Christoph,
I went back and quickly looked at the Ray piece. Thank goodness Marion and everyone went to the effort of preserving and sharing all of that information.
This is the part that makes me think it was not their group that Dad so luckily connected with. "At 1725, March 28, 1945, division headquarters rolled across the German border a few miles west of Aachen. A short time later, it passed through the streets of the battered city, which Hitler once said never, would be taken by the Allies.
The division's first assignment was taking up defensive. Positions along the western bank of the Rhine River opposite Dusseldorf. Here, 97th doughs captured their first prisoners"
It will be fascinating to find out the unit that sent out an advance jeep. Could they have been lost? Just a joke. Dad said he could not believe while hiding outside that in the distance he saw this American vehicle. He waved them down, which it seems to me certainly had a lot of danger associated with it. These men were shocked to find Dad and Gidrie!! I believe somewhere some additional documents will appear.
Good night,
Jean J