Erxleben Surrender Site — Kassel, Noon 4 April 1945

Kassel, DE

At **noon on 4 April 1945**, **Generalmajor Johannes Erxleben** — commander of the Festung Kassel garrison — surrendered to advancing elements of the US **318th Infantry Regiment** (80th Infantry Division) at his command bunker. **1,325 German soldiers** were taken prisoner along with Erxleben himself. Erxleben's appointment as Festung commander had been a function of the Wehrmacht's chronic officer shortage in the war's final months. He was a signals officer — a communications specialist with no relevant combat leadership experience — placed in command of a garrison tasked with defending a designated fortress city against a veteran American infantry division. The result was predictable. The surrender ended four days of fighting that, by the standards of 1945 German city battles, was relatively swift. Kassel had none of the fanatical last-stand resistance seen at Aachen (October 1944, which took three weeks) or in Nazi Party–dominated cities like Breslau (besieged for three months). Erxleben's pragmatism — or lack of ideological conviction — likely spared remaining civilians from further destruction in a city already devastated by bombing. **Source reliability note:** Multiple secondary web sources misattribute the capture of Kassel to the US First Army (confusing the simultaneous First Army advance on Paderborn, ~80 km to the northwest). The unit responsible was unambiguously **Third Army / XX Corps / 80th Infantry Division**.