Jayne and David Keil at the American Legion dance on December 14. Jayne’s father Walter J. Dilbeck, was a World War II hero. Photo: RICH SCHMITT
NOT A HERO:
The December 17 indictment released by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for Luigi Mangione stated:
On the morning of December 4th, MANGIONE left the Hostel at 5:34 a.m. and travelled to Midtown using an e-bike.
Between 5:52 a.m. and 6:45 a.m., MANGIONE walked near and around the Hilton Hotel. At approximately 6:15 a.m. he purchased a water bottle and granola bars at the Starbucks at 1290 6th Avenue.
Between approximately 6:38 a.m. and 6:44 a.m., MANGIONE stood against a wall on the north side of West 54th Street across from the Hilton, fully masked with his hood up.
At 6:45 a.m., MANGIONE crossed the street to the Hilton Hotel and, armed with a 9-millimeter 3D-printed ghost gun equipped with a silencer, approached Mr. Thompson from behind and shot him once in the back and once in the leg.
(Editor’s note: Real heroes don’t go to Starbucks, buy granola bars and then shoot a father in the back.)
BY CONTRAST, THIS IS A REAL HERO:
This is Walter J. Dilbeck’s 1936 high school yearbook photo.
On December 15, Photographer Rich Schmitt sent this editor a photo of Jayne and David Keil at an American Legion dancee, with the note “Jayne’s father, Walter J. Dilbeck, was a decorated war hero with 4 purple hearts and 2 DSC’s Bronze Stars for the Battle of Buchhof, April 1945.” This editor looked up Dilbeck’s service record and he received two Distinguished Service Crosses, four Bronze stars with valor and four Purple Hearts.
Born July 11, 1918, Walter was the oldest of nine children. After attending Fort Branch High School, he married Dorothy Louise Rogers Dilbeck and they would have four daughters. In 1942 he was living in Evansville, Indiana, and working as a collector and as a minor league baseball player.
He entered the Army in 1944, when he was 25. He had three daughters at the time, and wore one of each of the babies’ socks around his neck on his dog tag chain. After training he was shipped overseas and assigned with the 142nd Infantry Recement, 36th Infantry Division. When 250 volunteers were need to join the 63rd Infantry Division, he volunteered.
The 63rd occupied the town of Untergriesheim until the early morning of April 6, 1945, and then advanced to Buchhof.
At 12:30 p.m., after clearing the snipers from the town, the 63rd Division faced the 17th SS (the elite corps of the Nazi Party), which used mortar, artillery, and rocket fire against the Americans.
During that fighting. Dilbeck was in his fox hole in front of the Church in the apple orchard. He saw that a building was on fire and inside the building was an 8-year-old girl named Maria Götz.
With no regard for his personal safety, and probably thinking of his own daughters. Dilbeck ran over and pulled her out of the burning building. He then took her back to his fox hole for her safety. At around 1 p.m. Dilbeck told Maria Götz to walk to the American lines and told her which way to go. Maria Götz credits Dilbeck for saving her life on April 6, 1945.
At around 3:45 p.m. the 17th SS unleashed a large multi-directional attack on F Company. When the German counterattack struck the First Platoon, only a hand full of men stood their ground from 1st Squad led by Dilbeck.
The remainder of the platoon fell back to the town of Buchhof because they had no commanders to stop them. When F Company retreated to Buchhof, the enemy forces moved into the foxholes as [quickly] as they were vacated. From this new position, the Germans poured out a deadly stream of automatic and small arms fire,” against F Company, giving them no chance to reorganize.
“Realizing that something had to be done to stop the enemy attack, Dilbeck stopped voluntarily on a bare knoll and began to pour deadly automatic rifle fire into the ranks of the charging SS troops.”
Dilbeck “was trying to keep the front down with his Browning Automatic Rifle (AR), when he got a bullet hole through the leg that broke the bone, which he didn’t know at the time.
He packed some mud into the hole in his leg and tied a tourniquet right underneath the top of the leg to try to stop the bleeding.
Dilbeck reported, “I couldn’t get the blood stopped as my leg was jumping on me. I couldn’t get it quieted down so I could shoot the AR and so I put the AR on this wagon wheel that was close to me.”
“In front of me was Grover J. Dees, 19 year old boy from Mobile Alabama. Dees had gotten shot in the stomach and he was standing with a hole in his stomach trying to shoot these bastards down until these boys could line up 300 more rounds of ammunition. The next shot that this boy got was through the mouth, right through the side of his jaw and came out the other side, he was vomiting blood, and he was still firing his carbine. This boy should have had the Congressional Medal of Honor if anybody should have ever gotten one. He dropped dead with two holes in him, still firing his carbine.”
A few minutes after that the Germans were behind Dilbeck in the Apple orchard, there was crossfire happening.
“As I turned around, they started firing in the orchard behind me and this German shot me through the back, this went through my canteen through my belt and it felt like I was on fire. I began to see lights, like I’m going to sleep, and I had my AR and I kept thinking Heaven was coming or something, I saw streaks through the sky and everything else.
“Finally I took a drink and I took some sulfa and I saw the SS troopers they were within about 60 to 80 feet and they were trying to get to the AR, and we were down to three of us left … and two of the guys are throwing me three magazines and the last kraut I couldn’t get, he kept coming, he was walking straight up with both hands to me, and he was the biggest German I’d ever seen. He had both hands waving in the air, acting like he was trying to surrender, but he was trying to get the AR. I shot him 5 or 6 times and gave him two bursts and that is the last thing that I remember.”
Before he passed out due to blood loss over the wagon wheel. Dilback and Dees had killed or wounded over 60 SS troops. Their actions in the apple orchard caused 2nd Battalion of the 38th SS Regiment attack to drawl down and bought Fox Company much needed time.
At 7 p.m., B Company of the 253rd Infantry Regiment, 63rd Infantry Division came to Buchhof from Herbolzheim to relive the men of 2nd Battalion and to evacuate the wounded. They found Grover Dees’ and Walter Dilback’s bodies and were surprised to discover that Dilback was still alive and they took him to the 117th Evacuation Hospital.
When PFC Dilback woke up at the hospital he call out to see if there was anyone from F Company in the room and PFC Albert Fernow 35841722 from his squad answered. Fernow did not believe that it was Dilback because he thought that Dilback died on the wagon wheel.
Dilback’s wounds from that battle kept him from ever playing minor league baseball again. He died on May 30, 1991, in Evansville, Indiana, at the age of 72, and was buried there.
This is Walter Dilbeck’s Army photo.