Posted by Allan Wilford Howerton Link: "Dear Captain, et al."
on April 20, 2009, 3:18 pm, in reply to "King J. Deane"
Message modified by board administrator April 20, 2009, 3:33 pm
Lt. King J. "Dixie" Deane (ASN: 01326387) was a replacement officer with Company K, 335th Infantry from December 28, 1944 to April 7, 1945 when he was killed in action at Eisbergen, Germany. He was from Virginia (hometown, unknown).
Lt. Deane was the platoon leader of the weapons platoon (except for two days of hospitalization suffering from "undiagnosed foot disease") until March 20, 1945 when he was reassigned to the second (rifle) platoon. He was killed in action when his platoon was ambushed during an attempt to outflank a German contingent which was delaying the company’s capture of Eisbergen one day after crossing the Weser River during the Central Europe Campaign. Eight of Deane’s men were also killed in action and several were wounded. Company K’s commander, First Lt. Winther Jorgensen, died later that day after a German mortar shell hit a doorway where he was directing artillery fire at about the time Deane’s platoon was ambushed.
The ambush was a tragic event that did not have to happen. It came about through circumstances, all too common in warfare, when a combination of questionable decisions and bad luck resulted in unanticipated consequences. The story is told in Chapter 17, "Dying Unnecessarily at Eisbergen," of my memoir, "Dear Captain, et al.: the Agonies and the Ecstasies of War and Memory."
Regrettably, I do not have photograph of Lt. Deane.
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