Posted by Allan Wilford Howerton Link: More on "Dear Captain, et al."
on March 30, 2008, 6:00 pm, in reply to "Sgt. Adolph M. Zukowski"
172.165.172.152
Audolph M. Zukowski of Massachusetts (hometown not noted in the division roster) was assigned to the Company K, 335th Infantry, 84th Division at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana on March 31, 1944 from the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) unit at Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia. He was one of 2800 men entering the division when the ASTP program was largely discontinued to provide manpower for the upcoming invasion and drive across Europe.
He was appointed Private First Class on June 5, 1944 following a period of special training for the cadets of the ASTP contingent. He fought with the company along the Siegfried Line and survived the battle of Lindern, Germany where Company K's casualties were about fifty percent of company strength. On March 27, 1945, following heavy losses at the battle of Ourthe, Belgium (last battle during the Ardennes campaign, Battle of the Bulge), Zukowski became an assistant squad leader with the rank of Sergeant. He served in that capacity during the Roer River crossing February 23, 1945 and during the drive from the Roer to the Rhine.
On March 27, 1945 while the company was at Krefeld, Germany preparing to cross the Rhine, Sgt. Zukowski was selected by lottery for thirty days rest and recuperation in the States. (The company was given a quota of one enlisted man and one officer. (The officer, also selected by lottery, was Company Commander, Leonard Carpenter.). He and Captain Carpenter were flown to Fort Devons, Massachusetts. The thirty days was later extended to forty-five. As the war in Europe ended on May 8, neither man returned to the company.
Both Zukowski and Carpenter were fortunate. The company crossed the Rhine on April 1 and on April 7 suffered heavy casualties at the Battle of Eisbergen. One platoon was virtually wiped out and the acting company commander who succeeded Captain Carpenter was killed in action.
Although not certain, I believe Zukowski may have been in the first platoon which made the initial assault at the battle of Lindern in the early morning hours of November 29, 1944. If so, he would have also spent a night behind German panzer lines south of Rochefort, Belgium during a reconnaissance-to-contact patrol, escaping to Givet, France on Christmas Eve 1944.
The entire Company K story is told in my memoir, "Dear Captain, et al.: the Agonies and the Ecstasies of War and Memory."
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