As a hail of bullets sheared tiles from the roof, Maxwell leaped to the ground, taking shelter behind a short rock wall topped with a mesh wire fence. The German forces had evidently outmaneuvered the American rifle companies nearby, coming within ten yards of the wall and nearly as close to Maxwell's battalion commander, Lt. Col. Lloyd B. Ramsey, who was inside the post with other officers.
Maxwell and his three comrades marshaled a defense, armed only with their .45s.
"Maxwell's courage was what held us together, " Cyril McColl, a technician fourth grade later told Collier's Magazine. "The machine-gun fie was just clearing his head, but he sat there taking pot shots at everything that moved. Our wall was beginning to crumble, and I was thinking how nice it would be to get out of there, when a grenade came over the chicken wire, and hit the cement floor right at our feet."
It was about 2 a.m. when Maxwell fell on the grenade and lost consciousness. By most accounts, when he came to, the post was deserted, his fellow soldiers apparently believing he had died, had been ordered to evacuate.
Maxwell stumbled into the house, where he found the last American left in it, a lieutenant gathering phone wire.
--GreGen
No comments:
Post a Comment