When Germans Captured These Americans — One of Them Killed His Way Through 6 Bunkers скачать в хорошем качестве

When Germans Captured These Americans — One of Them Killed His Way Through 6 Bunkers

At 09:15 on March 18th, 1945, Lieutenant Jack Treadwell pressed his face into frozen German soil and watched eight of his own men die in fifteen seconds. Fox Company, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th “Thunderbird” Division, was pinned at the base of a bare hillside on the Siegfried Line. Three hundred yards of open, frozen grass led up to six concrete pillboxes in a semicircle. Each bunker had two‑foot‑thick walls, MG‑42s, riflemen, and trenches linking them together. Every inch of that slope had been pre‑sighted. Two fire teams had already tried to crawl up and grenade the bunkers. The Germans let them get halfway, then all six pillboxes opened fire. Every man went down. Some were dead. Others lay wounded in the open, unable to move, slowly freezing and bleeding out while their company watched, helpless. Artillery had pounded the position. The hillside was cratered, but the bunkers were intact. Air support was unavailable. Orders from battalion were simple and brutal: “Fox Company will take that hill.” Treadwell knew exactly what German machine guns could do. He’d seen it in Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio, where the 45th had already been in combat for 511 days. Waiting meant more shelling and letting wounded men die. Sending another squad meant feeding more bodies into the same kill zone. Staring through his binoculars, he realized there was no “good” option left. So he took the worst one for himself. He set the glasses down, picked up his Thompson and four grenades, told his men to cover him… …and walked up the hill alone. Under MG‑42 “buzzsaw” fire and sniper rounds, he used shallow artillery craters and tiny folds in the ground as stepping stones. At grenade range, he dropped explosives into firing slits, stormed inside, and cleared bunkers at point‑blank range. Then he dove into the Germans’ own trench system and used it to attack the remaining strongpoints from the rear. By the time it was over, Treadwell had knocked out six pillboxes by himself. The perfect interlocking fire of the position fell apart. Fox Company could finally move, reach some of the wounded, and take the hill instead of dying in front of it. For his actions that day, Jack Treadwell received the Medal of Honor – and stayed in uniform for Korea and Vietnam, retiring as a colonel. This video walks through: What the Siegfried Line was built to do How the 45th ended up at Nieder‑Wurzbach The failed assault and impossible situation Fox Company faced Treadwell’s one‑man attack, bunker by bunker What his story still teaches about leadership when all the options are bad 🔔 Subscribe for more long‑form, cinematic WWII micro‑histories. 👍 Like if you want YouTube to recommend real, documented war stories. 💬 If someone in your family fought on the Siegfried Line or with the 45th, tell us in the comments. Chapters: 0:00 – One Man vs Six Bunkers 2:20 – The Siegfried Line and the 45th Division 5:10 – Fox Company Pinned at Nieder‑Wurzbach 8:30 – Eight Men in Fifteen Seconds 11:30 – Artillery Fails, Air Support Gone 14:30 – Treadwell’s Choice: No Good Options 17:30 – Standing Up Into the Kill Zone 21:00 – Walking Through MG‑42 Fire 24:30 – First Pillbox: Grenade in the Firing Slit 28:00 – Into the Trenches: Rolling Up the Line 32:00 – The Last Bunker: Close‑Quarters Fight 36:00 – Fox Company Moves and the Wounded Are Reached 39:00 – Medal of Honor and Three Wars 42:00 – What This Hill Still Teaches Today #WorldWar2 #WWII #SiegfriedLine #MedalOfHonor #Infantry #MilitaryHistory #WarStories #45thDivision