"Band of Brothers. Attack near Carentan, Normandy" Topic

Hi, I've just watched Band of Brothers where Easy Company are attacking towards Carentan, Normandy. They want to cross a field towards a low ridge when German armoured units appear over the top and start blazing away, with infantry support. The situation looks grim for the Americans until a troop of Sherman's appear and decide the confrontation.

Question. Why did the German armoured units stop on the ridge line and fire instead of descend towards the Americans in the gully?

Hollywood?

probably a bit of Hollywood, but then again unsupported armour closing to ranges of under 100 metres against infantry in a bit of cover by 1944 wasn't the smart move…so a firefight to neutralise the infantry would be the way to go…the ridge meant they couldn't stand off much further

Not so much "Hollywood", rather you are seeing a small part of the attack (while Easy Company held the two other companies crumbled) and German Armor penetrated within about a hundred yards of Carentan. Easy Company was dug in along a RR bank, BTW the espisode where Lt Welsh and a Bazookaman take out a StugIII with a bazooka actually happened and was credited with buying time to allow the Shermans (some 60 from 2nd Armored which had been sent to the area based on an Ultra intercept) to close up and engage. It was a close run thing, known to the 101st as "The Battle of Bloody Gulch".

Not Hollywood, much more probably Gammon.

Lieutenant Megellas from I company 504th PIR 82 AB, IIRC in Herrenbach, in the last stages of the Bulge did away with a Tiger tank with a Gammon grenade. He didn't need the tank to go after him. He just charged in, got to its side and got the best of it. I can't remember if it was the same action when he got his platoon (squad really) and captured some 200+ Germans.

Not a silly thing to do to stop and shoot your 88s and MGs at parachutists instead of putting yourself in range of their bazookas or Gammon grenades…

Interesting…never knew Gammon bombs were US issue kit.

My dad (504/82 in Normandy) told me he had them

Not a "Gammon" it was a bazooka fired by Private John McGrath along with Lt Welsh, as per "Band of Brothers", Stephen Ambrose, the book, not the TV show. If you have evidence that it was a Gammon I would like to see it.

Googling lieutenant Megellas.
There's an account of him running at a german tank whilst firing from the hip ( at supporting infantry ). He threw a gammon bomb at the tank which stopped it then threw a grenade in the hatch.

Once you get close to a tank, it has poor visibility and the crews options to deal with you are not great. They probably can't even tell where you are.
Getting to the tank and any other support it has can be problems, but an individual tank is in a bad spot.

Googling lieutenant Megellas.
There's an account of him running at a german tank whilst firing from the hip ( at supporting infantry ). He threw a gammon bomb at the tank which stopped it then threw a grenade in the hatch.

However that was during the Battle of the Bulge, Dec-Jan of 1944/45. The incident the OP is questioning is during the taking of Carentan and the subsequent German Counterattack that took place in June 1944 during the Battle of Normandy. Megellas was also in the 82nd Airborne, not the 101st.

The comment I did about Megellas works perfectly to show the basic logic against armoured units advancing against elite (parachute in this case) infantry which can be loaded with both bazookas and bombs and the will to use them whatever their range is.

That Megellas did it in the Bulge (as I stated) and that he was in the 82 AB is irrelevant. When at Normandy the Germans had had more than enough time and chances to build a respect for American paratroopers.

@Korvessa: "My dad (504/82 in Normandy)" Huge. Respect. The guys from Salerno and Anzio, the ones who crossed the Waal. The devils in baggy pants.

Off topic, let me strongly recommend Megellas' autobiographic book on his time in the 504th "All the way to Berlin". Specially for his accounts made from a very personal point of view, close to action, no political correction in it.

Dogged,

Sorry that I misunderstood, yes, armor vs. infantry at close quarters could turn out very badly for the armor without infantry support. Of course the 82nd also made a habit (I'll bet a lot of allied infantry did the same) of trying to stockpile captured Panzerfausts, anything to give your men an edge. My Dad was in a heavy AAA battalion, 90mm guns. They spent most of their time in the ETO parceled out among infantry battalions as AT support (the 90mm was the American gun that could really ruin your day as a Panzer Leader, in fact somewhere I have a photo of a Panther that they knocked out firing in support of a British Infantry unit in Holland [they were about the only 90mm unit that wasn't on the anti-V1 gunline]). My Dad always told me how surprised they all were when the Panthers they hit "rang like a church bell". But in really close a Gammon Bomb or a Molotov cocktail or a satchel charge could ruin a tanker's day as easily as a 17 pounder or a 90mm (or a 75 or 88 in German hands). It's one of the aspects of WW2 combat that I think that many games underestimate as well as the fact that most tanks were used for infantry support (at least in the West, it's been a long time since I did a lot with the Eastern front).