Easy Company Saved Utah Beach!?!

[Delta Tank]

How Lt. Richard Winters and Easy Company saved Utah Beach on D-Day

How Richard 'Dick' Winters' and the Band of Brothers saved Utah Beach on D-Day.
How Lt. Richard Winters and Easy Company saved Utah Beach on D-Day
By Kevin M. Hymel

“Why the hell am I here?” Lt. Richard Winters asked himself as he pulled out of his parachute harness in the first hours of D-Day. Winters, a platoon commander in E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, found himself in France with only his jump knife for protection. The C-47 transport plane he had just jumped out of had been flying too fast and too low for a safe fall. The prop blast had ripped off his leg bag, which was filled with equipment, as he exited the plane. He described his short drop as “too close for comfort.”

With only his knife, Winters approached an Airborne soldier with two rifles. Winters was about to ask for one, but the trooper was shaking so badly with fright that Winters merely said to him: “Follow me.” He spent the next few hours gathering men and getting situated. When he drove his knife into the ground to drape a poncho over his head to examine a map with a flashlight, someone stole the knife. A soldier handed him a grenade. Eventually he came across a dead American and picked up his rifle and ammunition.

Dick Winters and the Band of Brothers free e-Book

Taking the Guns Outside Ste. Marie-du-Mont

Winters continued gathering men until Company E had 11 troopers as part of the 2nd Battalion, which had only 80 men. The soldiers headed toward the French town of Ste. Marie-du-Mont, where the battalion had discovered a battery of four German 105mm cannon. Those guns, manned by no less than 130 men, were blasting into the troops of the Fourth Infantry Division landing on Utah Beach. The job of taking the guns went to E Company.

Winters went to work. After explaining to his men that they were about to make a frontal assault on the guns, he set up two machine guns to provide covering fire and moved his men forward to their jump-off positions. Just as he crawled forward to lead his men, Winters spotted a German helmet moving down a trench. He fired his M-1 rifle, killing the German.

A jumpmaster checks the reserve ‘chutes and equipment of paratroopers about to board a C-47. Note that a military censor has obscured the unit patches on the men’s left sleeves.
A jumpmaster checks the reserve ‘chutes and equipment of paratroopers about to board a C-47. Note that a military censor has obscured the unit patches on the men’s left sleeves.
Winters’ men began firing into the German positions from three directions. “Follow me!” he shouted for the second time that morning as his assault team charged. The Airborne troops chased the Germans from their positions with a hail of gunfire and hand grenades. Winters, with two other soldiers, cut down four Germans on the run. Realizing that the Germans would probably launch a counterattack, Winters flopped down into the enemy trench where he came across two Germans setting up a machine gun. “I got in the first shot and hit the gunner in the hip; the second caught the other boy in the shoulder.”

Lt. Richard Winters: A Man Who Truly Made a Difference

It was then that Lt. Richard Winters found himself at the first gun without any explosives, and ordered a soldier to retrieve his demolition kit. He then led a five-man attack on the second gun, which he took with only one casualty, then charged the third. Explosives arrived, and Winters and his men set about destroying the three guns. The fourth gun was captured and destroyed by a lieutenant from another company. Having completed his mission and realizing that his men were stretched too thin, Winters ordered a withdrawal.

Winters was always proud of his actions on D-Day, but he never knew how important taking those guns had been until Dr. Stephen Ambrose published his story in Band of Brothers, E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in 1992. A few months after the book came out, Winters received a letter from Elliot Richardson, who had been President Richard M. Nixon’s secretary of state. Richardson wrote that he had been a medic with the Fourth Division in the second wave of troops coming ashore on Utah on D-Day and was retrieving a wounded tanker from a minefield on the beach when the incoming artillery abruptly stopped. “Now I know why the artillery fire ended on Utah Beach.” Richardson thanked Winters for his actions on D-day.

Most often soldiers in combat never know how their efforts help anyone outside their immediate field of vision. Soldiers can usually only see how their actions save the lives of their comrades and vice versa. The enemy, who they might see after a battle, is often either a nameless mass of men with their hands above their heads, or a pile of dead. But to find out, from a soldier miles away, in an entirely different division, that a small battle actually did save lives and touched those under fire, is a rare experience afforded to few soldiers. Winters would always know, now, that he truly made a difference.

