Hi Art,
This what
Rendezvous With Destiny has to say about the raid your brother was KIA on:
At this time, the 101st was stationed on the west side of the Rhine, in the Ruhr area, just south of Dusseldorf. This was a time of relative quiet for the division.
"What fighting there was occurred when the patrols from the line regiments slipped across the river at night - the once-thought impregnable Rhine, now vulnerable to any squad with a boat- and bumped into stil dangerous defenders.
(...)Two patrols of company size crossed the Rhine during the campaign: these two raids furnished most of the action seen by the Division in the Ruhr.
(...)The other large raid of the campaign was carried out on the night of April 11-12 by Company A of the 506th. One Hundred twenty-six members of the company and four of the 321st Artillery Battalion crossed the Rhine in sixteen assualt boats just after midnight and attacked the river-bank village of Himmelgeist. They ran in to a scattering of small arms fire, killed two defenders, and eneterd the town. In Himmelgeist they captured seven civilians suspected of having taken part in the defense of the place and then withdrew, getting back to the far shore by 0415. The raid cost the company three killed and four wounded, mostly from small arms fire, though there was some flat-trajectory shelling during the withdrawal. Two boats capsized in midstream under enemy artillery fire and eight men were missing, believed
drowned."
(c)
Rendezvous With Destiny - History of the 101st Airborne Division by Leonard Rapport & Arthur Norwood jr. Konecki & Konecki 2001, pg 709-710.
Also of interest might be the books of Donald R. Burgett. He was with A Company 506 PIR at the same time as your brother and he wrote several books:
-
Seven Roads To Hell - a screaming eagle at Bastogne about the fighting at Bastogne, where your brother was wounded.
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Currahee - a screaming eagle in Normandy about his experiences in Normandy.
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The Road To Arnhem - a screaming eagle in Holland
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Beyond The Rhine - a screaming eagle in Germany
Hope this helps
Stevin
[ 26. August 2003, 09:29 AM: Message edited by: Stevin Oudshoorn ]