INTERVIEW

Co A, 36th Tk Bn - Venlo, Holland, 1400 15 Mar 1945.
Capt Robert W Shaw, CO (At the time of the Attack, Capt Shaw was Motor O)
and Sgt. James W Johnson.
Interview by Capt Joe Vasta.

At 0700 on the morning of 4 Mar 45 Co A which was part of TF Van Houten left Aldekerk, Germ. They were the leading elements in the TF. Ahead of them was TF Rosaborough.

TF Van Houten bypassed the head of the column (TF Rosaborough) in Linnefort and went thru the town. On the outside of town, they were met by a guide from the rcn trp (186219). At about 1200 hrs. As soon as they got out of town, the road became just a rather indefinite trail.

Their mission was to secure a bridge (212286) at the N side of the town of Rheinberg. The guide from the rcn trp took them a short way out of town, pointed in the general NW direction, said, "There it is" and took off. The unit had just barely started on its way when it received quite a bit of S/A fire. The tks went right thru the s/a fire.

There was 1 platoon from A Co of the 49th AIB mounted on halftrks. The column was formed so that behind each tk was a half trck from the inf plat. This plat was under the command of Lt. Robert Amos.

There was a crossroad in vic of 186236. The tks were passing through this crossroad going N and most of the tks had gone by this intersection, when all of a sudden, the enemy opened up on the vehicles. The 1st tk knocked out was the 14th vehicle in the column. The enemy used MGs, Bazooka, 75s and 88s. Between this crossroad, and the vic of 184257, the co had 9 tks knocked out of action.

As the remainder of the column came to the bridge, (184257) and the lead tk was between 50 and 100 yds from it, the bridge was blown. After the bridge had been blown, the CO got the 5 remaining tks and proceeded NW on a road parallel to the canal. They had gone about 200 yds up this road when 3 of the tks were knocked out by enemy fire. It was at this time, that the CO was killed.

The remaining tks pulled back into the protection of some farm buildings about 200 yds from the bridge (186257) and remained there all nite. During the entire nite, the co was subject to hvy arty, mort fire and s/a. The enemy was apparently zeroed in on the pos, for they were delivering very accurate fire. During the nite, the enemy sent up flares over the co pos to see what was there.

In this action, it was estimated that the co had knocked out between 12 - 1 AT guns and 1 Mark IV. It was also estimated that they had killed at least 200 of the enemy trps.

The next morning under the cover of darkness, the remaining tks and trps pulled back to the vic of Hoferhof (1923). From here, they proceeded into Rheinberg to join the bn. They caught a lot of arty and mort fire enroute.

There was no action for the co on that day.

On the afternoon of 5 Mar, the co pulled back into Linnefort. They stayed there that nite and all the next day. On the afternoon of Mar 7, Capt Shaw was told to send a plat of tks to I Co of the 134th Inf (35th Inf Div), at the Solvay Work (vic 198303) at Ossenberg. The plat was under the cmd of Lt Erwin Brigham. The tks just sat there and assisted them (the inf) in holding the place.

On the nite of 8 Mar, Lt. Dwightguyer with 3 tks proceeded to the same vic (Solvay Work) to support K Co, 134th Inf.

At 0500 on 9 Mar Lt Brigham moved out with his plat to assist I Co in taking the town of Borth (195325). Enemy opposition was negligible and the town was occupied by 0730. Lt Guyer moved up with K co to the same town (Borth). K Co. moved thru Borth, and Lt Brigham with his plat moved out to support the inf in taking the town of Wallach (198337). On the way to the town Wallach, the tks setfire to 2 ammo dumps which had been spotted. Enemy resistance in taking the town of Wallach consisted mostly of s/a fire and some 20 mm fire which coming form across the river.

The tks remained there for the rest of the day thru out the nite. They were reld the following morning and were turned to Venlo via Rheinberg.

During this action, the following casualties (A Co.) were suffered: 14 Kia, 4 Mia and 13 Wia (these men had to be evacuated). They recd a total of 2 reinforcements on the 5th of Mar and 1 on the 6th. The tks replacement amounted to 2 tks on the 6th in addition to one of their own tks which had been placed in working order.