Brécourt Manor Led by Captain Dick Winters

...

This first skirmish during the assault on Brécourt Manor illustrates Captain Winters skillful use of the Mission Command Principles and Easy Company’s mastery of the Characteristics of Offense. Even before leading his Soldiers into combat he had spent months training and building a cohesive team and nurturing a mutual trust between each Solider founded on individual competence. The brutal physical and mental training he put his men through was one of the reasons his Soldiers were prepared to fight in such an austere environment. Additionally, he never asked anything from his men that he would not do himself; leading by example also contributed to the mutual trust each Soldier had for one another. During the engagement on the German machine gun emplacement, Captain Winters ensured that each solider had a shared understanding and appreciation for their objective by individually assigning targets to each man and communicating his direction effectively to the lowest level possible. Because Captain Winters specifically assigned targets for each Solider, this level of detail allowed his platoon to exercise a disciplined initiative. This assessment of the situation allowed his detachment to effectively attack a much larger and fortified force. Captain Winters accepted the prudent risk of losing the lives of his Soldiers as well as his own to eliminate a German artillery battery that was disrupting the allied landing craft on Utah Beach. Additionally, several other light infantry units had been attacked by this German position earlier that day. He knew that other unsuspecting Soldiers would lose their lives if Easy Company did not annihilate the German position. Through this skillful use of these Mission Command Principles Captain Winters could collectively exercise a disciplined initiative by accepting the risk of assaulting the German machine gun to successfully complete their objective. After assigning everyone in the small squad a target and ambushing the unsuspecting Germans. Easy Company ambushed the Germans with great precision, their ability to utilize the Offensive Characteristic “surprise” allowed the company to seize the decisive point in the operation and were ultimately successful. [22]

Following the squad’s attack on the German machine gun emplacement the small patrol started to receive sporadic small arms fire. The small patrol led by Captain Winters bounded back behind the dike along the river. Captain Winters assessed the attacking Germans force to be at least a Company sized element. Easy Company discovered that the German fortification included not two but four 105mm guns connected by a trench network defended by MG42 crew served weapon emplacements. [23] While the squad held their position, and takes cover behind the dike, Captain Winters made a radio call back to one of his Platoon Leaders, Lieutenant Welsh. Richard Winters ordered him to reinforce the pinned down squad with the rest of 1st Platoon, Easy Company, and a section of machine guns from the Easy Company command post. While Captain Winters’ squad waits for reinforcements Sergeant Dukeman is killed by a rifle grenade, at this moment a fierce firefight ensues.[24] The Germans were in a superior fighting position that was comprised of fortified trenches. Captain Winters’ squad was in a shallow ditch that left him no choice but to maintain the initiative and attack. Captain Winters’ organized the platoon plus sized element into three squads. His plan was to form a pincer movement, also called a double envelopment.[25] According to his plan Winters would take one squad up the middle and two other squads would simultaneously flank both sides of the Germans. The three squads are arranged into separate files separated by two 30 caliber machine gun emplacements. [26] In a ruthless display of audacity, Easy Company received the order to “fix bayonets”.[27] Captain Winters’ was the first across the field, closely followed by the rest of his squad. Each squad moved across the open field as a smoke grenade initiated simultaneous friendly machine gun fire as a base of fire. The assaulting elements moved in three separate squads in a file formation. The three squads sprinted behind Winters over 200 yards in an open field to engage the German trench complex. [28] Because of their audacity and ability to maintain the initiative the German Company was caught off guard. Captain Winters was the first one to arrive at the German position, he fired two clips into the retreating Germans before taking fire and being joined by the rest of Easy Company. The Easy Company assault element formed a base of fire “on line” and began firing into the retreating German ranks supported by two 30 caliber machine gun positions. Lieutenant Peacock was tasked to flank the left side of the German fortification and Staff Sergeant Talbert was to take the right.[29] Once Easy Company had established a foothold and Lieutenant Peacock joined them, their 30 caliber machine gun emplacements were moved to the newly established front.[30] Private Joe Liebgott and Cleveland Petty continued to provide a base of fire while Compton, Malarkey and Guarnere attacked the German gun’s right flank. Lieutenant Lipton later stated, “and then, just like in the movies, I saw Compton and Guarnere running in and throwing grenades with almost every step”. [31] Captain Winters ordered his platoon plus to continue to engage with small arms while he called in artillery strikes. This use of combined arms assisted the outnumbered allied force in achieving the upper hand. Their double envelopment maneuver allowed them to destroy the first gun emplacement. Easy Company organized for their assault on the second 105mm gun emplacement. Winters’ led the assault and successfully destroyed the second gun position and only took a single casualty. With two of the four guns destroyed Winters’ ordered his machine gun element to position themselves to suppress the MG42 fire from across the field.[32] Easy Company took the third gun emplacement and sustained again one casualty. One final 105mm gun stood in their way, Captain Winters’ ordered the final assault. The German platoon was in total disarray, Easy Company’s ability to maintain their tempo allowed them to move on the final gun and render the German artillery useless. [33]

Easy Company’s mastery of the Characteristics of Offense in this phase of the battle through their projection of audacity, maintaining forward tempo, and surprising their enemy allowed them to achieve victory. [34] Their assault on the German fortified position was high risk and could have resulted in their entire formation being decimated. The “deck” was stacked against Easy Company. The attackers had to overcome the established German machine gun bunkers, artillery, rested soldiers, and a better equipped stockpile of weaponry. These odds were