By Oct 5, 1944, the 506 PIR were positioned along the south of the River Rhine for a distance of about 6 miles on an area known as The Island. Communication was carried out by telephone, radio, and patrols.
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Oct 5, 03.30 am, Easy Co commander Dick Winters sent a 5 man patrol out from the base near Randwijk. The objective was to occupy an outpost in a building on the south side of the dike. Led by Art Youman, the patrol included Rod Strohl, Joe Liebgott, Joe Lesniewsi, & Mo Alley
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The building was beside a road that ran to a ferry crossing on the river. When the patrol reached the crossroad (at the end of the yellow line), Lesniewski went to the top of the dike to check the surroundings.
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When he got there he saw the outline of a German soldier preparing to throw a potato-masher grenade at the Easy patrol on the base of the other side of the dike. The German threw the grenade and Lesniewski called out a warning to the other Easy men.
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Grenades were thrown back and forth in quick succession, with Lesniewski joking that he must have thrown all 6 of his grenades within 5 seconds.
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Luckily, Lesniewski's warning shout had done just enough to prevent disaster and Alley is adamant that his wounds would have been much worse if he had not been able to turn himself away slightly at the last moment. As it was, everyone was showered with shrapnel.
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Alley got blown to the ground and had 32 wounds to his left face, neck, and shoulder. Lesniewski was hit in the neck, and Strohl and Liebgott took minor wounds also. Strohl's radio was completely blown away.
It was a full km back to CP, but they all made it.
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Winters described Strohl when he arrived at the CP barn:
Winters: "Let me tell you when he comes in, he's been in combat. He is breathless & you take one look at him & you know here's a guy that has just faced death. No question about it"
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Dick Winters, with Sgt Leo Boyle from HQ, assemble a squad from Easy's 1st platoon and head back to the Crossroads to assess the situation.
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The patrol reaches the end of the yellow line and cross over the dike. About 250 yards from the Crossroads, Winters makes his way towards the Germans, who were firing randomly to the south. He counts 10.
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Winters sets up his mortar squad of Muck and Penkala, and the rest edged silently forward (green line), taking up positions in sight of the Germans.
Winters allocated a lone German to each rifleman and they fired, killing all.
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Easy retreat back along the ditch, under German fire.
Sgt Bill Dukeman is killed when Germans hiding in the culvert under the road fire a rifle grenade towards the Americans.
Winters calls in reinforcements & crawls away into the field to decide what further action to take
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As dawn approached, Winters decided that the best course of action was to attack, due to the fact that the superior numbered Germans could surround the Americans at any time.
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Under covering machine gun fire the Easy men charged 200-300 yards across the field. Many were held up by barbed wire in the field (not a delayed smoke signal) and Winters did indeed reach the dike first.
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The German soldier there was a sentry & both men threw grenades, neither of which exploded. Winters then got up & began to fire on the Germans there.
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Soon, the rest of the Americans reached the dike, the machines guns were set up, and with reinforcements and artillery called in, took out most of the Germans.
Afterwards, with a platoon from Fox Co joining them, they leap-frogged towards the river.
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But with intense fire from the Germans located in the buildings there, and not knowing what the situation was further in, Winters decided to retreat back and not risk his men's safety.
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Unfortunately, the Germans and Allies were constantly sending in artillery, and 22 men were wounded. Sgt Leo Boyle was severely wounded in his leg which spelled the end of his combat days.
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With the crossroads secured, Fox Co took over that position. Over the next 3 days the Germans launched more attacks on the position & 7 men from Fox Co were killed in action.
A memorial stands on the site where the battle took place, & further towards the village of Heteren
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Video credit to Henry Ruissen. Check out his YouTube page for the full video
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