Posted by Allan Wilford Howerton on December 19, 2006, 5:05 pm, in reply to "Info on Bill (Mac) Magill, Co. L, , 335th Reg., 84th Infantry" December 1 was the next to last day of the battle for Lindern which commenced on November 29, 1944. Company L's positions on the eastern side of the town were attacked in the six a.m. darkness along railroad tracks through a gap between Company I and Company L. At about the same time another attack was mounted against Companies A and B on the western side. My unit, Company K, which made the initial assault, was dug-in across the railroad opposite Company L's positions and beside the one platoon of Company I which got through to the objective. Although our positions were not directly attacked that morning, I remember the heavy artillery preparation to which we were all subjected. The 84th Division history quotes an officer's description: "If there had been any more shells, they would have been colliding in the air." The German counteroffensive failed and by the next day, December 2, the battle was virtually over except for more German artillery fire and continuing defensive operations for the next several weeks. Lindern was one of the most significant strong points along the Siegfried Line because it protected the approach to the Roer River which the 84th Division crossed at nearby Linnich on February 23rd enabling the drive to the Rhine. But we paid a high price for Lindern. Casualties were very heavy and those, like myself, who got out unscathed were lucky indeed. The battle for Lindern is described in detail in my memoir, "Dear Captain, et al.: the Agonies and the Ecstasies of War and Memory."
Message modified by board administrator December 19, 2006, 5:09 pm
If William Magill was assigned to the 84th Division at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana around April 1, 1944 he was most likely an ASTPer at Drexel. I was in the ASTP unit there but unfortunately do not remember him. Assignments to regiments and companies were pretty random when we arrived at Claiborne on April Fool's Day and he could just as easily have ended up in my unit, K-335.
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