Les Mézières (Manche)
The cities of Normandy during the 1944 battles
- Liberation: June 6, 1944
- Deployed units:
1/502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
1/Heeres-Küsten-Artillerie-Regiment 1261
- History:
In the spring of 1944, the hamlet of Les Mézières consisted of a number of isolated houses and farmhouses, which were used in particular as living quarters for the personnel of the Saint-Martin-de-Varreville battery belonging to the 1st battery of the Heeres-Küsten-Artillerie-Regiment 1261 commanded by Oberleutnant Erben. This sector was the target of several Allied aerial bombardments: in March, on the night of 28-29 May 1944 (with 64 Lancaster aircraft from the Royal Air Force) and again on the night of 5-6 June 1944.
Les Mézières was located between the drop zone of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division and Saint-Martin-de-Varreville: the hamlet had to be recognised by the paratroopers before they could reach their objective. The Americans named the various dwellings ‘Objectives XYZ’. But on 6 June 1944, the drops went badly for the 502nd PIR. The units were mixed up, rarely landing in the right place: the paratroopers got together at random and tried to accomplish their missions by any means possible. Sergeant Harrison Summers of B Company took the initiative of leading a handful of soldiers (mainly from the 1st Battalion, but also from the 506th PIR) towards Mézières. Shortly after four o’clock in the morning, accompanied by Lieutenant Elmer Brandenburger, leader of the 3rd section of Company B, the group of soldiers set up a makeshift roadblock on the road into Mézières and then cleared the eleven buildings one by one, killing or taking prisoner the Germans inside. This action continued throughout the morning of D-Day: S/Sergeant Harrison Summers became a war hero, killing up to 15 enemy soldiers in a single room in building number 9, caught around a table while they were having breakfast. Lieutenant Brandenburger was seriously wounded in the arm during the fierce fighting.
The Germans fled Les Mézières, leaving the hamlet to the American paratroopers in the late morning. They were reinforced at the same time by elements of the 12th and 22nd infantry regiments of the 4th Division, which had landed on Utah Beach and crossed the area to set up defensive positions facing north at Saint-Germain-de-Varreville on the evening of 6 June.
Les Mézières maps:
