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Here's some more info I just found. I didn't realize I'd left bookmarks in my books for just this purpose:
Night Drop by SLA Marshall, page 62 (softcover):
"Four men moved out to establish a road block on the causeway beyond the bridge.....they deployed in depth with the bazooka on the left 25 yards to the fore. They carried four antitank mines with them, and these they strung across the road. Last, a broken-down truck was dragged from the east bank and set broadside at the far end of the bridge--an indifferent shield covering the rear bazooka man."
Thus, although all the info doesn't match perfectly (does it ever?), the concept of the left (south side) bazooka team being forward of the other one lends credence to what Ruggero wrote in his book.
Also, in Nordyke's "All American All the Way", page 257, quoting Private Heim:
"We carried antitank mines....these were placed across the causeway about fifty feet on the other side of the bridge. There was a broken down German truck by the Manoir house, which we pushed and dragged across the bridge and placed it across the causeway."
However, on the previous page, though not quoting, Nordyke places Heim and Peterson as "assigned to the southern shoulder of the causeway". Indeed, Nordyke quotes Dolan as saying, on page 256:
"One the bridge I had three bazooka teams. Two of them were from Company A and the third was from either B or C Company. The two Company A bazookas were dug in to the left and right of the bridge. Because the road itself was the causeway type, they dug in below the level of the road. The third bazooka was more over to the south where better cover was available."
This is the first I've seen of a third bazooka team, but it's placement, further to the south with better cover, actually sounds a bit like the Heim-Peterson location. Maybe.
Various accounts of the attack by the Germans are given in the Nordyke book, some with 3 french tanks preceded by captured American paras ordered to remove those mines, etc.
Tough to piece it all together and make a cohesive story. You've done as good a job as any historian writing any book and taking often conflicting accounts and piecing them together. I don't know if we'll ever know the order of the attackers (pz III first, renault first, hotchkiss first), etc. Your ideas sound as good as any I've heard.
I'd like to believe Ruggero's account of the position of the bazooka teams, if nothing else because it makes tactical sense to me. I think a lot may hinge on where these concrete telephone poles are. In all accounts, Heim says they dug in RIGHT behind one, yet they seemed to have been right along the roadway. So perhaps Ruggero's account is not accurate? Or, maybe by "right behind" they meant "in line with"? But, then, in one account of the battle, Peterson took aim, originally, by leaning against the pole, until a tank blew it away. So I don't know. Just trying to offer more ideas/explanations/questions.
