Battle of the Bridge

[Subdeacon Joe]

 A Company, 1-505th at La Fiere Bridge

 

Quote

Battle of the Bridge: A Company, 1-505th at La Fiere Bridge
by Major Mike Kelvington

75 years ago, units of the American Paratroopers had already landed behind German lines in France.  One such unit was the 505^thParachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), a seasoned element of the 82^ndAirborne Division.  Some of its elements had already completed their third combat jump in about a year.  Jumpmasters, including the 2/505 Battalion Commander, LTC Benjamin Vandervoort, ensured their unit hit the drop zones.  Due to their prior experience, willingness to brave the anti-aircraft fire in the troop doors, preparedness to terrain associate, and tactical patience set conditions for mission accomplishment on the ground.[1]  However, just because they managed to land where they wanted did not guarantee their mission would be a success.

In total, the U.S. Paratroopers numbered approximately 13,400, well below 10% of the invading land force on D-Day.[2]  A Co, 1-505 PIR represented a much smaller slice, but in the midst of the chaotic first 72 hours from 06-09 June, 1944, theirs is a story worth telling.  Led by First Lieutenant John “Red Dog” Dolan, A Company and the rest of the 1^stBattalion, 505 PIR quickly assembled 90% of their force and headed towards their objective, La Fiere Bridge.[3]

In Cross-Channel Attack, author Gordon Harrison sums up the importance of small unit leaders and individual Paratroopers’ actions during the initial scrum of the invasion:

In the narrative to follow, the grate names drop out. Even Eisenhower and Montgomery appear seldom. In their place will be the corps and division commanders, the colonels, the lieutenants, and the privates. For the few will be substituted for the many, as the battlefield, so long seen as a single conceptual problem, becomes a confused and disparate fact—a maze of unrelated orchards and strange roads, hedgerows, villages, streams and woods, each temporarily bounding for the soldier the whole horizon of the war.”[4]

A Company fought through some significant skirmishes where 1-505 PIR lost their Battalion XO and 1LT Dolan lost his assistant Platoon Leader and RTO. Around day break they managed to link in with a group of about 300 Paratroopers from the 508^thPIR, including the Assistant Division Commander, Brigadier General James “Slim Jim” Gavin, and a contingent of 45 Troopers from the 507^th.[5]  They converged on a manior, or manor, near the east side of the Merderet River and La Fiere bridge.  The manior consisted of a farm house and surrounding buildings, barns, and pens.[6]

Generals Ridgway and Gavin, the Division and Assistant Division Commanders of the 82nd Airborne Division, conferring in Normandy in 1944. (warfarehistorynetwork.com)

German resistance from 10-12 Soldiers holed up in the compound resulted in a confusing gunfight.  Americans engaged the buildings from three separate directions with disparate and uncoordinated efforts.  There Paratroopers were mostly unaware of each other’s positions or strengths and tracking different German positions in windows and floors of the compound.  Chaos due to poor coordination resulted in a portion of the German element surrendering, an American shot dead from a separate German element, and a final assault on the buildings by the Americans.  By a little after 0900, the Paratroopers held the maniorand a foothold of the east side of La Fiere bridge.[7]

After consolidation on the manior, A Co, 1-505 PIR established fighting positions on the east side of La Fiere bridge on either side of the maniorbuildings, on both the north and south side of the road.  1LT Dolan ordered A Company to dig defensive fighting positions about 75 meters wide. Meanwhile, MAJ Kellam, the 1-505 PIR Battalion Commander, had other elements of 1-505 establish supporting positions to the rear of A Co, including the 307^thEngineer Battalion. They set up a 57 mm anti-tank gun brought in by a glider the morning of D-Day about 150 meters to the rear of the A Company element to provide supporting fires across the bridge.[8]

A Company’s defenses near La Fiere bridge consisted of two, two-man bazooka teams set up near the marsh on the north and south sides of the eastern bridgehead.  Bazooka gunner PFC Lenold Peterson occupied a position on the south side of the bridge with his assistant gunner, PVT Marcus Heim, Jr., while gunner PFC John Bolderson and assistant/loader PVT Gordon Pryne occupied the position to the north.[9] They also barricaded the bridge on the east side with an abandoned truck found nearby and emplaced anti-tank mines beside the truck and across the bridge.  They trained their direct fire weapons and mortars on engagement areas focused on dismounts to supplement the bridge preparations for enemy vehicles.[10]

 

[Sagebrush Burns, SASS # 14226]

"I don't know of a better place to die."