INTERVIEW

Unit: Co B, 58h Armd Inf Bn, (Task Force Artman) CCR.
Source: 2nd Lt. Russell Legreid, Plt Ldr, 2d Plt, Co B.
Interviewer: Capt. Joseph Vasta
Place and Date of Interview: 10 May 45, Gieboldehausen, Germany
Comments: At the time of the action, Lt. Legreid was a platoon sergeant, acting platoon leader.

We spent the night of 29 March in Kol Scholven. The next morning we lined up on the road just to the west of the factory in Kol Scholven with the first platoon on the left, the second in the center, the third on the right and the anti-tank platoon in support. At 0630 hours an artillery preparation of fire minutes was put on over the factory area directly to the front. We moved up to within 250 yards of the factory. Just shy of the canal, a machine gun nest opened up. A bazooka man got him and the attack wasn't stopped. In moving up under the artillery fire, we were only about a hundred yards from where the artillery fire was falling.

When the company commander called for the artillery fire to cease, he immediately called for a smoke screen. Both the artillery and mortars laid smoke and we went into the factory area under the smoke screen. What enabled us to get there so quickly was the speed in which we followed the artillery. We had no more than left the open ground when the enemy laid a terrific artillery barrage behind us.

We crossed the canal without any trouble. The first platoon hit the area (517338) just in front of the canal and were pinned down by machine gun fire coming from a tank located 521338 right underneath the railroad. They also had two machine guns in the house to the left of the underpass. One was taken out by Lt. Russell Legreild with a bazooka and the other was taken out by the first platoon.

We spotted the tank as soon as it opened with its machine guns. The company commander sent two squads to the right and left and one bazooka team. He then sent back C Company to get two more bazooka teams. After the bazooka teams arrived, he sent them to the factory area where they would have a good concealment. The tank must have seen them because they were only able to get one round off before the tank pulled out and withdrew along the road into the woods at 257337.

We moved thru the town and then waited along the road (Buer Hassel #2). In the meantime, C Co went out and moved to the left (north) in an attempt to encircle those tanks. C Co apparently wasn't successful for they soon withdrew.

The fighting in Buer-Hassel was mostly street fighting. We ran into sniper and machine gun fire. The enemy mortar and artillery fire was landing in the fields behind us. The opposition consisted of about eight to ten snipers and about a half dozen machine guns. We went thru this town in about two hours.

Russell Legreid
2nd Lt, Plt Leader, 2nd Platoon,
Co B, 58th Armd Infantry Bn.