The Forcing Of The Merderet Causeway At La Fiere, France by Colonel S. L. A. Marshall

Author:Colonel S. L. A. Marshall [Marshall, Colonel S. L. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, United States, Europe, General, Germany, Special Forces
ISBN: 9781782893516
Google: gQhwCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2014-08-15T05:04:06+00:00

THE HEDGEROW FIGHTING

So far the Third Battalion of 325th Regiment had been largely leaderless and its several components had moved tactically on their own initiative, once they reached the western shore. Too, Rae’s company, suddenly precipitated into the action, was acting in an independent role. Each small band took up a sector and then proceeded to deal with its local situation in detail. It was surprising, in view of the general circumstances, how quickly an orderly pattern began to develop from these diverse operations.

It happened that way largely because junior officers, in the emergency, were capable of fast thinking on their feet. Having made his decision to continue down the main road with Company F, Capt Harney saw a knot of men from Company G three cooks and a radio operator standing at the road fork, doing nothing; he added them to his force and was glad later that he did it, for the cooks fought with "unusual courage" throughout the afternoon. The Company then continued on along the road, spraying the hedgerows with automatic fire as they moved along and grenading the edges of the fields where there were likely to be fire positions. Rae had been coming along behind and as the two groups got on up to the crossroads, thus coming into ground which had not been swept by any of the earlier-arriving companies, Rae asked Harney how he had better employ his men. Harney told him: "Take all of the men now moving along on the left side of the road, pass down the trail leading to your left and make contact with Company G's right flank. After making contact, move forward to the high ground and take up a defensive position." LT White and his group of 18 men from Company E, taking the same road, had arrived at the same intersection. Harney told him to take his party out along the road leading to the right and try to make contact with the First Battalion which was presumed to be still pinned by German fire in the area where Col Timmes' party had been held inactive. That done, White was to clear the high ground to his front and take up a defensive position. As Harney figured it, the movement thus outlined was certain to leave some enemy groups on his rear but he felt that he could save time and round out the general position with least loss by "squeezing" these Germans between his own skirmishers and the advancing lines of Companies E and G. By this time, LT Travelstead had come up with the heavy machine guns and one section was sent out with each of the flankward-moving Companies. Harney went along with White's party.{32} Rae split his force and sent part of them via the left flank, as Harney had suggested; he led the rest of them straight down the road and into Le Motey. It looked at that point as if the bridgehead had been fairly well rounded out.

In Company

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