William Louis Sandoval drawing in Fourth Wall Films' "A Bridge Too Far from Hero Street" by Bruce Walters
William “Willie” Louis Sandoval was struck down by a machine gunner near the end of the Second World War. His death came after having served 151 days on the front line in Italy; after parachuting behind Nazi lines in Northern Europe. He was just 21 years old.
Willie was the son of Mexican immigrants. His family brought him to Silvis, Illinois in 1925, when he was two years old. The family first lived in railroad box cars, uninsulated against the brutal cold of winter and heat of summer. In 1937, they moved to a block designated by the city for the immigrant workers and their families. The street was without sewage, running water, and electricity. His mother died after giving birth to twin boys when Willie was 13. Both twins also died within hours.
Within a year of his graduation from East Moline High School, Willie enlisted in the Army. He was assigned to Company F, Second Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
He was first deployed in Italy, parachuting into the Salerno region to reinforce the Allied beachhead during Operation Avalanche. Advancing towards Rome, his regiment helped to liberate Naples. On January 22, 1944, his unit made an amphibious landing in Anzio, where they would fight for eight weeks. When they fought in San Pietro, a third of his unit were killed in battle or by disease.
On September 17, the 504th took part in Operation Market Garden, a massive Allied operation intended to create an invasion route into Germany. Willie’s regiment crossed the 400-yard Waal River completely exposed to German fire in collapsible wood-and-canvas boats. Nearly half of the unit suffered casualties, yet his battalion succeeded in seizing the river's strategic bridge that crossed over the river. The entire operation, however, failed when the next bridge at Arnhem was not seized. The operation would be the basis for the book and film A Bridge Too Far.
Willie’s father received a telegram informing him that his son was missing in action as of October 6, 1944. One year and a day later, his family was notified that he was killed in action during an attack near Zyfflich, Germany.
His body was never recovered.
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Only a block and a half long, Second Street in Silvis, Illinois lost six young men in World War II and two in the Korean War, more than any other street in America. Hero Street, as it is now known, has provided over 150 service members since Mexican-American immigrants settled there in 1929.
“Hero Street,” a multi-part documentary series by Fourth Wall Films, explores the compelling true story of eight Mexican-American heroes from Hero Street, USA in Silvis, Illinois: Tony Pompa, Frank Sandoval, William Sandoval, Claro Solis, Peter Masias, Joseph Sandoval, Joseph Gomez and John S. Muños.
Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning and Emmy® winning independent film and video production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois. For more information visit HeroStreetMovie.com.
To purchase the documentaries on DVD click HERE.