Battle of Graignes

The Battle of Graignes, part of the Battle of Normandy in World War II, was fought June 10-12, 1944 in Graignes, France. During the engagement, paratroopers of the US 82nd Airborne Division held the town for 2 days against the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division. This action delayed the 17th Panzergrenadier's counterattack on Carentan, which was repulsed at the Battle of Bloody Gulch on June 13. After retaking the Graignes, the Germans massacred 44 civilians and set fire to the town.

Landings and Village Help
Shortly after 0200 hours on D-Day, Tuesday, 6 June 1944, twelve planeloads of paratroopers from the 3rd Battalion 507th PIR were scattered throughout the marshes south of Carentan. They were supposed to have been dropped eighteen miles to the northwest at drop zone “T” near Amfreville, but instead ended-up in the vicinity of the French village of Graignes. Theirs was the worst misdrop of any airborne unit on 6 June 1944.

By 1000 hours, twenty-five paratroopers under the command of 507th Captain Leroy D. Brummitt had gathered in the village. Two hours later, more 3rd Battalion/507th men arrived led by Major Charles D. Johnston. Because the troopers were deep behind enemy lines and far from their drop zone, the decision was made to remain where they had landed and defend Graignes.

As the Americans went to work preparing defensive positions, the mortar platoon dug in around the cemetery and sent a detachment to occupy the church belfry as an observation post. From that vantage point, the observer enjoyed an unobstructed view of the network of roads and trails leading to the village from the west and southwest. While these defenses were being prepared, Maj. Johnston established his Command Post at the boys’ school. Throughout this digging-in process, more American troopers continued to arrive in Graignes, and by the end of the following day (D+1), the group had grown in size to 182 (12 officers and 170 enlisted).

On the morning of 6 June, the village’s mayor, M. Alphonse Voydie, awoke to find American paratroopers in the field behind his house. He provided information and later called a town meeting to assess the supply situation. During that meeting, there was a unanimous decision to feed the paratroopers, despite the risks that came with helping the enemy. Under Madame Germaine Boursier's direction, the women of Graignes began cooking on a round the clock basis so they could serve two meals each day. Teams of men, women and even children were hauling wagon loads of valuable salvaged equipment back to the Graignes perimeter.

Enemy Contact and Assault
In the afternoon on Saturday, 10 June, a mechanized patrol approached a defensive position that was manned by some of 1st Lt. Murn’s B Company/501st men. They let the patrol get close, then opened fire killing four of the enemy. When the troopers searched a dead German’s pockets, they discovered some documents that revealed him to be assigned to a reconnaissance battalion of an armored division.

On Sunday, there was no sign of the enemy and all was quiet that morning, so Maj. Johnston gave permission for some of the men to attend Mass. However, half way through the service, a woman burst into the church yelling, “The Germans are coming! Save yourselves!". The first assault, which lasted only ten minutes, had been an uncoordinated, piecemeal effort.

At about 1400 hours, the Germans commenced a punishing mortar bombardment of Graignes. This preparatory fire was swiftly followed by a second infantry assault against the flanks of the defensive line around the village. This time the attackers moved so swiftly that the perimeter was almost breached at one point. However, Capt. Brummitt quickly shifted forces to meet the threat, and the line held. Once again, the paratroopers’ supporting fires were decisive in holding off defeat as mortar fire inflicted heavy losses and scores of enemy infantry were caught in the crossfire of the multiple machine guns defending the village center.

In the evening, the guard posts could hear heavy vehicles move about. Since the observed evidence indicated that Graignes was about to be the target of a major attack, Maj. Johnston sent all of the civilians away. At about 1900 hours, two German 88mm guns opened fire on Graignes from the heights of nearby Thieuville a few kilometers away. This quickly disorganized the Americans and killed Maj. Johnston. With the observation post in the belfry destroyed, it was no longer possible for the troopers to employ their mortars against the approaching enemy with any degree of effective accuracy.

By the time the Germans made the final thrust into Graignes that night, the defenders had been reduced to a few isolated pockets of resistance spread out around the village. In many cases, men were beginning to run out of ammunition. As that happened, the enemy was quick to exploit the situation by overrunning the outer perimeter and moving into the streets of the center of the village. With Maj. Johnston dead, command of the force at Graignes devolved to Capt. Brummitt – who ordered the men to pair off and try to make it to either Carentan or Ste.-Mère-Église.

Elements of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen had conducted the final assault on Graignes. When the 17th attacked, it was with a regimental sized force of approximately 2,000. The odds were literally ten to one in the Germans’ favor. Despite those odds though, the 182 paratroopers defending Graignes inflicted an estimated five hundred killed and seven hundred wounded on the Germans during the course of the fighting on the 10th and 11th.

Reprisal
At the end of the 11 June battle, the 17th SS stormed the church and found Capt. Sophian’s aid station. They promptly executed the Captain and all of the wounded. Other Germans began systematically rounding-up French civilians suspected of assisting them. A total of forty-four villagers had been rounded up and were under interrogation by the Germans as suspected collaborators.

On Tuesday the 13th, the Germans burned the village. They poured gasoline over the bodies of Father Leblastier, Father Lebarbanchon, Eugenie DuJardin and Madeleine Pezeril and then set them on fire. The ensuing blaze was allowed to burn out of control, destroying 66 homes, the boys’ school, Mme. Boursier’s café and the 12th-century church. Another 159 homes and other buildings were damaged either as a result of that fire or the fighting. Before the 11 June battle and the German retaliation that followed, the village of Graignes had consisted of just over two hundred dispersed homes and other structures. Afterward, only two houses survived unscathed.

By then most of the Graignes defenders had already made it out. Small groups arrived in Carentan late at night on the 12th. Other troopers, some alone and some in pairs, continued to filter in on the 13th and 14th. Twenty-one men hidden by a Rigault family and taken to Carentan by Joseph Folliot on the night of the 15th/16th was the last group from Graignes to make it back to U.S. lines. 150 troopers out of the original 182 made it out alive.

Aftermath
Had the miss-dropped Paratroopers of the 507th not stopped dead the advance of the 17th SS Panzer Grenadiers this division could have made it to Carentan before the 101st Airborne Division.

The 507th remained in the fight in Normandy until 15 July when it returned to England. The regiment then went on to fight in the Battle of the Bulge and was a part of Operation Varsity – the airborne assault across the Rhine River. In September 1945, the 507th returned to the United States and was disbanded.

On 6 July 1986, a ceremony was held in the ruins of the 12th-century Roman Catholic church during which eleven villagers were presented with the Award for Distinguished Civilian Service for their role in assisting the men of 3rd Battalion/507th. Six of those awards were posthumous.