Yves J. Bellanger
THE 5TH INFANTRY DIVISION
"RED DIAMOND"
THE BATTLE OF VIDOUVILLE
Fighting began early on the 26th as
the 2nd CT attacked southwest with 1st and 3rd Battalions abreast
to capture the village of Vidouville and the high ground at Highway
3, in conjunction with the 2nd Infantry Division on the right.
As it did throughout the division's fighting in France, the prearranged
plan of fire of the Division Artillery did yeoman work. The attack
jumped off, infantrymen advancing with medium tanks of Company
A of the 735th Tank Battalion, after a heavy artillery preparation
and immediately met heavy sniper fire, and automatic weapons and
mortars. 88 mm guns covered the open ground on the front but the
1st battalion pushed to within 100 yards of Vidouville where heavy
artillery fire made them stay put. The 3rd Battalion pushed forward
rapidly, was counterattacked and forced to fall back. Two tanks
were knocked out and casualties were inflicted. The 2nd Battalion
plugged a gap between the 1st and 3rd Bns and next morning, despite
an 88 mm barrage the Germans laid down to prevent it, the regiment
attacked again, reaching the objective completely by 1830 hours
on the 27th. The Germans, as usual, counterattacked and pierced
the regiment's positions despite heavy defensive artillery fires.
A platoon of light tanks and Company G, the Combat Team reserve,
drove back the counterattacking force and the regiment began reorganization
at 1915 hours.
One hour later again the enemy counterattacked
viciously, massing its strength in the center of the regiment
and forcing the elements there back 500 yards and causing losses
in personnel. That night, as the and Infantry reorganized, the
10th Infantry relieved the 9th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Infantry
Division and the 1st Bn, 10th moved into division reserve behind
the 2nd Regiment.
The Germans laid their eternally damned
88 mm fire heavily on the Highway and rear areas but the 2nd jumped
off and against surprisingly light resistance advanced to straighten
out the line and occupy the high ground along the Highway, in
conjunction with the 10th Regiment. The tough German parachutists
had been rooted out of their prepared positions and their counterattacks
broken up by the very effective division artillery fire brought
to bear by the forward observers and by the indomitable courage
of such doughboys as Staff Sergeant Mile J. Flynn, then private
and Staff Sergeant Konstanly Cugala of Company I. Flynn, then
private infantryman, leaped to the turret of an immobilized tank
and expended all the machine gun ammunition on the tank, with
its 30 caliber machine gun to break up a counterattack. Gugala
grabbed an automatic rifle as a wave yelling German parachutists
counterattacked and stead up and sprayed the enemy, killing an
estimated ten and wounding thirty. Then there was Staff Sergeant
Roy Alpers, 735th tanker. When is tank was hit twice and set afire
by an 88 during the first attack, Alpers organized his tank crew
as riflemen and they fought side by side with the 2nd Infantry
for the next 36 hours.
Of such grim, tough stuff were the
front line troops of the division made- the 2nd, 10th and 11th
Regiments, the 5th Recon troopers and combat engineers, the artillery
forward observers, tankers, tank-destroyers, communications and
aid-men. It was the same fighting spirit repeatedly displayed
that carried the division on its victorious campaign.
While the 2nd was fighting at Vidouville,
the 11th Regiment was in V Corps reserve in the crowded, stark,
denuded area of Couvain behind the 2nd Infantry Division. The
11th's 3rd Bn occupied Hill 192 as 2nd Division reserve as the
2nd, 29th and 35th Divisions battered St Lo. The 11th reverted
to 5th Division control on the 28th and moved over behind the
10th, as the 10th attacked Hill 183 in the lace of bitter resistance
by enemy infantry and artillery. On the 30th of July the 10th
fought all morning to secure a line of departure for an attack
and beat off one counterattack by artillery fire, after which
the regiment advanced slowly against heavy resistance, securing
the road south of Hill 183. At 0400 hours, in a night that was
so black that company commanders and platoon leaders had to lead
their troops by hand, individually into position, the 11th Infantry
passed through the 10th to seize Hill 211, meeting no resistance
except minefields.
The next morning the 2nd and 11th continued
to advance against no resistance in line of skirmishers until
it appeared that pursuit was in order so advance guard formation
with troops on the road was adapted. Minefields took a heavy toll
in jeeps destroyed as the tempo of the pursuit increased, then
slowed as engineers and infantry mine platoons preceded vehicles
with mine detectors.
The two Combat Teams advanced abreast
for 15 miles, when the 11th pierced a thin OPLR (Outpost Line
of Resistance) of snipers and machine guns to capture a strongpoint
of two 105 mm howitzers. The 2nd Regiment kept going through the
Forêt l'Evèque to the Vire river at which point the
British on the left and the 2nd Infantry Division on the right
nearly joined so the 2nd Regiment was ordered to assemble in the
vicinity of the village of Dampierre. The rest of the division
also reorganized in assembly areas and the Normandy Beachhead
fighting was over, probably the toughest fighting the division
as a whole had to do until
the Moselle crossing in September.
The great St Lo breakthrough had been
accomplished, starting on the 25th of July with a bombardment
by over three thousand heavy and medium bombers and fighter bombers
of the U. S. Air Corps and the RAF on the German lines south and
southwest of St Lo. The VII Corps attacked, in the wake of a terrific
bombing to effect a breakthrough out of the Normandy beachhead
(Operation Cobra).
Pages 7 and 8 of the History booklet
of the 5th Infantry Division, published at Metz, France,
in December 1944.
Comments in parenthesis are from me.
Thanks to Lester Cormicle for his
help in the transcription of the booklet.
The story continues in Battle
of Angers page.
The Drive Begins
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All rights reserved, Yves J. Bellanger
Created in July 2001
Updated July 18, 2001 by Yves
J. Bellanger