Cassidy’s Battalion

By Colonel Samuel L. A. Marshall and Gen. Jacob E. Smart

The chief threat to the UTAH BEACH landings was the German coastal battery located just to the westward of the village of St Martin De Varreville. It had been the target of air bombardment in the preceding days but the results were not known. The fate of the northern half of the operation could have turned on it; the assured destruction of the Battery became a chief preoccupation of the 502d Airborne Infantry Regiment led by Lt. Colonel Patrick Cassidy. Widely scattered in the drop Cassidy and the paratroops under him were still determined to succeed in their objectives. In this short monograph produced by the European Theater of Operation historian S.L.A. Marshall, which was based on the oral testimony collected from the men involved, we follow Cassidy and his men as they attempt to achieve their important objectives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lucknow Books
• Release date: Nov 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781786255662

Colonel Samuel L. A. Marshall

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Text originally published in 1944 under the same title.

© Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

CASSIDY’S BATTALION

Published by History Section, European Theater of Operations

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

CASSIDY’S BATTALION 5

PROBLEMS OF COMMAND 12

THE MORNING’S FIGHTING 15

CLEAN-UP OF THE HOUSES AT W-X-Y-Z 15

THE FOUCARVILLE ENTRY 18

THE FOUCARVILLE ROADBLOCKS 18

THE NO. 2 BLOCK 20

THE NO. 1 BLOCK 21

THE THREE-PATROL ACTION 22

ACTION ON THE LEFT FLANK 26

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 31

CASSIDY’S BATTALION

It was the operation at UTAH BEACH which predetermined the location of DROP ZONE A and the mission of the airborne forces which dropped there shortly after midnight on 6 June. DROP ZONE A was the closest serviceable field to the Beach where elements of the 4th Infantry Division were landing shortly after dawn. The primary mission of the airborne was to assure the success of the seaborne forces.

Because of the nature of the ground, it was a varied assignment. The Norman coast at this point is flat and unimpressive. The only high ground near the Beach is an occasional sand dune mass. Stretching inland from the Beach for a thousand yards or more is a belt of salt marsh which would come under the wash of the sea when the tide is high were it not protected by the piled up sands. Dirt causeways topped by asphalt roads have been built across these marshes and provide the only means of convenient exit from the Beach to the firm ground westward of the marsh. This ground, too, is flat and is made difficult to the invader only because of its ubiquitous hedgerows. Since no high land interposes, guns sited along the fringe of this solid hedgerow country are in position to dominate the Beach and work ruin on ships nearing the shore. The chief threat to the UTAH BEACH landings was the German coastal battery located just to the westward of the village of ST MARTIN DE VARREVILLE. It had been the target of air bombardment in the preceding days but the results were not known. The fate of the northern half of the operation could have turned on it; the assured destruction of the Battery became a chief preoccupation of the 502d Airborne Infantry Regiment [i.e., 502d Parachute Infantry].

Coupled with that mission were other details, all assigned to smooth the passage of the 4th Infantry Division from the Beach to the firm ground. While making sure of the destruction of the Battery, the Regiment had also to deal with the artillery garrison which was quartered in barracks a few hundred yards west of the Guns a position identified in the American plan as W-X-Y-Z. One of the main exits from the Beach ran past the Battery and through the Barracks area. This was Exit No 4. Another such causeway Exit No. 3 was about 700 yards to the south. The Regiment was to seize and clear these causeways so that elements of the 8th and 22d Infantry Regiments could make an uninterrupted crossing of the marshes. These things done, the 502d was to engage the