On 25 February 1945, Company B, 37th Tank Battalion, with Company B, 51st Armored Infantry Battalion, took the bridge over the Prum at Remesdorf. Companies C of the 37th and 51st took the high ground around Rittersdorf and established a base of fire while the combined A Companies of the two battalions took Rittersdorf and a bridgehead over the Nims River. More than 1,000 prisoners of war were taken in this action. In only four days the 37th had led the 4th AD and the Third Army as it pierced the Siegfried Line. A German counterattack near Sefferweich was repulsed while the 37th rested for the next venture. Farther north, the U.S. First Army was fighting its way into Cologne to set the stage for the dash to the Rhine.