The action in
which Alfred was killed is described as follows
in Rendezvous With Destiny(1), the history of the
101st Airborne Division:
At this time, the 101st was stationed on the
west side of the Rhine, in the Ruhr area, just
south of Düsseldorf. This was a time of relative
quiet for the division.
"What fighting there was occurred when the
patrols from the line regiments slipped across
the river at night - the once-thought
impregnable Rhine, now vulnerable to any squad
with a boat- and bumped into still dangerous
defenders.
Map of the
operation in which Pfc Charles Syer was
Killed
(map from the book
Rendezvous With Destiny)
(...)The other large raid of the campaign was
carried out on the night of April 11-12 by
Company A of the 506th. One Hundred twenty-six
members of the company and four of the 321st
Artillery Battalion crossed the Rhine in sixteen
assault boats just after midnight and attacked
the river-bank village of Himmelgeist. They ran
in to a scattering of small arms fire, killed
two defenders, and entered the town. In
Himmelgeist they captured seven civilians
suspected of having taken part in the defense of
the place and then withdrew, getting back to the
far shore by 0415. The raid cost the company
three killed and four wounded, mostly from small
arms fire, though there was some flat-trajectory
shelling during the withdrawal. Two boats
capsized in midstream under enemy artillery fire
and eight men were missing, believed drowned."
Ray Boscom
was with the same unit. He wrote a letter to the
parents of Robert Morneweck, who was also killed
in this action, when he was at Berchtesgarden,
about what happened :
"The raid Bob
lost his life, he was loaded with extra
ammunition and grenades. The raid we pulled
across the Rhine. It was below Düsseldorf
and about five miles from Nienenhiem.
It was at that
time of the Rhine-pocket, so you see what we
were up against. We started across about
midnight to load in the boats, three 88's
opened up and everybody instantly tried to
hop into the nearest boat to where they
were. As a result, four boats overturned and
we lost 18 men. What few did get out said
that it was impossible to swim in the
current. Our boats picked up some but it was
so dark that we couldn't see over 5 feet in
front."
Three in this
picture were killed on the April 12 river
crossing: Standing: Demkowicz
(KIA), Weckesser, ? , Parrish, Wasburn,
Morneweck (KIA), Barnes. Kneeling: Hanzalik,
Thaler, Caivano (KIA) (picture courtesy of Mr.
Art Morneweck via Marion Chard)
Don Burgett, squad
leader in A company, wrote:
"I was squad
leader of the 2nd squad, 2nd platoon, A Co. at
that time, 12 April 1945; the night President
Roosevelt died. Alex Abercrombie died along with Syer, Santillan and Floyd Roberts by German
artillery fire; all of whom were buried by the
Germans in a common grave. Their bodies were
recovered by a patrol led by Jack Bram a couple
of days later and brought back across the Rhine
River in a rowboat.
Pfc Corgan was in my squad as were two other new
replacements. Corgan was seriously wounded in
both arms (,by the same shell that killed the
four troopers. other troopers were wounded as
well). the medics bandaged him and bound his
arms to his body in an attempt to stop the
bleeding. (The unit held that town as ordered
until the Germans shifted their reserve armor,
then retired to the Allied side of the Rhine as
planned.
On returning they received artillery and tank
fire in the dark all the way back across the
Rhine.) Corgan's boat was overturned by a
close artillery round as we were returning to
the American side of the Rhine from Himmelgeist.
Corgan, along with several other troopers, some
wounded, were drowned.
Their bodies were recovered about three days
later on the river shore about two miles
downstream.
I did receive two new replacements the morning
of 12 April 1945 but didn't have time to get
their names on our roster. Both of them also
drowned as a result of overturned boats in heavy
artillery fire.
Pfc Charles Syer
is buried at Margraten American Cemetery, Plot N
Row 15 Grave 13.
Private
First Class