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The mortal ferocity of the four-day battle for control of the small stone bridge over the Merderet River at La Fière in Normandy is testament to the bridge’s strategic importance in the D-Day invasion of June 1944.
Battle of Normandy from June 6 to August 25, 1944 – World War 2> Normandy cities in 1944. La Fière (Manche) The cities of Normandy during the 1944 battles. Liberation: June 6, 1944. Deployed units: 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
5 juin 2019 · Now, this pivotal action, long known to veterans as well as scholars and students of the Normandy Campaign, is being commemorated as part of D-Day 75. A new documentary on the battle, ‘Seize & Secure: The Battle for La Fière’, produced by the National WWII Museum, recently premiered.
- La Fière Bridge
- Flawless Landing For The 82Nd’S 505th
- “Ground Here Probably Soft”
- “The Bloodiest Small Unit Struggle in The Experience of American Arms”
- Pinned Down For An Hour
- Bullets Were Dancing Off The Water
- Capturing The Manor
- Defenses Established at The Bridge
- The German Counterattack
- “Major Kellam’s Bridge”
Shortly after midnight on June 6, as 821 C-47 Skytrain transport planes dropped advance elements of the divisions, the situation began to go wrong in a hurry. Quickly recovering from their surprise, the Germans on the ground began filling the night sky with antiaircraft shells. The planes, flying in formation, made perfect targets, and the paratroo...
That, of course, was the plan, but like most of the other plans that morning, this one began unraveling even before it got under way. Regiments, battalions, companies, and platoons had been blown like autumn leaves all over Normandy; almost no troops had come down on their designated drop zones. Radios had been smashed or lost in marshes that were ...
The bridge stands just a grenade’s throw west of the manor buildings. Beyond the bridge was a swamp caused by the flooding of the Merderet, 1,000 yards wide at its narrowest; the elevated causeway between the farm and the tiny hamlet of Cauquigny, a kilometer to the west, was the only dry passage either side could use. Once Dolan’s men captured the...
As the spearpoint of the 505th, Dolan’s company approached in the predawn blackness. No enemy movement could be seen due to the reduced visibility caused by the foliage, the hedgerows, the high stone walls around the property, and the darkness. Confusion reigned because Dolan, even after sunrise and at the height of the battle, was unaware for a lo...
“The third platoon continued its flanking move and cut back in toward the road to the bridge. Because of the fire, we calculated that there was just one machine-gun crew that was in our way. It later turned out that there must have been at least a squad dug in at this point, with at least two of them armed with [MP-40] machine pistols. Prisoners ca...
Eight hundred yards north of the bridge, Colonel Roy Lindquist, commanding the 508th PIR, could hear the gunfire and urged his men to follow the railroad line south toward the sounds of battle. He was joined by Schwartzwalder’s company and the 45 additional men from the 507th. Lindquist and his contingent of the 508th arrived at La Fière along with...
At approximately 9 am, Brig. Gen. James Gavin, who had been dropped northwest of La Fière on the west side of the Merderet, arrived at the manor with about 300 men from the 507th PIR. Major Kellam briefed Gavin on the situation and expressed confidence that, with all the men from his and other units now gathering at the bridge and the manor, they w...
At about 1:45 pm, Captain Schwartzwalder, G Company, 507th, ordered one of his platoons to try for the bridge. Two men, Pfcs. Johnnie Ward and James Mattingly, made it across when a German at the far end popped up to take a shot; Mattingly emptied his clip into him, tossed a grenade into a machine-gun nest, and wounded several Germans, whom he took...
Then, at around 4 pm intense firing was heard to the west of the bridge, and Lieutenant Dolan spotted a group of paratroopers––a patrol from the 508th that had gone out earlier––rushing back across the marshland. It was obvious that they were being pursued. German forces led by three light tanks of French manufacture were coming down the causeway f...
It was an astonishing scene. More tanks were pouring machine-gun fire into the American positions, and their main guns were pumping shell after shell at Dolan’s men, who were firing back just as furiously. As the gunners were killed, more paratroopers rushed up to take their places; Sergeant Elmo Bell recalled that at least seven paratroopers died ...
La bataille durera jusqu’au 9 juin, les paras US tiendront les positions et le pont intact jusqu’au retrait définitif des forces allemandes dans le secteur. Découvrez le mémorial de la Fière un site dédié aux parachutistes américains qui ont débarqué en Normandie le jour J, à Sainte-Mère-Eglise.
The First Battalion (1/505) under Major Frederick Kellam was tasked to seize and hold two bridges over the Merderet River, at La Fière and Chef-du-Pont. Lt. Col. Ben Vandervoort’s 2/505 would occupy the ground north of the town to block the road to Cherbourg.
2 sept. 2023 · La Fière Bridge on D-Day And The Battle For The Causeway from the 6th to the 9th June 1944, would be one of the most vital battles fought during WW2 in the battle for Normandy. Its capture...
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