Posted by Allan Wilford Howerton on December 4, 2005, 4:34 pm, in reply to "PFC WIlliam Fiss" This was the day after the crossing of the Roer River in the early morning hours of February 23. Elements of the 334th Infantry led the attack, crossing in small boats. Later that day the 335th Infantry crossed on a footbridge. Units of the 334th advanced about three miles to the town of Baal. The division history, "The 84th Infantry Division in the Battle of Germany" by Lt. Theodore Draper, notes: "It was now the turn of the 335th Infantry, the second to cross, to widen and deepen the penetration. At 9 a.m., February 24 just as Baal was quieting down, the 335th 1st Battalion moved up from Rurich to Baal in order to pass through the 334th in Baal and continue the attack. As so often happens in such a swift advance, pockets of resistance have to be cleaned up by follow up units for some time and the 'rear' may be just as jumpy as the 'front.' The 335th's 1st Battalion had to fight its way to Baal, especially in the woods between Rurich and Baal which had given us so much trouble the day before . . . "Even to get out of Baal, the 1st Battalion had to fight hard. About 200 yards north of Baal, just beyond the railroad along the Baal-Doveren road, it ran into stiff opposition from enemy small arms and machine gun fire. It was midday before the dug-in Germans were cleaned out." Pfc. Fiss and six other men were killed in action during these operations. A brief, unpublished history (Heidelberg, Germany, September,1945) of Company C-335 has only one line as to Baal: "After receiving a little 'hell' at Baal we moved to Doveren from where we followed the Railsplitter's own tankers . . . into Doverhahn." Within the broad "hell" of the war Baal seems to have been regarded as a minor incident. Pfc. Fiss was one of 207 men who were awarded Purple Heart Medals in C-335 of whom 42 were killed in action. My memoir, "Dear Captain, et al.: the Agonies and the Ecstasies of War and Memory" chronicles the story of the Roer crossing from the standpoint of my unit, (Co. K, 3rd Battalion, 335th Infantry) which was also in the general vicinity of Baal on February 24.
64.12.116.198
Pfc. William Fiss of Long Island City, NY was a member of Company C, First Battalion, 335th Infantry. The division roster notes that he was killed in action on 2.24.45.
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