Brecourt Manor Assault

Brécourt Manor Assault
Part of the American airborne landings in Normandy
Brécourt Manor in 2010.
Date 6 June 1944 Location 49°23′17.0″N 1°13′34.0″W / 49.388056°N 1.226111°W / 49.388056; -1.226111Coordinates: 49°23′17.0″N 1°13′34.0″W / 49.388056°N 1.226111°W / 49.388056; -1.226111 Le Grand Chemin, France Result Tactical Allied victory
Belligerents
United States	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Richard Winters Lynn Compton Ronald Speirs	Unknown
Strength
23 paratroopers	Approx. 60 soldiers 4 machine guns
Casualties and losses
4 dead 2 wounded	~20 dead 12 prisoners 4 howitzers disabled

The Brécourt Manor Assault (6 June 1944) during the U.S. parachute assault 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.

Command of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division had temporarily fallen to executive officer, 1st Lt. Richard Winters. After linking up with his parent unit at the hamlet of Le Grand Chemin on the morning of 6 June 1944, Winters was ordered up front away from his company. With minimal instructions of "There's fire along that hedgerow there. Take care of it," and no briefing, Winters found himself given the task of destroying a German artillery battery. The battery had initially been reported to be 88 mm guns firing onto causeway exit #2 leading off Utah Beach and disrupting landing forces of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division advancing inland on this route. Several other units had stumbled onto the German position earlier in the morning and had been repulsed.

Winters undertook a reconnaissance at about 0830, after which he collected a team of 12 men from his own and other companies. Beyond knowledge of the general location of the gun emplacements south of Le Grand Chemin and without information of the other side of the hedgerow, Winters' team attacked Brécourt Manor, located three miles southwest of Utah Beach and north of the village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. There he discovered No. 6 Battery of the 90th Artillery Regiment, consisting of four 105 mm howitzers connected by trenches and defended by a company of soldiers.

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