Brécourt Manor Assault
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| Brécourt Manor Assault | |||||||||
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| Part of World War II | |||||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||||
 United States |
 Germany |
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| Commanders | |||||||||
| Richard Winters | unknown | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 13 | 60+ | ||||||||
| Casualties | |||||||||
| 4 dead, 6 wounded |
15 dead, 12 prisoner, Wounded unknown |
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The Brécourt Manor Assault during Operation Chicago of the Normandy Invasion of World War II is often cited as a classic example of small-unit tactics and leadership in overcoming a larger enemy force.
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[edit] Objective
As effective commander of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division during the Normandy campaign, First Lieutenant Richard Winters was tasked to destroy a battery of what were initially reported to be German 88 mm guns firing onto Causeway #2 leading off Utah Beach and disrupting American forces advancing inland on this route. Several other units had stumbled onto the enemy position earlier in the day and had been repulsed.
About 8:30 a.m., Winters gathered a team of thirteen men from his own and other companies. Knowing little more than a general location of the gun emplacements, winters himself scouted the area north of a farm house called Brécourt Manor, located three miles southwest of Utah Beach, north of the village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont and just south of the village of La Grand Chemin. There he discovered the battery of four 105 mm howitzers connected by trenches and defended by a platoon of German paratroopers from the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment with emplaced MG-42 machine guns. In total, the Americans were opposed by approximately sixty German soldiers.
[edit] Battle
Upon arrival at the battery location, Winters developed a quick plan of attack. He positioned a pair of M1919 .30 caliber machine guns to serve as a base of fire and several soldiers with rifles positioned on one flank to provide covering fire, then led an attack down the hedgerow leading to the first gun position.
| Battle of Normandy |
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| Sword – Juno – Gold – Omaha – Utah – Pointe du Hoc – Brécourt Manor – Chicago – Villers-Bocage – Cherbourg – Epsom – Goodwood – Atlantic – Spring – Cobra – Bluecoat – Lüttich – Totalise – Tractable – Falaise – Brest – Paris |
While the trenches connecting the guns was sound military practice by the Germans, providing them with an easy way to resupply and reinforce the guns, it also proved to be their biggest weakness. After destroying the first gun position, Winters' team attacked the remaining guns by using the trenches as covered approach routes. The danger of the trenches to Winters' team were that they were vulnerable to grenades thrown by the Germans. Reinforcements from D (Dog) Company, led by Lt. Ronald Speirs, arrived to complete the assault on the last gun.
After the four guns were disabled, Winters' team was low on ammunition and withdrew. He had discovered a German map in one gun position that was marked with the locations of all German artillery and machine gun positions throughout that area of the Cotentin Pensinsula. This was an invaluable piece of intelligence and was handed up the chain of command. Later, when two tanks from Utah Beach arrived, Winters directed their fire to clean up the position.
Winters lost one man under his command, PFC John D. Halls from 2nd Battalion's Headquarters Company [1], and another one of his men was wounded during this attack, Private Robert "Popeye" Wynn from Winter's company (Wynn was evacuated back to England, recovered from his wound and rejoined Easy Company just before Operation Market Garden). Another casualty was Warrant Officer Andrew Hill, who was killed when he came upon the battle while searching for the headquarters of the 506th PIR.
[edit] Aftermath
Troops landing at Utah Beach had a relatively easy landing, due in part to this successful assault. Colonel Robert Sink, the commander of the 506th PIR, recommended Winters for the Medal of Honor, but the award was downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross because of the D-Day policy of granting only one Medal of Honor per division, which was awarded to Lieutenant Colonel Robert G. Cole. However, at the time of the writing of this article, there is a campaign to upgrade Winter's Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor as many felt he deserved, but the bill has yet to emerge from the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.
The official Army history of these events on D-Day is quiet about the battle.[2] Army historian S. L. A. Marshall interviewed Winters about the attack, but the interview was not private - many of Winters' superior officers were present - and, according to his memoir Beyond Band of Brothers, he may have downplayed his description of the event to avoid personal accolade and to keep the account succinct. However, nearly every man involved was later recognized for his role in the attack.
The assault has been acclaimed as a textbook assault on stationary gun positions and is still enacted for training purposes at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
[edit] Medals Awarded
- Lynn "Buck" Compton
- Bill Guarnere
- Joe Toye
- Gerald Lorraine
- Carwood Lipton
- "Popeye" Wynn
- Cleveland Petty
- Walter Hendrix
- Donald Malarkey
- Myron Ranney
- Joe Liebgott
- John Plesha
[edit] References
- ^ Mark Bando's Trigger Time website states "John D. Halls, ... note the 's' on his last name, was a member of the 81mm mortar platoon, of Headquarters Co., 2nd battalion, 506th PIR, and according to John Barickman of the same platoon, it was HALLS who was killed in the Brecourt fight, not HALL." In Biggest Brother: The Life of Major Dick Winters, The Man Who Led the Band of Brothers, the biography written by Larry Alexander, Winters remembers the man as John D. Hall of A Company, whom he had coached on the regimental basketball team, as the HBO series indicates.
- ^ Utah Beach to Cherbourg, Center of Military History, United States Army
[edit] Dramatizations
- Band of Brothers
- Call of Duty
- Combat Elite : WWII Paratroopers
[edit] External links
- Brécourt Manor - Google Earth Community
- (Map) 506th Parachute Infantry and 3rd Bn 501st on D-Day Sainte-Marie-du-Mont is in the center of the map, with the 105 mm howitzer battery position just west of the village. However, this location does not match the previous link, which places it north of the village.
- MOH Website for Maj. Dick Winters
- Valor Studios, "Silencing the Guns" by Jim Dietz
