SMALL UNIT ACTIONS

 

France: 2d Ranger Battalion at Pointe du Hoe

Saipan: 27th Division on Tanapag Plain

Italy: 351st Infantry at Santa Maria Infante

France: 4th Armored Division at Singling

Insignia: 2d Ranger BattalionInsignia: 27th DivisionInsignia: 351st InfantryInsignia: 4th Armored Division

American Forces in Action Series

Historical Division
WAR DEPARTMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C.

Facsimile Reprint, 1982, 1986, 1991

CMH Pub 100-14

Center of Military History
United States Army
Washington, DC

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402

ii

FOREWORD

In a nation at war, teamwork by the whole people is necessary for victory. But the issue is decided on the battlefield, toward which all national effort leads. The country's fate lies in the hands of its soldier citizens; in the clash of battle is found the final test of plans, training, equipment, and-above all—the fighting spirit of units and individuals.

AMERICAN FORCES IN ACTION SERIES presents detailed accounts of particular combat operations of United States forces. To the American public, this record of high achievement by men who served their nation well is presented as a preface to the full military history of World War II. To the soldiers who took part in the operations concerned, these narratives will give the opportunity to see more clearly the results of orders which they obeyed, and of sacrifices which they and their comrades made, in performance of missions that find their meaning in the outcome of a larger plan of battle.

 

s/Dwight D. Eisenhower
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Chief of Staff.

iii

WAR DEPARTMENT
Historical Division
Washington 25, D. C.
4 April 1946

Small Unit Actions, eleventh in the series of monographs on American operations in World War II, marks a departure from earlier numbers in that series. It presents, instead of a coordinated treatment of a larger operation, four detailed narratives dealing with small units which took part in such operations. Each narrative has a unity of its own, but the actions dealt with are separate and distinct, relating to four campaigns in three main theaters of war.

There are several reasons that justify such a publication. The most important is to give both the military reader and the American public solid, uncolored material for a better understanding of the real nature of modern battle. Military operations on the scale of this war if treated, as they must usually be, in terms of armies and corps, can give only an outline account of the fortunes of units smaller than a battalion, and very often the battalion is treated as the smallest counter in the moves described on a battlefield. This tends to be misleading; a battalion has no such unity as a battleship, but is a complex organism that maneuvers ordinarily on a front half a mile or more in width, includes a variety of specialized weapons, and often has attachments of engineers or tanks to provide greater tactical flexibility. In jungle or hedgerow country, the battalion frequently exists only as a mechanism to coordinate, perhaps with the greatest difficulty, the separate engagements of companies, platoons, or even squads. When the record (or the military history) sums up an action by saying, "The 3d Battalion fought its way forward against heavy resistance for 500 yards," only the man who has himself experienced combat is likely to realize what this can involve, and what the phrase conceals. It does not give the story of the front line action as experienced by the combat soldier. That story, hardest of all military operations to recapture and make clear, lies in detail such as that offered by the narratives presented here.

A further reason for such a publication has been recognized in the past by American military leaders, as by others. In training for modern war, particularly in armies largely officered in lower units by men taken from civilian life, there is much need for concrete, case-history material which company and field-grade officers can use to find out what actually happens in battle. Manuals must deal with doctrines and theory; their material is generalized. There has always been need for factual supplement, to show how tactical doctrines, good and bad, actually work under the stress of battle conditions. But military literature has tended to leave this field of research to the novelists, and military records have not in the past been designed to furnish an adequate basis for study of small-unit actions. After the First World War, the American Army endeavored to collect such materials, and found them hard to get and difficult to evaluate. The best were included in a useful and interesting volume, Infantry in Battle, prepared under the auspices of The Infantry School, Fort Benning.

From its inception in 1943, the Historical Division, War Department Special Staff, had as one of its alms the securing of sufficient data to support future work of this type. For obtaining this data, as well as information at higher levels and on other phases of operations, the Information and Historical Units, attached to field armies, conducted extensive interviews with personnel of units engaged in typical, unusual, or critical actions. The interviews were accompanied by terrain study of the battlefield, sometimes conducted with members of the units being interviewed. Every effort was made, by careful checking and rechecking, to obtain a full and accurate account—not for the sake of a colorful story, but to have a trustworthy record for

v

whatever use it afforded. Sometimes (as in the case of two of the actions published here) practically all survivors of participating units were involved in group interviews that might last two or three days for a single group. The scale of the effort is suggested by the fact that some 2,000 indexed interviews have come back to the War Department archives from one theater.

