Much of the action described in the next section took place on the southern outskirts of Schijndel. Sadly, post-war development has covered the exact scene but by driving to the edge of the town the ground across which the Germans approached the town can be seen.

The 1st Battalion’s two mile advance, with fixed bayonets, was completed without significant incident by midnight The battalion found the town held by only a few surprised Germans and was secured by 01.50 hours. Colonel Johnson said,

‘The large German groups, reported earlier, had evidently moved on to the south’.

At his request, members of the resistance set out on their bicycles on highly dangerous missions to locate the enemy. Meanwhile, the Dutch Resistance reported that the 3rd Battalion, advancing on Schijndel from Eerde, would encounter a ‘sizable blocking force at the railway station’. This position took some time to overcome and the withdrawing Germans mounted a determined resistance. 3/501 PIR finally arrived in Schijndel well after dawn. Sergeant Chapman wrote about dawn on 22 September: ‘We took the town filled with enemy soldiers. In the morning, [heavy sleeping!] Krauts came out of bedrooms to walk into our guys in the kitchen.’ The town’ perimeter bristled with paratroopers and Private Carpenter recalled how:

‘In the morning, we set up some roadblocks on the roads leading into Schijndel from the north, east and west. These started paying dividends right away as word hadn’t gotten back to the German vehicles as they arrived in that little town.’

Lieutenant Howard and his platoon from Company C ‘was having a field day against enemy vehicles coming in from the west’. He urged his men to ‘Shoot high so you can knock off those men without ruining a good motor car’. Transport, almost any transport, was useful to paratroopers who could otherwise only manoeuvre at walking pace.

Schijndel – Friday 22 September 1944

While Company C was busy capturing unsuspecting Germans arriving in from s’Hertogenbosch, the enemy facing the rest of 1/501PIR, were only too aware of American occupation of the town. This was not a good omen for Colonel Johnson’s plan to envelop them.

At 07.15 hours, Company B on the southern edge of the town reported the arrival of a force of ‘two hundred infantry supported by two tanks’ – these were probably two of the Jagdpanthers seen the previous evening. Outnumbered, Company B was soon in trouble, with its forward platoon being driven in. Lieutenant Colonel Kinnard called for fire support but the observer in the church spire, could see nothing through the early autumn ground mist. The Jagdpanthers, being even heavier than the Allied Shermans, at forty-seven tons, were confined to the road and advanced to within two-hundred yards of the paratroopers’ roadblocks at the town’s edge. With the words, ‘We’re heading that way. I think we can get them from the flank’, Company B commander, Lieutenant Hamilton, led his reserve platoon forward. His idea, recorded in the after-action report:

‘was to make an end run around the buildings to his right, emerge on the line of the enemy advance between the main body and the advance party, take the latter in the rear and so bring the whole movement into check.’

Moving through a nunnery and farm buildings, Lieutenant Hamilton positioned a section to pin down the enemy’s main body while his other two sections dealt with the leading group of Germans. Shooting the lock off a large gate, the Screaming Eagles emerged into the street, taking the cautiously advancing enemy force by surprise. Ten Germans were shot down and with the Americans unexpectedly in their rear; the remaining twenty promptly surrendered. The advance of the enemy main body had been halted by manoeuvre tactics. Lieutenant Hamilton’s action had stopped a significantly superior force without resorting to an inevitably costly positional defence.

Elsewhere in Schijndel, 1/501 PIR’s positions were penetrated and the situation was only restored, at 09.30 hours by the arrival of 3/501 PIR. Meanwhile Company A in the eastern part of the town came under attack from an enemy force advancing up the Koveringse Dike road. The tanks were kept at bay by bazooka fire; however, groups of infantry, using the cover of ditches and buildings, infiltrated into the town but never assembled in sufficient strength to hold their gains against the Americans.