To download as PDF click here - US Army Center Of Military History

The 2d Platoon of Company A attempted to
lIank the draw from the west. While the four
tanks still fired from north of the draw, two others
from Company C, 74,st Tank Battalion advanced
to neutralize the enemy forces in the houses south
of St.Georges.d'Elle. The enemy held tenaciously
to his strongpoint, so the 3d Platoon was committed
to aid in the flanking movement. This maneuver,
and the advance of Company C farther to the west,
finally broke the German resistance. Enemy fire
from the houses was silenced when the two tanks
fired from points 30 yards away, crumbling the
foundations. All but 13 men of the 1st Platoon,
caught in the draw, were found to be casualties.
After this success some difficulty was experienced
in turning the riflemen of Company A, now attacking
east, back toward the south and in the direction
of the objective on the St-Lo..Bayeux highway.
The leader of the 3d Platoon was a casualty, but in
his place Sgt. William C. Stanley, picking up the
remnants of the 1st Platoon in the draw, drove the
men forward; they not only pushed out halfway to
the objective, but secured the entire left flank of
the 1st Battalion in the face of heavy mortar fire.
About noon elements of the 3d Battalion started
moving up to support Company A.
On the right of the battalion line, Company C
had moved forward against lesser difficulties. The
company employed one variation of the standard
tactics it had rehearsed in the preceding week.
Fragmentation grenades were fired from rifles, and
in two instances these grenades were placed accurately
over enemy machine.gun emplacements
in order to effect air bursts and silence the enemy
weapons. The advance was slowed for a time by
troubles in maintaining contact with the 1st Battalion,
38th Infantry on the right flank, but the
success of that unit helped Company C during the
afternoon.
At the end of the day the 1st Battalion, 23d In·
fantry had gained up to 1,500 yards and dug in for
the night 400 yards from the objective, the St·Lo..
Bayeux highway. On the east, the Germans still
held the lower end of Purple Heart Draw, but only
as part of a salient position which would be hard
to maintain. Close support by the infantry had
prevented any tank casualties, although the enemy
had been well supplied with bazookas and sticky
grenades. East of the main effort, diversionary
attacks had been made during the day by the 3d
Battalion of the 23d and by elements of the 9th
Infantry. Company L of the 23d put in hard
fighting, with severe losses, to gain only one hedgerow
to the east of St-Georges-d'Elle. But these
efforts helped to keep enemy forces on that sector
from shifting troops to the zone of main attack.
The drive of the 2d Division, while it had been
slowed by stubborn resistance, had packed too
much power for the enemy. Fighting to hold
Hill 192 and his lines near St-Georges.d'Elle, the
enemy committed during the day the 12th Parachute
Gun Brigade and then the 3d Parachute
Reconnaissance Company. As a last reserve, the
3d Parachute Engineer Battalion was thrown into
the fighting. Elements of both the 5th and 9th
Parachute Regiments were badly mauled. The
2d Division had taken 147 prisoners, most of them
from the III Battalion, 9th Parachute Regiment.
Although the enemy was well dug in against the
effects of American artillery, it was evident that
the tremendous American fire (20,000 rounds for
the day on this front) had given considerable impetus
to the infantry advance, chiefly in keeping
the enemy down rather than in causing wholesale
destruction of enemy emplacements. These
were too deeply dug and too well protected to be
affected by anything except a direct hit.
The real battle of Hill 192 had been won by
the close of II July, since every enemy position on
the hill had been reduced and the St·Georges.
d'Elle defenses had been smashed . The little
work to be done in reaching the final objectives
was accomplished quickly on 12 July. General
Robertson had ordered a resumption of the advance
for 1100. During the night the American
positions had been hit with considerable artillery
fire, but the small counterattack that followed was
ineffective and did not delay the 2d Division's
attack. 11,e fighting was much less severe than
that of the preceding day.