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Oh man, do we love Richard Winters. While there are many notable men from the Army who are heroes and warriors, Winters seems to always stick out. Always cool and calm, with a name like Winters it's no surprise that he seemed to always have ice in his veins. Today we're going to talk about his famous assault on the artillery pieces during the D-Day invasion. Skillful, tactical and bold. That's just who Major Dick Winters was.After finally linking up with Easy Company and getting a weapon (see here), Easy Company gained intel that there were some German artillery pieces firing on the troops landing on the beaches. Well, that was just unsatisfactory, so the guns and the men manning them needed to be taken out. Who better than to take the job than big Richard Winters...(get it?).Other allied forces had attacked the gun emplacements at Brecourt Manor, but they were easily pushed back by the large German forces there. Apparently, the Germans had not gotten word that Richard Winters and his merry band of airborne warriors were coming to ruin their day. If they did, they would have left.[caption id="attachment_17825" align="aligncenter" width="659"]
Winters (left) & Nixon (right)[/caption]Winters selected a few men from Easy Company and set out to ruin lives. The earlier reconnaissance had allowed Richard to develop a plan that would negate the larger force the Germans had in place. Skillfully deploying his men, they opened up with machine gun fire, grenades, and other small arms fire as the assault team took to the trench. After clearing the enemy forces from the gun emplacement, they destroyed the howitzers with TNT and German stick grenades. On this continued, with strong fire support from his machine guns as the men of the 506th Easy Company (and a few from Dog Company, led by Lt. Speirs), destroyed all four guns firing on Utah beach.
Winters also found valuable intelligence in one of the bunkers, a map showing where all the artillery and machine gun positions were marked. Jackpot.For leading from the front, gaining valuable intelligence and executing a spectacular assault, Lt. Richard Winters was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions at Brecourt Manor.Read more stories of American Grit:
