On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the U.S.A. 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne made a bad, widely-scattered drop on both sides of the flooded Merderet River, as well as into the flooded area. They were supposed to have dropped west of the Merderet, and secure a number of bridges across the Merderet and other rivers. Lt. Col. Timmes, Captain Schwartzwalder and Lt. Levy were all part of the battalion that was to secure Cauquigny and thus the western end of the la Fiere causeway across the Merderet.
Schwartzwalder had the misfortune of being dropped on the east, i.e. wrong side of the Merderet. He managed to assemble approximately 40 of his troopers and marched towards the la Fiere bridge as the means to crossing to the other side. At the bridge his troopers got involved in the assault on the la Fiere manor at approximately 1030 hours. At some point his force swelled to 80 troopers. Immediately after the 505th's securing the manor, Schwartzwalder took his men across to Cauquiny where he joined Lt. Levy of the 507th who was holding the church overlooking the causeway with 10-17 of his own troopers plus another 30 - 40 under Lt. Taylor of the 508th. Schwartzwalder, who outranked Levy, seems appropriately to have decided to assist in securing Cauquiny and the causeway consistent with his operational orders (as far as I can tell).
About noon or before a very heavy hour-long German mortar barrage covered the American positions at both ends of the causeway signalling a forthcoming German counter-attack. At this point Captain Schwartzwalder makes the critical decision to abandon the position in favour of joining Lt. Col. Timmes who was contained by the Germans in an orchard to the NW. When Schwartzwalder skeedaddled, he took with him not only his own 80 men but also "some of the other" troopers. The now serverly outnumbered remaining with Lt. Levy aggressively took the fight to the Germans, ambushing and destroying two R35 tanks.
In the end, Levy and his dirty dozen were driven out of Cauquiny, most fleeing across the flooded plain* and the Cauquigny position was lost for the next few days. It was only retaken after a horrible bloody assault across the causeway by the 325th GIR and the remnants of the 505th on the 9th of June.
* Those that fled across the flood plain may have included some of Schwartzwalder's men.
So was Captain Schwartzwalder prudent or suffering from cold feet? My impression tilts towards the latter. It is my hypothesis, that if he had remained in Cauquigny with his 80+, the position might not have been lost on the 6th.
Footnote: The two tanks. A great bit of research supported by photos and analysis of tank components, has proven that four tanks were verifiably KIA'd on the causeway, one Pzkfw III, two Renault R35 and one Hotckiss. If the accounts about Levy are credible, there would be a fifth in one of the laneways W or NW of Cauquigny out of sight of any contemporary photos available. And it might have been Levy's men who destroyed the Hotchkiss as the American defenders of le Manoir de la Fiere reported destroying only three tanks. That would make a total of 'five' tanks which is the correct total for a platoon of the Panzer Ausbildungs und Ersatz Abteilung 100.
Schwartzwalder had the misfortune of being dropped on the east, i.e. wrong side of the Merderet. He managed to assemble approximately 40 of his troopers and marched towards the la Fiere bridge as the means to crossing to the other side. At the bridge his troopers got involved in the assault on the la Fiere manor at approximately 1030 hours. At some point his force swelled to 80 troopers. Immediately after the 505th's securing the manor, Schwartzwalder took his men across to Cauquiny where he joined Lt. Levy of the 507th who was holding the church overlooking the causeway with 10-17 of his own troopers plus another 30 - 40 under Lt. Taylor of the 508th. Schwartzwalder, who outranked Levy, seems appropriately to have decided to assist in securing Cauquiny and the causeway consistent with his operational orders (as far as I can tell).
About noon or before a very heavy hour-long German mortar barrage covered the American positions at both ends of the causeway signalling a forthcoming German counter-attack. At this point Captain Schwartzwalder makes the critical decision to abandon the position in favour of joining Lt. Col. Timmes who was contained by the Germans in an orchard to the NW. When Schwartzwalder skeedaddled, he took with him not only his own 80 men but also "some of the other" troopers. The now serverly outnumbered remaining with Lt. Levy aggressively took the fight to the Germans, ambushing and destroying two R35 tanks.
In the end, Levy and his dirty dozen were driven out of Cauquiny, most fleeing across the flooded plain* and the Cauquigny position was lost for the next few days. It was only retaken after a horrible bloody assault across the causeway by the 325th GIR and the remnants of the 505th on the 9th of June.
* Those that fled across the flood plain may have included some of Schwartzwalder's men.
So was Captain Schwartzwalder prudent or suffering from cold feet? My impression tilts towards the latter. It is my hypothesis, that if he had remained in Cauquigny with his 80+, the position might not have been lost on the 6th.
Footnote: The two tanks. A great bit of research supported by photos and analysis of tank components, has proven that four tanks were verifiably KIA'd on the causeway, one Pzkfw III, two Renault R35 and one Hotckiss. If the accounts about Levy are credible, there would be a fifth in one of the laneways W or NW of Cauquigny out of sight of any contemporary photos available. And it might have been Levy's men who destroyed the Hotchkiss as the American defenders of le Manoir de la Fiere reported destroying only three tanks. That would make a total of 'five' tanks which is the correct total for a platoon of the Panzer Ausbildungs und Ersatz Abteilung 100.
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