Company. The Battalion called for help.
Among the first arrivals were two companies of the 260th lnfantry, "B" and "L". The tactics to repulse the attack at Struth centered around the action of the 3rd Battalion units remaining in place in the town as a resisting core to the enemy assault. Meanwhile, "L" Company, 260th Infantry, enveloped the enemy from the west, as "B" Company, 260th, swung east of the hamlet, and the 1st Battalion, 261st Infantry, attacked the town from the south. "L" Company, 260th, captured a field-full of German parachutists hiding under piles of hay, by machine-gunning the mounds. Meanwhile, "I" Company, 261st, held up enemy reinforcements near Dorna. By 1000 the 1st Battalion, 261st Infantry, had been committed, and the 3rd Battalion, 259th, was on its way to Struth from positions near Langensalza. By this time the outcome of the battle was certain, even though much fighting remained before a charred Struth was freed of the enemy.
Credit
Many units can claim credit for part of the victory at Struth. For example, "M" Company, 261st, mortar men opened up so effectively on enemy mortars northeast of the town that Jerry never got these weapons into operation during the entire engagement. Fire of the Cannon Company, 261st Infantry, was effective in stopping the advance of hostile infantry from the north. Four artillery battalions were especially valuable after the enemy began its withdrawal, as initially, ally and enemy were too intermingled for precise long-range artillery. Liaison planes of the Div Arty furnished observation, and effectively brought fire on tanks assembling above the town. Fighter bombers, coming in at 0900, bombed and strafed enemy infantry and tanks near the town. Along with the 808 Tank Destroyer Battalion, they accounted for eleven enemy tanks (of an estimated sixteen), a large part of the air tally obtained as the tanks retreated northeast from the battlefield about 1300.
To a TD parked beside "K" Company's CP, however, goes the honor of revenging the most dramatic enemy gesture. During the morning, a self-propelled gun rumbled up to the 3rd Battalion CP, 261st Infantry, to fire point-blank at the building indicated by Struth citizenry. The 808 TD made certain that the enemy gun never attacked another American CP.
The battle of Struth, which started out as all infantry engagement, ended as a striking example of the power of combined arms.
