Clyde C. Schneider, A.S.N. 36297181. Dog Company 501st.
I am indebted to Casey Maguire of Twin Falls, Idaho for assisting me in the following account . His Father, Walt "Mac" Maguire served in First Platoon, D Company of 501st P.I.R. and was a good friend of Clyde Schneider, native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The extract below also includes part of a narrative written by another D Company veteran, Bill Hayes.
Just after Christmas 1943 the men of the 501st left Boston on the East coast of America for Scotland and the war! They arrived in Great Britain on January 31st 1944.
They were camped near Newbury, Berkshire and thus became used to life in England. For what ever reason it was during his time in England that Clyde Schneider mislaid one of his identity disk!
We shall now skip forward a few months, to Autumn 1944. D-Day has passed, as has Operation Market Garden and the men of the 101st are in the rest camp in Mourmelon, France. The days passed with replacements coming in to take the places of those friends who had been lost during the Operations in Holland, weapons cleaning and repair, training and checking out the other units in the area, without getting into too many fights!
The First Platoon of Dog Company now had a strength of 53 men (above their normal number of 45). The rest only lasted a couple of weeks. On December 18th 1944, the men of the 101st were once again called to arms.
After a long truck journey and march D Company 501st found themselves in combat near the hamlet of Bizory (nicknamed misery by the soldiers). The fighting in this area went on for several days. On one occasion when the skies were clear the Luftwaffe put in an appearance and dropped bombs near the men's positions. Shrapnel from one of these shells injured Clyde Schneider, a machine gunner, in the rear! It wasn't serious and Clyde must have been fairly coy about this incident anyway. It meant his 3rd Purple Heart of the war!
On January 3rd 1945 the soldiers moved into new positions in the woods. German foxholes were located and appeared empty. A grenade thrown into the first hole resulted in a noise from within. A shaken and dazed German emerged and handed his Luger pistol, butt end first to Clyde Schneider. This caused some consternation to Clydes comrades as he already had one Luger in his possession!! Obviously not wanting to decline the chance of another trophy he tucked this pistol into the front of his jacket. The men continued their walk through the trees.
The Platoon Sgt. Buck West ordered Bill Hayes to go across an open field to make contact with Battalion HQ. Hayes started across the snow covered clearing, with a Corporal following a few paces behind. After a short distance an MG42 opened up on them. Hayes dropped to the ground, luckily in a low spot out of the line of fire. He looked about and saw Clyde Schneider standing up, trying to locate the enemy gun. A shot rang out and Schneider pitched backwards into the snow.
A Sherman tank of the 10th AD came along and placed itself between the Americans and the German MG. Hayes got over to where Schneider was now sitting up in the snow. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the smashed Luger and threw it away in disgust, probably muttering something about the German ruining his trophy.
The Americans moved to better cover, just in time to see the German machine gunner backing out of the bushes. Hayes lifted his Thompson and fired three shots at the retreating German. He was hit with all three and fell. This German too was carrying a Luger on his belt. But in their eagerness to obtain a trophy two of Clydes comrades were badly injured by other enemy fire.
We have only dwelt briefly on this story, but it serves to illustrate the attitude of these soldiers. They were in a desperate fight and saw friends grievously injured or killed. Perhaps to occupy themselves the emphasis was on gaining trophies. To try and make sense of the senseless. Clyde Schneider survived the war as far as we know. (Incidentally he had also earned a Silver Star during the Veghel battle of September 1944. Other details will be added later.