Originally Published in WWII HISTORY Magazine

[Delta Tank]

Dick Winters and Easy Company did great things on D-Day but, I seriously doubt that the amphibious assault at Utah Beach would of failed if these four 105mm howitzers continued to fire that day. I don’t know why historians/whoever just can’t tell a truthful story without blowing events all out of proportions.

Mike

[Richard Anderson]

Dick Winters and Easy Company did great things on D-Day but, I seriously doubt that the amphibious assault at Utah Beach would of failed if these four 105mm howitzers continued to fire that day. I don’t know why historians/whoever just can’t tell a truthful story without blowing events all out of proportions.

Mike

Yeah, the only problem with that story is that artillery fire onto UTAH did not end then. It wasn't until the observationpoint on Mont Castre (Hill 122) was eliminated in early July that long-range fire onto the beach areas at UTAH ended. My Dad remembered vividly that when they landed the afternoon of 14 June the beaches were still under periodic shellfire.

[Delta Tank]

Dick Winters and Easy Company did great things on D-Day but, I seriously doubt that the amphibious assault at Utah Beach would of failed if these four 105mm howitzers continued to fire that day. I don’t know why historians/whoever just can’t tell a truthful story without blowing events all out of proportions.

Mike

Yeah, the only problem with that story is that artillery fire onto UTAH did not end then. It wasn't until the observationpoint on Mont Castre (Hill 122) was eliminated in early July that long-range fire onto the beach areas at UTAH ended. My Dad remembered vividly that when they landed the afternoon of 14 June the beaches were still under periodic shellfire.

Rich,

A long time ago, 11 November 1997, I dedicated a monument in Caumont, France, representing Major General Albert H. Smith, Jr. from the Mayor’s office you could see the coast!! I would imagine a well trained German Artillery Officer with good optics could do some really good work from there. Caumont’s name was changed to Caumont-l’Evente for reasons I can’t recall, maybe there were two Caumonts.

Mike

[Carl Schwamberger]

Hmm.. Mr Hymel is suposed to be a "historian for the US Army" and a contributor to Naval History magazine. A fast glance a magazine article or two suggests his is dramatic style of historical writing.

[Sheldrake]

Dick Winters and Easy Company did great things on D-Day but, I seriously doubt that the amphibious assault at Utah Beach would of failed if these four 105mm howitzers continued to fire that day. I don’t know why historians/whoever just can’t tell a truthful story without blowing events all out of proportions.

Mike

Sure, Dick Winters and Easy Company knocking out four 105mm howitzers did not do it all. We know a lot about Dick Winters and Easy Company becuase #1 they survived to tell the tale. #2 Stephen Ambrose took the time to piece their story together. #3 They made a TV mini series. In its an example of the kind of actions that made the big picture. The airnborne drop of the 101st and 82nd on top of the artillery and reserves behind Utah beach are part of the reason for the success of the seaborne landings.

One modern view is that the combined casualties for the battle on and behind Utah Beach was higher than at Omaha Beach. The landings at Omaha beach might have been easier if a regiment of paratroops had landed on the artillery positions of the 352nd. I agree with Stephen Zaloga that it was the unsupressed artillery of the 352nd which inflicted many of the casualties on Omaha Beach. Here is an article I wrote. http://www.theobservationpost.com/blog/?p=2121

[LAstry2]

The assault 6-6-1944
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%A9c ... or_Assault

[Carl Schwamberger]

...

One modern view is that the combined casualties for the battle on and behind Utah Beach was higher than at Omaha Beach. The landings at Omaha beach might have been easier if a regiment of paratroops had landed on the artillery positions of the 352nd. I agree with Stephen Zaloga that it was the unsupressed artillery of the 352nd which inflicted many of the casualties on Omaha Beach. Here is an article I wrote. http://www.theobservationpost.com/blog/?p=2121

Theres a number of other items Zaloga leaves out. Differences in number of tanks & fire support vehicles reaching shore & in combat, & possible disruption of the Naval gunfire spotting teams are two. Still its way better than the usual stuff we see on the subject.