Tags
101st, 6th June 1944, Brecourt Manor, D-Day, Easy Company, Normandy, Richard 'Dick' Winters, Ste Marie Du Mont
The next stop is one of my favourite places to stop at on the tour, you usually see the major tour coaches just drive through this village which I think is a real shame as the people on the coaches are missing out on the beauty that is the small village of Ste Marie Du Mont. The village is a few miles in land from Utah Beach, the American paratroopers dropped into this area around midnight on the 6th June 1944. The paratroopers were scattered all over the countryside in this area, many of the fields had been flooded by the Germans. Many of the young American men drowned in these fields due to the weight of there equipment and never got a chance to fight. Some of the paratroopers landed in the village on that night and immediately took the fight to the Germans. The main feature of the village as you approach is the impressive bell tower/steeple, this can be seen from a good mile away as you approach and during the war the Germans would have utilised this height to zero in artillery towards Utah Beach.
I spoke to the group about what took place in this village on the night and during the day of D-Day. The village still bares scars of that day within the church. Dotted around the village are boards with short story’s on that tell of what took place on that night in various locations. This is a great thing, it gave the group freedom to walk around and take in the story. There are also photos taken from 1944 at various points that give you a feel that very little has changed in 69 years!
The church is a very impressive sight and is beautiful inside, a very peaceful place. It is hard to believe that the war was in full rage here and in a church on D-Day. Again a story board on the outside of the church points you towards certain parts within the church were action took place. The scars are still here to be seen.
People took the chance to walk around the church and village looking in a D-Day themed shop, others took in the location in their own way. One member of the group whom I have known for sometime, a gent who usually shows little emotion, I got to see in another light. He sat on the pews in the church just looking around, deep in thought, no doubt over whelmed by what he was trying to take in and see, not just here but at other locations. A loud person that was sat in peace and quiet. It was good to see the other side of people that you usually don’t get to see.
I went outside the church and directly in front of me was an old water pump, there is a story board there about one paratrooper who hid behind it in the middle of the night before then attacking the German soldiers in the village. Another member of the group was sat on this pump. I walked over and could see that he was writing notes down in a little book. I asked him if he was making notes on what he was seeing. He said that he actually kept a diary and was making notes in which he would then later write up. I left him to it as he continued to write away. I will never be privileged enough to read what he wrote up about his visit to Ste Marie Du Mont but I thought of what he may have written. Words like bravery, courage, fear, peace and how overwhelmed he must have been to walk in their footsteps and learn of their stories surely must have featured.
We left the village on a short drive about 1/4 of mile away to Brecourt Manor, this location was famously depicted in the HBO series ‘Band of Brothers’. Unfortunately you cannot get into the field where the four guns were and walk the route that Dick Winters and his troops of ‘Easy Company’ took on D-Day to disable the guns that aimed at Utah Beach and that could cause havoc and destruction on the incoming troops landing. There is a nice memorial close by in honour of the men of ‘Easy Company’ that fell during the assault on D-Day and also a story board showing the assault made by ‘Easy company’. You have a nice view of the hedge line where the gun emplacements and the route taken by the assaulting troops. One member of the group informed me that the field on the other side of the road from Brecourt Manor, there was a farmer who had recently found an amount of metal in the field. Supposedly a Dakota that had crash landed on the night of D-Day had buried itself in the ground and was under the field. He believed that it was possibly going to be excavated. I had not heard of this story nor read anything about it before, so if anybody does have information I would like to hear if this is true or not.
Yet again it was time to move on and head to Utah Beach but I had another quick stop planned for them. It was again only a short distance away, since we had just learnt about what the 101st and Winters and his men did in the area, it was right to stop at this next place. This was a relatively new memorial in the area, a large statue of Richard ‘Dick’ Winters. It is located on the road out of Ste Marie du Mont as you head towards Utah Beach. The readings on the monument are very moving are poignant.
‘Dedicated to all those who led the way on D-Day’ The efforts of the brave men who lived or survived this ‘day of days’ will never be forgotten and will always live on.