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On 8 May, 1945, General der Panzer Truppen Balck, Commanding General, 6th German Army and former Commander of Army Group 'G', arrived in Liezen from the Southeast. He asked to surrender his entire army to the 80th Division.  He was told that all troops west and north of the Enns River by 12:01 A.M., 9 May, 1945 could surrender to U.S. forces.

The strength of the 6th German Army at the close of the war was estimated to be approximately 200,000 and consisted of the following units: 1st and 3rd Panzer Divisions, 1st and 9th Mountain Divisions, 5th SS Panzer Division Viking and 14th SS Grenadier Division (1st Ukrainian).  Approximately 102,000 of them were across the Enns River by 12:01 A.M., 9 May, 1945.  In addition, elements of the 2nd Panzer Army, 6th SS Panzer Army, 7th German Army and the 7th SS Mountain Division (Prinz Eugene) of Army Group 'F' surrendered."

It is noteworthy that 30 days after cessation of hostilities, the 80th Division was still picking up an average of 1,000 P.W.’s daily, evidencing how extremely scattered the German Army was at the war's end.  The nature of the terrain in the eastern portion of the National Redoubt makes for excellent defensive positions.  Had the enemy been able to collect his forces and defend the two passes leading into this sector, he could have prolonged the war in this sector for some time, inflicting heavy casualties on our troops. An analysis of the 212,295 P.W.’s captured by the 80th Division while operational follows. It will be noted that the number of P.W.’s captured varies inversely with the intensity of the fight. The hardest fighting produced the least number of P.W.’s.

TOTAL FOR CUMULATIVE

PERIOD               PLACE               PERIOD     TOTAL

9 Aug. '44 - 19 Dec. '44     France                 9,694      9,694

20 Dec. '44 - 6 Feb. '45     Luxembourg        2,880     12,574

7 Feb. '45 - 9 Mar. '45      Siegfried Line       4,688     17,262

10 Mar. '45 - 27 Mar. '45    Saar-Palatinate  7,495      24,757

28 Mar. '45 - 22 Apr. '45  Central Germany  38,257    63,014

23 Apr. '45 - 9 May '45 So. Ger. & Austria 102,126     165,140

9 May '45 - 12 June '45      Austria               47,155     212,295

During the month of May, 1945, the 80th C.I.C. Detachment directed most of its attention toward eliminating counter-intelligence personalities from the Saltskammergut sector of the National Redoubt.  The net result of this operation in terms of arrests is as follows: Agents-13, Security Arrests-111, Political Arrests-648, Total 772.