A Tribute to an American Hero: Major Richard Winters

6 June, 1944 was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. The Germans had been beaten in Africa and Sicily, were fighting for their lives in Italy, and were on their heels in the Soviet Union. The Allies punching through Hitler’s Festung Europa, Fortress Europe, would mark the final months of the Third Reich.

First, the Allies would have to successfully get ashore in the Normandy region of France, no small task to be sure. The initial wave of attack would come from the air, parachute infantry from the U.S. Army’s 101^st and 82^ndAirborne Division would be jumping into France the night before the beach landings would take place.

The airdrops were a debacle, in the face heavy anti-aircraft fire from below; the planes dropped paratroopers all over the northwestern part of France. The units were so scattered that many joined together with others from different units to form piecemeal squads in an effort to achieve their objectives.

One such unit fell under the command of Lieutenant Richard Winters of Easy Company of the 506^th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101^st Airborne Division. Winters’ destination was the French town of Ste. Marie-du-Mont, the headquarters of the 101^st following the D-day jumps.

When this small unit arrived at Ste. Marie-du-Mont the next morning, they came under heavy machine gun fire. Winters’, being the default company commander in the absence of the missing commander Lieutenant Meehan, was summoned to the front an assessed of the situation.

As it turned out, a short distance from the front was a collection of French farmhouses referred to as Brecourt Manor. The Germans had used this place as a gun placement for four 105mm canons that they were using to rain heavy gunfire down on one of the causeways leading off of Utah Beach. These four guns were being used to keep the landing forces on the beach, where they were being heavily assaulted by the defending Germans.

Winters was instructed to take the battery of canons out, how he chose to do it and who he took with him was completely up to him. After careful reconnaissance of the area, Winters’ plan for the assault was for a base of covering fire and an outright frontal assault, about 12 Americans assaulting a German force of about 50.

Winters chose a force of four to make the assault, he explained his choice of the men to assault the guns as “in combat you look for killers, many thought they were killers and wanted to prove it, however, they were few and far between”.

What followed was stuff of which legends are made, the assault force of four was able to take out three of the four German guns, the fourth was taken by reinforcements from another company. In the course of the assault, Winters was able to obtain a map of the Cotentin Peninsula that showed every German gun placement in the region.

Author Stephen Ambrose has equated the assault on Brecourt Manor as “essentially an American squad assaulting a German battery” with 15 Germans dead, several more wounded, and 12 Germans taken prisoner; American casualties amounted to one killed. The methods and tactics implemented by Winters at Brecourt Manor are still taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point as the prescribe method for an infantry assault on a fixed position. Winters’ actions and success that day convinced Col. Sink, the commander of the 506^th PIR, to nominate Winters for the Congressional Medal of Honor. While he did not receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions that day, Winters was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and bronze and silver stars.

It is unfortunate that Winters was denied this honor in his lifetime. During an interview for the HBO series Band of Brothers, Winters stated “when you’re a leader you lead the way, not just on the easy ones you take the tough one too.” In what can only be considered the ultimate compliment for a company commander, an unidentified soldier stated “seemed like he always knew what decision to make…he was a real soldier. Some of those officers I wouldn’t have followed into water…he was one of the best.” When asked about Winters’ leadership abilities Popeye Wynn, one of the four chosen by Winters for the assault, said “he never thought about not being first or sending someone in his place…I don’t know how he survived… but he did.”

Copyright© 2012 R. Bertz; all rights reserved.

Ambrose, S.E. (2001). Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle Nest. Simon and Schuster.

Dick Winters: Reflections of Major Winters of Easy Company. Retrieved from: http://www.historynet.com/dick-winters-reflections-on-the-band-of-brothers-d-day-and-leadership.htm

Winters, R. (2008). Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters. Penguin Books.

Band of Brothers, HBO Mini-series.