"Capt. Treadwell (then 1st Lt.), commanding officer of Company F, near Nieder-Wurzbach, Germany, in the Siegfried line,
single-handedly captured 6 pillboxes and 18 prisoners. Murderous enemy
automatic and rifle fire with intermittent artillery bombardments had
pinned down his company for hours at the base of a hill defended by
concrete fortifications and interlocking trenches. Eight men sent to
attack a single point had all become casualties on the bare slope when
Capt. Treadwell, armed with a submachinegun and handgrenades, went
forward alone to clear the way for his stalled company. Over the terrain
devoid of cover and swept by bullets, he fearlessly advanced, firing at
the aperture of the nearest pillbox and, when within range, hurling
grenades at it. He reached the pillbox, thrust the muzzle of his gun
through the port, and drove 4 Germans out with their hands in the air. A
fifth was found dead inside. Waving these prisoners back to the
American line, he continued under terrible, concentrated fire to the
next pillbox and took it in the same manner. In this fort he captured
the commander of the hill defenses, whom he sent to the rear with the
other prisoners. Never slackening his attack, he then ran across the
crest of the hill to a third pillbox, traversing this distance in full
view of hostile machine gunners and snipers. He was again successful in
taking the enemy position. The Germans quickly fell prey to his further
rushes on 3 more pillboxes in the confusion and havoc caused by his
whirlwind assaults and capture of their commander. Inspired by the
electrifying performance of their leader, the men of Company F stormed
after him and overwhelmed resistance on the entire hill, driving a wedge
into the Siegfried line and making it possible for their battalion to
take its objective. By his courageous willingness to face nearly
impossible odds and by his overwhelming one-man offensive, Capt.
Treadwell reduced a heavily fortified, seemingly impregnable enemy
sector."
From 1Lt Treadwell's Medal of Honor citation, awarded on August 23 1945.
May you be at peace,
Brian & Mel
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