Microsoft Close Combat manual Purple Heart Draw, We did

Chapter 4 The Normandy Campaign in Close Combat 81

Seventh Army troops in the vicinity dig into defensive positions,
including foxholes and even tunnels. The town itself is set in a
depression next to the river Vire, surrounded by rolling hills and ridges,
which are heavily fortified by the Germans. Any gaps between the hills		“The Germans adjusted much
are well-covered by German guns.
To the Americans, it soon becomes clear that approaching the German		better to new conditions than
		we did.”
defenses around Saint-Lô indirectly is preferable to a frontal assault. As
		British intelligence officer
Bradley later notes in his memoirs, “I’d just as soon settle for the high
		Brigadier Bill Williams
ground east and west of Saint-Lô. . . we’re not going to spend a division
just to take a place name.” This alternative calls for three divisions of
the First Army to drive along a 10-mile front through the hills around
Saint-Lô, then into the city itself. As part of this assault, the Americans
will have to overrun the German defenders on Hill 192 and Purple
Heart Draw, tactical strongpoints east of Saint-Lô that threaten any
approaching Allied force. In both locations, the Germans hold the high
ground, and the U.S. troops will have to fight their way uphill through a
dauntingly vertical variation of the bocage.
Earlier U.S. efforts to take Hill 192 in mid-June failed in the face of the
formidable German resistance. The Seventh Army troops on the hill
were aided by the fact that they could
see everything from the coast to Saint-
Lô, including the attacking Americans.	U.S. 23rd Division
Instead of forming a defensive line, the
	U.S. 38th Division
Germans had built a series of
strongpoints that could support the gaps	U.S. 29th Division	Purple	Balleroy
between them with covering fire. All
		Heart
	Hill 192	Draw
		Attack on the High Ground
	SaintÐL™
Purple Heart Draw			July 11, 1944
The American Second Division reaches the foot of	Close Combat Operation: German Side
Hill 192 on June 12; two unsuccessful attacks	The draw is the perfect natural obstacle for
result in over 1,200 U.S. casualties. Between June
	stopping the Americans. It is wide enough to
16 and July 10, the Second Division receives
	hinder tanks from crossing it. If U.S. soldiers
intensive training in bocage tactics; on July 11,
	climb down to the bottom to get across it, they
they renew the assault against Hill 192. The drive
	can be easily picked off from above.
through Purple Heart Draw, on the northeast side
of the hill, falls to the First Battalion, 23rd Infantry	Close Combat Operation: U.S. Side
Regiment. After fierce fighting, in which one	Since this draw is standing between the U.S.
platoon is nearly wiped out crossing the draw, the
battalion advances nearly a mile, within sight of	and its objective, Hill 192, it must be crossed or
the Saint-Lô–Bayeux highway.	flanked. With the Germans holding the upper
	section of the hill, neither will be easy.