The four narratives given here will serve as samples of the source materials thus obtained, containing in very large measure data which are not to be found in unit records. The latter were used in every case, however, to check and supplement interviews.

The actions chosen for this publication illustrate widely varying tactical problems and methods. Only one (Pointe du Hoe) represents a highly specialized form of action; the others are typical of scores of battles in their respective theaters of operations. All are average in the sense that they are not "success" stories, but cross sections of a war which involved reverses as well as victories. This fact will be obscured in histories of campaigns and major battles. for, in these, U.S. forces were almost uniformly successful. But the larger successes were won by actions like those recorded here; in every phase of the war battalions and companies went through a daily fare of experience that was never uniform, that nearly always included some measure of trial and even defeat as part of the fuller pattern which, over a longer period, added up to victory.

The interviews for, and preparation of, the four narratives should be credited as follows: Pointe du Hoe, Historical Section, European Theater of Operations: The Fight on Tanapag Plain, 1st Information and Historical Service: Santa Maria Infante, 7th Information and Historical Service (Fifth Army); Singling, 3d Information and Historical Service (Third Army).

Small Unit Actions is based on the best military records available. As far as possible, names and ranks of personnel were checked with records in The Adjutant General's Office. Roster of the enlisted men who participated in the Santa Maria Infante Operation and The Fight on Tanapag Plain were not accessible. It was impossible to obtain full names of all men mentioned in the operations and to check last names, so it is expected that some errors occur in spelling of names and in grade designations

Five photographs (pp. 9, 13, 37, 75, 91) are by the U.S. Navy: three (pp. 79. 87. 107) were taken by the U.S. Marine Corps; eleven (pp. 1, 8, 10, 20, 32, 42, 49, 126, 130. 160, 182) are from the U.S. Army Air Forces; three (pp. 92, 105, 109) are by the 1st Information and Historical Service; twelve (pp. 176, 191, 192. 193, 194, 198, 199, 200, 202, 203, 204, 210) were taken by the 3d Information and Historical Service: four (pp. 116, 123, 142, 212) were taken by the Joint Intelligence Collecting Agency. All others were furnished by the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

DISTRIBUTION:

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Refer to FM 21-6 for explanation of distribution formula.

vi

CONTENTS

 

Page

POINTE DU HOE (2d RANGER BATTALION, 6 JUNE 1944)

 

Assault Plans

4

The Landing

5

The Cliff Assault

9

Capture of the Point

19

Advance to the Highway

26

Morning at the Point: Action on the Left Flank

34

Morning at the Point: The CP Group

36

Afternoon Counterattacks

43

The Advance Group During D Day

45

The German Night Attack: First Phase

48

Night Attack: Second Phase

56

Night Attack: Finale

57

THE FIGHT ON TANAPAG PLAIN (27th DIVISION, 6 JULY 1944)

 

Background: The Attack on 5 July

69

Morning of 6 July: Attack on the Plain

74

Change in Attack Plans

81

The Morning Attack at Harakiri Gulch

86

The Afternoon Attack at Harakiri Gulch

89

Afternoon: Plans for a New Attack (105th Infantry)

100

Advance of the 1st Battalion (105th Infantry)

102

SANTA MARIA INFANTE (351st INFANTRY, 11-14 MAY 1944)

 

Task of the 351st Infantry

119

The Night Attack: Jump-Off

128

Sergeant Pyenta's Group at Hill 103

131

Lieutenant Panich's Group at Hill 103

132

Sergeant Eddy's Group at Hill 103

135

Advance to the Tame Road

137

Company E at The Spur: 1st Platoon

143

Company E at The Spur: The Main Body

145

Company G is Stopped at The Spur

149

The 3d Battalion is Stopped at Hill 103 (12 May)

151

Capture of Company F (12 May)

154

Plans for Renewed Attack (13 May)

158

The Enemy Holds Out on The Spur (13 May)

161

Hill 103 Again Stops the 3d Battalion

163

1st Battalion Gains at the S-Ridge

165

Capture of Santa Maria Infante (14 May)

170

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Page

SINGLING (4th ARMORED DIVISION, 6 DECEMBER 1944)

 

Background of the Attack

179

A Change in Plan

183

The Infantry Attack

188

Stalemate in Singling

200

Relief of Team B

206

ANNEX: Abbreviations

212

Illustrations

 

Page

Pointe du Hoe

 

