## Holtzwihr After January 26
The village of Holtzwihr, France, was retaken by the 3rd Battalion of the 30th Infantry Regiment on January 27, 1945, with replacements brought forward to reinforce the depleted unit. By January 28, the areas east of the Ill River and north of the Colmar Canal were clear of German forces.
The Colmar Pocket continued to be reduced through early February. On February 8, 1945, Colmar itself was liberated, ending the last German foothold on the west bank of the Rhine in France. The strategic objective of eliminating the pocket — closing the threat to Allied flanks and driving German forces entirely from French soil — had been achieved.
Holtzwihr today is a small Alsatian village in the Haut-Rhin department, in the region that is now called Grand Est. It sits in flat agricultural land, with the Vosges Mountains visible to the west. The Bois de Riedwihr, where Company B fought, is a forest that still exists northeast of the village. The drainage ditches and narrow roads that were the specific terrain of the January 26 action are consistent with the agricultural landscape of the region.
The battlefield has not been formally preserved as a historical site in the manner of some larger engagements. The land is farmland and forest. People who want to stand where Murphy stood on the burning M10 can do so, but there is no monument marking the exact position, and the landscape has changed in the eighty years since the action.
## *To Hell and Back*: The Memoir and the Film