Hot on the heels of another unnecessary purchase [Brother Handro: "Is any of it necessary..."] we have another project lined up.
Everyone loves Band of Brothers, right? Anyone who says they don't is a liar! Of course, best episode is hotly contested with Bastogne often winning out. Best individual battle....now that is a question. Foy is of course legendary, as is cross roads, but I have to say the assault on the gun battery at Brecourt manor is something else all together.
For those that don't know the operation, there are some great descriptions here, here, here, and here!
The general premise is that Winters, tasked with taking out some presumed 88mm artillery, takes a small force from Easy Company and successfully assaults a fixed position to eliminate 4 German artillery pieces which are shelling the landing zones on D-Day. The operation, and Winters' tactics, are reportedly still taught at West Point today.
The area around Ste-Marie-Du-Mont includes a manor house at Brecourt. Various maps are available at the sources linked to above, and some of these help give an idea of the exact position of the field.
Some careful google mapping, and it is possible to find the corner of the field today - note that North is now roughly at the 8 O'clock position.
The sattelite photo graphs dont give much of a clue, but thankfully the history keen community have drawn up a number of handy maps giving an idea of the locations of guns and various important details.
This diagram gives a nice range of detail. but can be nicely cut down to the important details as seen below.
In the next post I'll give more detail on how we can recreate this terrain for wargaming!
