Brécourt Manor Assault
[1] Command of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division had temporarily fallen to its executive officer, First Lieutenant Richard Winters.The battery, initially reported to have been 10.5 cm leFH 18 howitzers, was firing onto causeway exit #2 leading off Utah Beach, disrupting landing forces of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.Oberstleutnant Friedrich von der Heydte of the German 6th Parachute Regiment, who was observing the landings at Utah Beach, learned that they had been abandoned, and traveled to Carentan, where he ordered his 1st Battalion to occupy and hold Sainte-Marie-du-Mont and Brécourt, and find men to work on the artillery battery.[7] Upon arrival at the battery location, Winters made his plan; he positioned a pair of M1919 machine guns for covering fire and sent several soldiers (2nd Lt. Lynn D. Compton, Pvt.While the ditch around the fields which connected the artillery positions provided the Germans with an easy way to supply and reinforce the guns, they also proved to be their biggest weakness.Speirs had a reputation as an excellent and extremely aggressive officer, and he led his men against the last gun position by running outside the trenches, exposing himself to enemy fire.The assault of Brécourt Manor is the focus of the sixth mission (in the American Campaign) of the 2003 first-person video game Call of Duty.The Brécourt Battery is featured as a strongpoint on the St. Marie du Mont map of the military simulation video game Hell Let Loose.