Most of the other men had either been killed or wounded during the attack, leaving only himself and the commander of his headquarters defence platoon; once first aid had been administered to the wounded, Hill continued on and finally managed reach Ranville, where the headquarters of Major General Richard Nelson Gale, commander of the division, had been set up.
This meant going to platoon headquarters — the home of four squads, and only a few minutes' walk from company headquarters, where there were officers who outranked Reilly, the platoon's lone lieutenant.
An officer back at headquarters ordered the platoon to split up: half to tow the Humvee to the base, the other to search the villages.
Usually, Eriksson said, it took time for the unexpected to develop, but now — more than half a day before the patrol was to leave platoon headquarters — it happened with stunning abruptness.
The fire engulfed the lead section and platoon headquarters, causing five casualties in the opening minute.
Petry was to locate himself with the platoon headquarters in the target building once it was secured.
There was one for each of the three rifle squads, a vehicle for platoon headquarters, and the last vehicle containing the TOW missile squad.
He was standing in the doorway of the platoon headquarters, having a mug of tea and chatting with friends, when a stray German mortar bomb landed at his feet, killing him outright.
Yet at that moment two rounds from one of the howitzers fell short, and while one of the shells harmlessly exploded against a tree, the other landed just to the right of the 5 Platoon headquarters, killing two men and wounding eight others, including six of the seven reinforcements from 6 Platoon.
In the U.S. Army the rifle company in 1945 had a strength of 6 officers and 187 men and was composed of a company headquarters, three rifle platoons of three squads each, and a weapons platoon in which were placed light, crew-served weapons for close-fire support.
