“Sixteen boats were spread out along a hundred yards of river bank. Some were in shallow water, making it necessary to wade in the mud before we could get into the boats and shove off. An engineer tried to start the motor but it sputtered and died. Some men used their rifle butts to paddle while others bailed water with their helmets. We were receiving machine-gun fire and mortar shells were dropping around us. Many boats had holes in their sides and water kept leaking in. Of the sixteen boats we started with, only six reached the far bank.”
—From The Bronx to Berchtesgaden
Murray Soskil was the recipient of two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star, and six Battle Stars for service in southern France and Germany. As a dogface soldier, he fought from the Colmar Pocket, through the Vosges Mountains, and on to Nuremburg and Munich. Along the way the 3rd Division liberated two concentration camps and captured Hitler’s private mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden. His memoir is testimony to the bravery of American servicemen in the face of evil.