The 'Battle of Heilbronn' was fought between US and German forces for control of Heilbronn, a middle-sized city on the Neckar river located between Stuttgart and Heidelberg (4/12 April 1945).

Despite the fact that World War II in Europe was almost over, the battle was characterised by firm German resistance and the presence of various Nazi auxiliaries among the regular German troops. Following days of house-to-house combat, troops of Major General Withers A. Burgess’s US 100^th Division captured Heilbronn and Major General Edward H. Brooks’s US VI Corps, an element of Lieutenant General Alexander M. Patch’s US 7^th Army, continued its march to the south-east deeper into Germany.

The presence of General Hermann Foertsch’s 1^st Army's only remaining battleworthy division, SS-Oberführer Georg Bochmann’s 17^th SS Panzergrenadierdivision 'Götz von Berlichingen' of SS-Gruppenführer Max Simon’s XIII SS Corps, plus imposing river obstacles, gave real substance to the new German line along the Jagst-Neckar crescent. In addition, Foertsch had managed to accumulate a sizeable agglomeration of other troops including two battalions of an engineer school, several regular engineer battalions, replacement artillery and anti-aircraft units, Volkssturm, a few tanks and assault guns, and a miscellany (including several hundred Hitlerjugend adolescents) of the combat commander of Heilbronn. These troops and the remnants of four divisions, plus the Panzergrenadiers, were all subordinated to Simon’s corps. Loose ends of two other divisions, including Generalleutnant Willibald Utz’s 2^nd Gebirgsdivision, were positioned on the northern wing of General Dr Franz Beyer’s LXXX Corps and thus might be used to help defend Heilbronn.

Before daylight on 4 April, the 100^th Division’s 3/398^th Infantry slipped silently across the Neckar river in assault boats about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north of Heilbronn, starting from the suburb of Neckargartach. As the men turned south toward the city after daybreak, a German battalion, in some cases using tunnels to emerge in the rear of the US troops, counterattacked sharply. The ensuing fight forced the US infantrymen back to within a few hundred feet of the river. Here the Americans held, but not before another battalion of the 398^th Infantry had crossed under fire late in the afternoon were they able to resume their advance. Even then they could penetrate no deeper than 1,000 yards (915 m), scarcely enough to rid the crossing site of small arms fire. Until the bridgehead could be expanded, engineers had no hope of building a bridge. Later on 4 April, Burress pushed the 397^th Infantry across the Neckar river just to the south of the 398^th Infantry’s position.

Although three of the 100^th Division’s battalions eventually crossed into the small bridgehead to the north of the city to push to the south into a collection of factories on the city’s northern outskirts, progress was slow. Since the crossing site remained under German fire, engineers still had no hope of putting in a bridge. Without close fire support, the infantry depended on artillery on the western bank of the Neckar river for fire support, but such fire was difficult to adjust in the confined factory district. Protected from shelling by sturdy buildings, the Germans seldom surrendered except at the point of a rifle, though many of the Hitlerjugend had had enough after only a brief flurry of fanatical resistance.

At one point, in response to intense mortar fire, a platoon of Hitlerjugend soldiers ran screaming into the US lines to surrender while their officers shot at them to make them stop. During the night of 5 April, a battalion of the 397^th Infantry crossed the Neckar river to the south of Heilbronn and found resistance at that point just as determined. There engineers had nearly completed a bridge during the afternoon of 7 April when German artillery, controlled by observers in the hills on the eastern edge of Heilbronn, found the range. Although the engineers at last succeeded at a time early on the following morning, less than one company of tanks and two platoons of the 824^th Tank Destroyer Battalion had crossed before German shells again knocked out the bridge. Two days later much the same thing happened to a heavy pontoon ferry after it had transported only a few more tanks and tank destroyers across the river. On 8 April, the 399^th Infantry crossed the Neckar river to the south of Heilbronn, moving into the southern industrial suburbs and the village of Sontheim.

Most of Heilbronn was under US control by 9 April, but not until 12 April had the city’s rubble been cleared of Germans and a bridge built across the Neckar river. On that day, the 397^th Infantry took the summits of two hills (nicknamed 'Tower Hill' and 'Cloverleaf Hill') to the east of the city. Coupled with the general advance of all three US regiments, the actions signalled the end of organised German resistance in Heilbronn.

In nine days of fighting, the 100^th Division lost 85 men killed and probably three times that number wounded. In the process, men of the 100^th Division took prisoner some 1,500 Germans. Major General Lewis E. Hibbs’s US 63^rd Division, aided in later stages by tanks of Major General William H. H. Morris’s US 10^th Armored Division, had meanwhile maintained constant pressure against the German line along the Jagst river, driving to the south-west from the vicinity of the Jagst-Tauber land bridge in hope of trapping the 17^th SS Panzergrenadierdivision near the confluence of the Jagst and Neckar rivers. Although a contingent of armour at last established contact with the 100^th Division near Heilbronn on 14 April, the Waffen-SS Panzergrenadiers had escaped.

The US reduction of Foertsch’s hasty but surprisingly strong position along the Jagst-Neckar crescent had required 11 days of often heavy fighting. Despite the determined German resistance, however, US casualties were relatively light, a daily average for the VI Corps of about 230 men. Yet that number was almost double the number of casualties the corps suffered in the pursuit up to the two rivers. While the German defence had delayed the advance of part of the VI Corps for almost two weeks, it did not materially impede the advance of the US Army into southern Germany.

Heilbronn itself had been heavily damaged by air raids before the nine-day battle that resulted in the city’s capture, but the urban nature of the battle resulted in even more damage to the city.