Easy Company Assaults the Guns at Brecourt Manor on D-Day - Animated

[Music] after a chaotic night of confused parachute landings in which many american paratroopers were dropped many miles from their intended landing zones first lieutenant winters of the 506th parachute infantry regiment 101st airborne division has spent the night trying to find comrades from his unit easy company it's june 6th 1944 d-day linking up with men from dog company and the battalion headquarters staff the heavily under-strengthed second battalion has stopped to rest by the small village of le grand chaman at seven am winters is ordered to battalion headquarters he is informed that dog company have found a german artillery battery in the grounds of nearby braycor manor and is simply told there's fire along that hedrow there take care of it the importance of silencing the german artillery battery is paramount the 405 millimeter artillery pieces are firing directly on utah beach just as the american 4th infantry division are attempting to push inland easy company's commander lieutenant mian is still missing along with everyone from his aircraft and so command of the company and the execution of the assault will fall to winters he is not briefed with a specific battle plan or any intelligence on the size of the german force at braycorp manor he orders his men to drop everything other than their weapons and ammunition he proceeds to scout the german position alone and forms a plan of action winters decides a frontal assault over flat ground is risky and instead decides that it would be best to assault the german position from the flank and secure each gun in turn he divides his force of 23 paratroopers mostly of easy company into small groups with specific tasks to perform in the assault and begins to move them into position to cover their assault winters positions the first of his two machine guns crewed by privates petty and lieb got in a headrow to the front left of the battery he then deploys his second machine gun cruised by private's pleasure and hendrix in a headrow facing the first gun and adjacent to the mg-42 nest further down the same hedgerow sergeants lipton and ranny have taken up position by some trees to bring the first gun under flanking fire as winters moves into position to begin the assault he notices a german soldier moving along the trench and immediately fires twice dropping the man as gunfire begins to erupt all round winters sends lieutenant compton with sergeants malarkey and garnier to flank the first gun and assault it with grenades under fire from multiple angles the germans at the mg-42 nest and first gun do not spot compton's flanking move and compton's assault team throw their grenades at the german position winter's assault team charges the position aiming to reach it just as the grenades explode as they charge into the trenches private popeye win is wounded he apologizes profusely i'm sorry i goofed i'm sorry he cries the germans who have not been killed or wounded by the hail of grenades and gunfire panic and start to run across the open field towards braycor manor winter's team opens fire on the fleeing troops lorraine hits his target first time garnier misses so winters finishes the other two men off compton hits one directly in the head with a grenade a german grenade lands amongst the men right between the legs of corporal toy seeing this winter shouts at toy to move for christ's sake's move he lunges forward as the grenade explodes luckily he is uninjured winter's attention immediately turns to the prospect of a german counter-attack he begins to progress down the trench toward the second gun and sees two german soldiers setting up an mg-42 down the trench and wounds them both with two shots from his n1 rifle due to the intensity of german machine gun fire coming from the hedgerow behind the battery winter's men are restricted to staying within the german trench network he decides that he has to assault the second gun now and with five men throws grenades and charges towards it the gun crew who are not killed or captured flee having captured the second gun winter's men have burned through much of their ammunition consequently winters brings forward his machine guns and sends a runner back to hq for more men and ammunition due to how extended his position has become the assault pauses and around half an hour later more ammunition and a few men from the 2nd battalion arrive winters decides now is the right time to assault the third gun in the assault private hall from able company is killed but the third gun is now in their possession and six prisoners are taken just as the third gun is taken captain hester from battalion hq arrives with tnt and winter's men begin to use it to destroy the guns under their control hester also tells winters that lieutenant spears of dog company and five men are on their way to support him while winters holds position at the second gun he finds german documents highlighting every german artillery and machine gun position in the entire cotton tamp peninsula this information is promptly sent back to battalion hq whilst winters and his men set about destroying all the german equipment they can find spears arrives and with his band from dog company charges the fourth and final gun aggressively climbing out of the trench under fire to move faster across the open ground a man from dog company is wounded and another from fox company is killed by machine gun fire as he attempts to hurl a grenade at the german position the germans at the final gun flee but leave a live grenade spotting it spears kicks it down into the mud just before it explodes [Music] having put all four guns out of action winters decides to withdraw due to the volume of german machine gun fire they are now receiving he instructs his machine guns to fall back first followed by the rifleman by the time winters eventually leaves the battlefield the time is 11 30. having only 12 men against what turned out to be a force of 50 germans easy company have eliminated a german artillery battery firing directly on utah beach and the number two causeway beyond it by destroying the artillery battery at braycorp manor easy company have undoubtedly saved the lives of many of the men coming ashore from utah beach that day despite a great deal of personal praise for his leadership winters would later say our success however was due more to our training and the unflinching courage of easy company than to my personal leadership however modest there can be little doubts that winter's men were led by a very capable officer that day

Channel: The Operations Room

Views: 1,236,254

Rating: 4.9602747 out of 5

Keywords: Time-Lapse, History, Second World War, ww2, Documentary, aircraft, time lapse, animated, war, band of brothers, easy company, dick winters, winters, d-day, 101st airborne, brecourt manor

Id: 814qEsxSzmA

Length: 7min 15sec (435 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/firework101]

Band of Brothers did a great job with this scene

[u/vu9Oyo]

Besides being an nice historic representation of the events, this video only highlights what a fucking awesome job Band of Brothers did as a TV show. Coincidently, I watched that episode this week. As I was watching the video, I could match the action to the show scene by scene.

[u/FireEmojiCPA]

this was so good!

[u/RutCry]

Remind me

[u/midwarsmain111]

Jesus surely awesome

[u/FatboyChuggins]

Thank god there was an officer like Winters. Band of Brothers is awesome and does a little justice to what a bad ass he was. I wonder if the German military had officers like Winters?

[u/Ihateourlives2]

I have watched this series countless times. But just this year, I was VERY surprised when I put it on and my sister sat down and started watching it as well. Not saying all men like one thing and all women like another thing. But there are general stereotypes that hold true, specially when it comes to entertainment.

Turns out she binged the entire series that night, and loved it as well. Her favorite episode being Bastogne with the episode being focused on the medic.

[u/seventeencans]

i like spaghetti