Vacation 2010 - Day 4

Tuesday June 29

Band of Brothers tour day.

Signed up for the tour and then I watched the series see what the tour was about. Alan, the guide, didn't think much of the book, Ambrose just phoned it in. The TV series is very good if one views it as the experiences of a Airborne unit in Europe instead of a history of Easy Company. Easy Company's full title was E Company 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 101st Airborne. There were 27 PIR companies in the 101st so the 101st had multiple Easy Company's. There were more Easy Company's in the 101st & 17th Airborne Divisions.

Looking toward Lt. Winters landing site. He landed on the north side of the road and his gear (aeroplane was going too fast and it was ripped off during the jump) landed on the south side. There was a German gun near where we standing and Lt. Winters moved on with only a knife rather then cross the road to retrieve his gun and risk death by bullet(s). Location

Map showing where the troopers of the 101st were dropped vs the planned drop zones. Only one PIR was dropped in its zone. Of the other PIRs (82nd and 101st) some missed their drop zones. Easy Company was to be dropped in Zone C (orange dots) but landed in Zone O which, an 82nd zone. Each dot represents a plane load. All the miss drops worked to the American's favor because it confused the Germans more then the American's. The German's couldn't determine where to attack because paratroopers were dropping everywhere. The key was the American's ability to reorganize by forming mixed units of stray troopers to take the nearest objective.

The only mis-dropped troopers that didn't stand a chance were those who landed in the flooded fields. If one didn't land feet first one would drown in three to four feet of water. Carrying too much weight to float and the ground was to muddy to push oneself above the water. At best the mud was ankle deep and at worst it was knee deep. The fields were lined with six foot drainage ditches now covered with ten feet of water. One moment men would be trudging thru dark flooded fields and the next they would step into a ditch and drown. (The hatched areas, on the map, show the flooded areas.)

The site of the ambush where they attack the Germans with a horse drawn wagons. Looks different then the series and Easy Company was not involved. By this time a 150+ paratroopers had linked up so Lt. Winters was there but didn't participate. Location

The crash site of the plane carrying the commanding officer of Easy Company Lt. Meehan.
Location

Marmion Farm was a German garrison captured by collection of mis-dropped troopers. It then became an unofficial meeting place for stray troopers during D-day. It's notoriety is due to Forrest Guth (part of Easy Company) who brought a camera with him. (The picture of Lt. Meehan's crash site was taken by Forrest.) It is said that he wasn't part of the tv series because his name sounded too much like Forest Gump.

The German commander committed suicide when the garrison was captured. After the war both the father and mother committed suicide in the farm house. Their sons own it and have not been back since. WWII buffs have offered to buy it but they will not sell or allow any repairs/upkeep to be done. Location

The battle of Brecourt Manor is where Lt. Winters earned the Distinguished Service Cross (Was recommended for the Medal of Honor but there was a quota of one Medal of Honor per division. Lt. Col. Robert Cole was awarded the 101st medal.) The guide told a different version then the tv series (no surprise) or any internet site I found. Location

The TV series showed 5 guns linked by WWI style trenches. The guide's version matched the layout at the memorial. There were four guns in a shallow ditch/tree line between two fields. The guns were aimed at Utah Beach and Causeway #2. Location

This is the tree line and ditch the wheels of the guns were setting in. The reason for the TV trenches was to shorten the battle to tv time. In real time the battle took 3+ hours. The reason for the length was it took a long time to take out the first gun. Two soldiers crawled (from the tree line in the distance) down the ditch, on their bellies, to the first gun which took time. The American's had the element of surprise because the Germans had no lookouts so two soldiers on their bellies were able to take out the first gun.

When Lt. Winters heard the TNT destroying the first gun. He and others ran (with covering fire) across the open field (on the other side of these trees) toward the second gun. They then took out guns 2 & 3. Ran out of bullets and reinforcements from D Company captured the fourth gun. Location

The tour ended in Carentan. Followed the route Lt. Col. Robert Cole took on his attack of Carentan. This is the 4th bridge that was so deadly to cross. Easy Company and the 506th would cross the bridge a day later. Easy Company would enter the town from the south but by then the Germans had evacuated.

The Germans counter attacked and these fields are where the Battle of the Bloody Gulch took place.

The series and book completely mistold the story of Albert Blithe. Ambrose placed Blithe's death 20 years too early. The series compounded the error by depicting Blithe as a coward. In real life he fought in WWII & Korea, had 600 parachute jumps, was awarded a Silver Star, 3 Bronze Stars, 3 Purple Hearts and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

A couple of anecdotes. Airborne had an unofficial order to take no prisoners during the first 24 hours. A Canadian officer wrote it in his diary and a German officer used that to reduce his sentence, for killing American prisoners during the first 24 hours, from death to 7 years.
The airborne collected scalps. One Easy company trooper tried to collect a blond scalp (a prized item) but gave up when it almost cost him his life.

After finding and standing in line at the SFR store to find out how to call the US I pointed the Dog toward Mont Saint-Michel. Even thou it was a late start (18:00) I was close enough to check it out. Location

Arrived at 20:00 and didn't have enough time to visit (but I should have went inside anyway) so I took pictures for an hour.

Location
A picture from Panoramio with completely different perspective.

Every trip has its disappointments and regrets and one of my top five disappointments
was arriving too late to visit Alligator Bay.¹ Location

The drive to my rented bed was an hour vs the two to Mont Saint-Michel. Drove 264 km (164 miles).

Google Maps Track - Vacation Day 4

To view GPS track in Google Earth
Click This Link and Select Download
In Google Earth Open 'My Places'
Click: 'IMPORT KMZ FILE'
Click: 'Open File...'
Select Downloaded KMZ file: 20100629.kmz

>>>> Picture Gallery - Vacation Day 4 <<<<

¹ Just kidding.