On March 30^th, through Easter Sunday, April 1^st, 1945, elements of the 20^th Armored Division began moving up to the front.  Sunday's departure was after a brief sunrise service by Chaplain Hedaman  in light snow.  The fully-tracked vehicles went first, then the observer tanks and M-7 Priest self-propelled howitzers of the artillery battalions, and finally the support units.  Some units like Troops 'B' and 'C' of the 33^rd Cavalry Recon Squadron had left their billeting areas in Mainnemare on the Paris-Dieppe highway and actually started moving a few days before.  Their mission was to provide support for troops reducing the Ruhr pocket, where more than 300,000 German soldiers were surrounded.
     Some officers and men had already been near the action - volunteer truck drivers were temporarily attached to the 329^th and 660^th Quartermaster Truck Companies, drivers had been ferrying jeeps to forward areas, and selected officers had been sent up to the front as observers with the 4^th 'Hell on Wheels' and 10^th 'Tiger' Armored Divisions.  The convoy of artillery vehicles left billeting areas in the Ernemont Sur Buchy, Ecalles Sur Buchy, Buchy and Rouen areas on April 1^st, and headed east through rolling farmland and the towns of Neufchatel, Amiens, Cambrai, and Valenciennes in France.  They crossed the border into Belgium and proceeded through the towns of Mons, Charleroi, Namur, Waremme, Tongras, to a bivouac area near Tirlemont on the 2^nd.  Next came the Netherlands border towns of Maastricht and Sittard, and finally the German border near Aachen, site of one of the bloodiest engagements of the war.  The parade through Belgium was glorious - cheering civilians who provided wine, apples, coffee and bread.  In Holland the streets and buildings were clean, and all the people were busy at work.  Civilians were extremely friendly - young and old alike stood in the streets and gave cheers to each and every vehicle.  Maastricht was pretty badly shot up, and many of the people were in rags and plundering through the rubbish for food.  The men were surprised that many of the children, who craved chocolate and chewing gum, spoke English fairly well.  In Germany, it was a different story.  There was not a word spoken and no smiles were seen.  The children would make faces or throw rocks.  It seemed that there was not a single house that was not shot up, or a complete wreck.  The weather was poor, with the north wind and rain making the nights especially uncomfortable.  By mid-afternoon on April 3^rd the column entered Germany as part of XXII Corps (Troops 'B' and 'C' of the 33^rd had been there patrolling since 2015 on March 28^th) and later bedded down about a mile from the border towns of Scherpenseel and Grotenrath.  Along the route they had seen sights of war that included signs warning of minefields, knocked out tanks and destroyed equipment, and graveyards of World War I.  The fortifications of the Siegfried line, huge pill boxes, 'dragon's teeth' (concrete tank obstacles), and the tank traps were all blown up, cracked open or crushed.  A few hours after getting settled, the skies opened with a torrential rainstorm.  Orders were received that night sending the division's artillery to what was then the frontlines - positions 6-8 miles north of Cologne in the vicinity of Worringen and Hitdorf which was across the Rhine.  Troop 'C' of the 33^rd had left their staging area near Bardenburg just before dark on April 3^rd to their new positions on the Rhine in the sector between Cologne and Dusseldorf.  They arrived on the morning of the 4^th, and occupied positions between Zons and Dormagne, that were once held by the 97^th Infantry Division.  The 97^th had withdrawn before being properly relieved, so Troop 'C' settled down into positions that had been vacant for about 5 hours, and told to wait unit the 101^st Airborne Division relieved them.  Troop 'A' also moved out on the 3^rd, and passed through Julich and Geilenkirchen on their way to Norf.  They were assigned a sector on the Rhine in the vicinity of Neuss, from Grimlinghausen to Machersheid.  An entire battalion of the 97^th had been stationed there, so the Troop was spread pretty thin.  There were a few exchanges of fire, and first platoon did a little mortar firing at some Kraut machine gunners.

     The artillery battalions made plans to move out the next day, after removing a mired-down gypsy cart blocking the road.  At 1800 on April 3^rd, AAA from Battery C, 468^th AAA Artillery and the Assault Gun Platoon of the 8^th Armored Infantry Battalion was attached to the 412^th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, who had been given the mission of reinforcing the fires of the 376^th Parachute FA Battalion.  At 1000 hours on the morning of April 4^th, the 412^th's battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Michael Williamson (  Indiana), led a party of nine vehicles through the towns of Geilenkirchen, Aldenhoven, Julich, Grevenbroich, Rommerskirchen, Stommeln, and Sinnersdorf to reconnoiter positions southeast of Roggendorf and 6-8 miles north of Cologne.  The terrain in the assigned position area was open and slightly rolling, and only partially concealed from the German side of the Rhine by woods to the east of Roggendorf and trees along the Worringen-Cologne highway.  In view of the lack of cover, it was decided that the 412^th's batteries would disperse and dig in with battalion HQ located in a nearby gray-green stucco farmhouse/barn/shed complex that formed a 'U'.  Service battery's position was to be back in the town of Stommeln, and the battalion air section, which was under Division Artillery control, moved with them.  The remainder of the 412^th's vehicles moved out at about 1300 and arrived in the assembly area at Stommeln at 1700, waiting there until dark.  A roving gun commanded by Sergeant Walter H. McCrary (Macon, Georgia), the fifth section of "B" Battery, came forward to the position area to register.