Murphy - No better place to die: Ste-Mère Eglise, June 1944: the battle for La Fière Bridge

B Y M ARK J. A LEXANDER

(C OLONEL , USA, RETIRED )

O UR COUNTRY WAS AT WAR . A FTER years of warfare and planning, the Allied forces were finally poised to mount the Normandy invasion and free Fortress Europa from the Nazi yoke.

In the pre-dawn darkness of June 6, 1944, three Allied Airborne Divisions landed behind enemy lines, two in Normandys Cotentin Peninsula. Their vital mission was to hold off the expected counter-attack by Rommels panzer reserve against the Allied landing beaches. The 82d Airborne Division was assigned the mission of protecting Utah Beach and ensuring the exit from this American beach landing area would be free from enemy attack from the Normandy hinterland to the beaches.

The special mission of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team (RCT) was to seize the town of Sainte Mre Eglise, with the road and communications network. The RCT consisted of the 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment, the 456 Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, Company B 307 Parachute Engineers, 80th Airborne Antiaircraft Battalion (equipped and acting as an antitank unit) and the 307 Airborne Medical Company. Their task was to prevent enemy forces from crossing the Merderet River and carrying out Rommels plan to destroy the Allied landing on the beaches where it was most vulnerable.

Mark J. Alexander

Low clouds led to the dispersion of the incoming C-47 troop carriers, scattering the parachute drops widely over the Norman landscape. Only the 505th RCT landed with any degree of accuracy, avoiding the movement of individual and small groups seeking their parent units. This extra degree of cohesion was a good thing for the 505. The 1st Battalion, 505 RCT would soon be locked in a life-or-death struggle for control of the vital bridge at La Fire. German panzer and infantry forces struck hard at the defenders time and again. But at no time was the bridge to change hands until the All American soldiers handed it off to the Utah Beach American Relief Land Force, the men of the 357th Infantry Regiment, who headed across the Merderet River on June 9 after the 82d Airborne Division glidermen and paratroopers completely destroyed the enemy troops on the west side of the causeway and river at the Cauquigny church crossroads.

Author and soldier Robert M. Murphy has done a commendable job in collecting numerous accounts from his fellow La Fire combat veterans, the paratroopers and glidermen on the scene at La Fire. No Better Place to Die provides a complete story of these events from the perspective of the combat soldier who was there and fought in those battles.

Plan of the US airborne landing to the rear of Utah Beach

The 82d airborne Division was programmed to jump on drop zones (DZ) N 508 PIR, T 507 PIR and O 505 PIR.

The 101st Airborne Division was programmed to jump on drop zones A, C and D.

The gliders transporting the 325 GIR of the 82d Airborne had to land on LZ W around Les Forges.

Those transporting the glidermen of the 101st airborne had to land on LZ E.