WW2 trips and museum visits

Brécourt Manor, 2007

In the morning of June 6, 1944 a German gun battery was firing from this location onto Utah Beach. In this field north of the village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, between the hamlet le Grand Chemin and the Brecourt Manor house, No. 6 Battery of the 90th Artillery Regiment had placed four 105 mm howitzers defended by a platoon of German soldiers. The guns were firing onto the 5 miles distant causeway exit-2 leading off Utah Beach.

 

This is the field were the famous Brécourt Manor Assault took place, a well known scene in the HBO Band of Brothers serie. This assault was led by 1st Lt. Richard Winters, commander of Company "E", 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

 

After a reconnaissance by Lt. Winters around 08:30 hrs he collected a team of thirteen men from his own and other companies. Beyond knowledge of the general location of the gun battery being south of Le Grand Chemin and without information of the other side of the hedgerow the paratroopers attacked Brecourt Manor. In this action the guns were destroyed and the German gun crews killed. The attack is still taught at the military academy at West Point as an example of a textbook assault on a fixed position. In addition to destroying the battery, Lt. Winters also obtained a map detailing all German defenses in the Utah Beach area.

 

For this action Lt. Winters was presented the Distinguished Service Cross.

After the Medal of Honor the Distinguished Service Cross is the U.S. Army's second highest award for combat valor.

In this field tree of the batteries four guns were positioned along this hedgerow, a fourth gun was positioned  left in the far end of this photo.
A memorial near Brecourt Manor was erected in June 2008 to commemorate the action against the four guns aiming at Utah Beach.