Battle of Bloody Gulch
Part of theBattle of Carentan and theBattle for Normandy
The Battle of Carentan
Date 13 June 1944 Location Manoir de Donville,Méautis,Normandy, France Result American victory
Belligerents
United States	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Maxwell D. Taylor Howard R. Johnson John H. Michaelis Robert F. Sink	Friedrich von der Heydte
Strength
3 parachute infantry regiments 60 tanks (2nd Armored Division)[1]	1 parachute infantry battalion 1 Waffen SS motorized division 12 tanks[1]
Casualties and losses
32 killed 73 wounded 4 tanks destroyed	43 killed 89 wounded 2 tanks destroyed

TheBattle of Bloody Gulch took place around theManoir de Douville orHill 30 (U.S. Army designation), about 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest ofCarentan inNormandy, France, on June 13, 1944.

It involved elements of the German17th SS Panzergrenadier Division and 6thFallschirmjägerRegiment, and the American501st,502nd, and506th Parachute Infantry Regiments (PIR) of the101st Airborne Division, reinforced by elements of the2nd Armored Division and the29th Infantry Division.

During the battle, themanor house of Manoir de Donville was the headquarters of the German forces. American soldiers nicknamed the road running past the manor "Bloody Gulch", after a place mentioned in the popular western movieDestry Rides Again.

When the 101st Airborne entered the town of Carentan on June 12, 1944, afterheavy fighting on the two previous days, they met relatively light resistance. The bulk of the surviving German defenders (from the 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment) had withdrawn to the southwest the previous night after a heavyAllied naval andartillery bombardment. Both sides realized the importance of the town: for the Americans, it was a link betweenUtah Beach andOmaha Beach and would provide a base for further attacks deeper into German-occupied France. For the Germans, recapturing Carentan would be the first step towards driving a wedge between the two American landing beaches, severely disrupting and possibly even repulsing the Allied invasion.

The remnants of the 6th Fallschirmjäger resupplied and were reinforced byassault guns andpanzergrenadiers of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division on the night of June 12–13. The combined force counterattacked northeast towards Carentan at dawn on June 13, just as the 506th and 501st PIR were attacking southwest to enlarge the American defensive perimeter around the town. The 506th took the brunt of the attack, and by 10:30 a.m., the outnumbered and outgunned paratroopers were pushed almost back to the outskirts of the town.

Under intense German fire, F Company of the 506th's left flank fell back to the next hedgerow under the company commander’s orders, which had not been cleared with battalion. This exposed D Company's right flank. That company also fell back, leavingE Company all alone. Cpt. Thomas P. Mulvey, thecommanding officer of F Company,^[2] was relieved on the spot by the battalion commander.

When a German tank attempted to penetrate the left flank, two E Company soldiers (according toBand of Brothers, they were Lt. Harry Welsh and Pvt. McGrath) destroyed it with abazooka. Meanwhile, battalion headquarters stopped the retreat of D and F companies, pushing them forward 150 metres (490 ft) to cover the left flank.^[3] The 2ndBattalion of the 502nd PIR took up positions to the right of the 506th, but by 1 p.m. they too had suffered many casualties, and the German attack was on the verge of breaking through their defenses.

At 4:30 p.m., sixtytanks fromCombat Command A of the 2nd Armored Division, accompanied by infantry of the29th Division,^[3] counterattacked southwest from Carentan,^[3] inflicting severe casualties on the Germans and forcing them to withdraw with the loss of four tanks.^[4] The American victory led to the linkup of forces from Utah and Omaha Beaches, creating a securelodgement area for further American operations.

The capture of Carentan was likely made possible by elements of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment that had been mis-dropped southeast of Carentan. During theBattle of Graignes, the 507th stopped the advance of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division, which may otherwise have reached Carentan before the 101st Airborne Division.^{[citation needed]}

Band of Brothers, an HBO miniseries, features the battle in its third episode, "Carentan", portraying the 506th PIR's part in the battle.

The battle was also featured in the first twoBrothers in Arms video games.

The originalCompany of Heroes game also featured this battle in the Normandy campaign.

• "The Battle of Carentan, 8–15 June".Utah Beach to Cherbourg.United States Army Center of Military History. 1990. CMH Pub 100-12. Archived fromthe original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved2010-07-20.
• Donald Burgett (2000).Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy. Dell Publishing.ISBN 0-440-23630-4.

• "The Battle of Bloody Gulch" (near the bottom of the page) – www.101airborneww2.com

• 1944 in France
• Military history of Manche
• Operation Overlord
• Battles of World War II involving the United States
• Battles of World War II involving Germany
• June 1944 in Europe
• Tank battles of World War II
• Tank battles involving Germany
• Tank battles involving the United States

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