some help?

Firstly, Niels, great work. I printed out your last post on however many pages that took, and now I'm going to have to do it again.

I thought I might be able to provide some help, though. This relates mainly to where you've "placed" the bazooka positions. I have in front of me the book "The First Men In" by Ed Ruggero, which basically follows the 505th PIR in the first days in Normandy. Specifically, on page 212, I'll quote:

"After his company had secured the manor house, Lieutenant John Dolan of A Company surveyed the area around the bridge to see how he could best hold it; it was obvious to him where the bazooka would have to go. One bazooka team would dig in north of the bridge at the very edge of the Merderet, well forward of friendly lines and looking up at any German tanks attempting to cross the bridge.

On the south side of the bridge, the river makes a sharp ninety-degree hook to the west. Thus there was a point of land on the friendly side of the river that gave his bazooka team a clean flank shot against a tank. But it also put the men far forward of the A company line, twenty feet below the road surface, and made them a fairly easy target for an enemy on the bridge or the on the nearby roadway.

Heim and Peterson took up a position on the south side, pushing forward to the edge of the Merderet so taht they were looking at the bridge from the side. There was a concrete telephone pole on this point of land, and the two bazooka men dug a position just behind its base."

Later, as the tanks attacked and the description is pretty much as you outlined above, it says, on page 218:

"Peterson turned to Heim and told him to cross the elevated roadway, find the other team, and see if they could spare some rockets.

Heim ran from the water's edge in a loop to the base of the bridge and a spot where he could climb up onto the roadway."

Ed Ruggero's books seem to be pretty well-researched, so I don't doubt this analysis, especially considering the specificity of the information. Likewise, in looking at the overhead views of the area (flooded and unflooded pics I've seen), I have to agree, if this was in fact Dolan's belief, that that spot would be a good spot for a bazooka, as it would be on the other side of the river from an attacking force but afford side shots to any armor attempting to get to the bridge.

Regarding the mines and truck, the book says, on page 203:

"Sergeant William D. Owens, a squad leader, ordered his men to place their antitank mines in a string across the road where an advancing German tank could see them but could not drive around. The GIs pushed a disabled German ammunition truck, which had been parked in the manor yard, to the bridge to add to the roadblock. Owens' plan was to force any approaching tanks to slow down enough so that the A Company bazooka teams, now going into position on the north and south sides of the roads, would have a better target."

Doesn't say much about how far away from the bridge the mines were. I'll check my other references and see what I come up with. And, if you'd rather have this discussion off-site via email, let me know. This is probably the little battle in history that most interests me, and I plan to one day do a dio (LARGE) of some aspect of the action there, probably the counterattack by the 325th on June 9th. Great work you've been doing! Keep it up!

Rob