Pointe du Hoe Cliffs

1

Tip of Pointe du Hoe

3

Western Half of Fortified Area

8

Bomb and Shell Holes

9

Last Lap of the Climb

13

Cratered Ground

17

Wrecked Emplacements

18

Wreckage on the Point

19

Top of German OP Position

22

Ruins on Exit Road

25

Farm Buildings on Exit Road

27

Lane Leading South

31

Col. Rudder's CP

37

After Relief

41

Orchard South of Rangers' Position

47

Area of Highway Positions

49

Typical Norman Orchard

53

Hedgerows

60

Preparing to Leave the Point

61

Men of 2d and 5th Rangers

62

The Fight on Tanapag Plain

 

Tanapag Plain

71

Aerial Photo of Tanapag Plain Battle Zone

75

Infantry and Medium Tanks

79

Paradise Valley

87

Aerial Photo of Harakiri Gulch Sector

91

Capt. Lawrence J. O'Brien

92

A Pause in the Battle

101

CP of the 1st Battalion, 105th Infantry

103

The Ditch that Dorey Cleaned Up

104

viii

 

Page

Capt. Louis F. Ackerman

105

Cliff Walls

106

T/Sgt. Charles Gannaway

109

Santa Maria Infante

 

Terrain of Fifth Army's Battle

116

The Objective of the 351st Infantry

121

Terrain of the Initial Attack

123

The Ridge Road

124

Terrain of Opening Attack

126

Minturno

128

Tame

141

Minturno-Santa Maria Infante Ridge

142

The Bare Slopes of the S-Ridge

157

Terrain of Later Attacks, 13 May 1944

160

Santa Maria Infante

170

Returning to Ruined Homes

172

Panorama

opposite page 175

Singling

 

Church at Singling

176

Aerial View of Singling

182

Enemy Self-propelled Guns

186

Singling Main Square

190

Garden

192

Main Street in Singling

193

View Northeast from Singling

194

Courtyard

198

Open Yard

199

Hauptman's Destroyed Tank

200

Fitzgerald's Firing Position

202

Mark V Tank

203

Lt. Goble's Tank

204

Scene Near Bining

211

Maps

Pointe du Hoe

 

No.

Page

1 Assault at Omaha Beach

2

2 Plan for Assault at Pointe du Hoe

6

3 The Assault Landings at Pointe du Hoe

10

4 Advance to the Highway

21

5 Morning Near the Point

32

ix

No.

Page

6 Afternoon Counterattacks

42

7 Highway Position, 0830-2000 6 June

46

8 The German Night Attack, 6/7 June 1944

50

The Fight on Tanapag Plain

 

1 V Amphibious Corps on Saipan, Morning 5 July 1944

66

2 27th Division Zone, Morning 5 July 1944

68

3 Night Positions, 5 July, 105th Infantry

70

4 V Amphibious Corps, Morning 6 July 1944

72

5 105th Infantry Attack, Morning 6 July 1944

74

6 The New Attack Zones

82

7 Harakiri Gulch

90

8 Final Attack on the Plain

99

9 V Amphibious Corps, Night of Banzai Attack, 6/7 July 1944

112

Santa Maria Infante

 

1 Fifth Army Objectives

118

2 Mt. Bracchi Hills, 11 May 1944

120

3 Plan of Opening Attack, 351st Infantry

122

4 2d Battalion, 351st Infantry

130

5 Company F, Sgt. Pyenta's Group at Hill 103

132

6 Company F, Lt. Panich's Group at Hill 103

133

7 Company F, S/Sgt. Eddy's Group at Hill 103

136

8 Company F, Advance to the Tame Road

138

9 Company F, Position at the Culvert

140

10 Company E, 1st and 2d Platoons at The Spur

143

11 Company E, 3d and 4th Platoons at The Spur

144

12 Company E, the Assault of the Crest

146

13 Company G at The Spur

148

14 Situation at Dawn, 12 May 1944

150

15 3d Battalion Attack on Hill 103

152

16 New Plan of Attack, 351st Infantry

156

17 The Attack on The Spur

161

18 The Attack on Hill 103

164

19 The Attack on the S-Ridge

166

20 The End of the Battle on Mt. Bracchi Hills

171

Singling

 

1 Third Army Front, 5 December 1944

178

2 4th Armored Division, Plan for 6 December 1944

180

3 The Attack on Singling

184

4 The Fight in the Village

opposite page 212

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Document formatted by CPT Timothy R. Frambes, CMH Intern, U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2001


page created 16 November 2001


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