After a 7-hours walk through the swamps behind Utah Beach on June 6^th , the 1^st Battalion of the 22^nd Infantry Regiment of the 4^th Infantry Division reached finally “Road S9” also known as “Causeway 4” then spent the night near Saint-Germain-de-Varreville.

Note: “A” Company took 113 prisoners during the walk.

On June 7^th the advance was resumed and found the battalion along a line north of Bas village de Dodainville before 1000am as follows: “B” Company on the right from the swamp to the road, “A” Company on the left of the road and “C” Company was in reserve.

All of the sudden boys found themselves under a heavy German artillery and machine gun fire. Without to know it they were in contact with the outposts of the 210mm gun position of Crisbecq but the enemy withdrew and by 1100am the village of Saint-Marcouf was secured.

Positions were taken along the road leading to the German artillery emplacement, mortars, guns, machine guns, everything able to fire a bullet or a shell was used and poured onto the 1^st Battalion. “A” and “B” Companies didn’t have any weapon to assault the fortified area, only rifle and hand grenades which were useless against 6-foot concrete walls.

“C” Company organized into assault section was ordered to reduce all of the oppositions between Saint-Marcouf and the artillery position and while moving, Germans counterattacked on the left flank. To prevent boys of “C” Company to be pinned down, 1^st Lieutenant Bernard Sheehy and his 3^rd Platoon (“B” Company) moved to the left flank but was stopped at coordinates 367037 (see map below) by enemy personnels and at least one tank. In the meantime, Lieutenant-Colonel Sewell M. Bromby , Commanding Officer of the 1^st Battalion was wounded and turned the command over to Captain Tom Shields from “A” Company, pending an arrival of Major James E.  Nearl , Executive Officer.

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Realizing that the boys were too much closer of the 210mm artillery position, Captain Shiels gave the order to everyone to withdraw at 0400pm. Considerebly disorganization resulted from this movement as the enemy was using everything he had. Lieutenant-Colonel Gino Valenti (AAR Spelling) and nineteen men of “A” Company, were just lost in this withdrawal. These had been on the extreme left flank and it is assumed that they were captured, nine of their bodies were found subsequently when the position was taken. A mixed platoon wandered as far as the beach which at that time was completely in enemy hands and well-fortified. Here they captured one hundred and thirty-one Germans and returned with them to rejoin the battalion during the night. On the way they found Lieutenant Toller (AAR Spelling) wounded and brought him in.

The 1^st Battalion withdrew to Saint-Marcouf and even further back to the original line of departure. The enemy shelled the boys the all night, in the early hours of the 8^th “C” Company was still in lead while “A” Company was completely gone. The whole outfit reached once again Saint-Marcouf finding that the Germans reoccupied it during the night, held it with small arms fire, but against all odds fell back again. Only a sniper hidden in the church steeple gave trouble, this was taken care of with an incendiary grenade. At approximately 0130pm, a coordinated attack to silence the 210mm gun position of Crisbecq with the artillery, naval guns, mortars and infantrymen was about to jumped off.

Following this the battalion advanced close behind the barrage to the same positions they had reached the previous day. The barrage was beautifully coordinated and kept losses during the advance very small. “D” Company gave beautiful overhead fire with machine guns. The barrage was lifted when the assault troops were 200 yards from the road through the fortification and 100 yards behind the arty. They continued the advance for another 100 yards, which brought them up against the first fortifications.

“C” Company was as always in lead in the middle, “A” and “B” Companies both on the flanks to cover the movement of “C” which was fortunate to blew up two emplacements with pole charges. On its way to the overrun the main fortifications, coastal, inland guns from the Azeville battery, and Nebelwerfer guns opened up fire, this was the first encounter for the 1^st Battalion with the “screaming meemies”. “A”, “B” and “C” were too much exposed and men suffered heavy casualties. Captain Shields was killed, two other officers were casualties, “C” Company lost three officers, Major Nearl was wounded.

Once again, the attack on Crisbecq battery failed, Major Nearl gave the order to withdraw and the same outcome as the previous day took place. Disorganization, men scattered everywhere. The failures resulted of two reasons, the equipment and the organization were inadequate for reducing the fortification. Most of the heavy weapons already lost, no prospect of competing the occupation of the strong point, and with a German counterattack again developing on the left flank in the same direction as on the previous day. The men who got back to the starting point the second time, seeing only a small part of their forces, felt that the whole invasion was a failure. “This is the end”, they said. “A” Company had only ninety-six men, “B” and “C” were even harder it.

The night will be long! An improvised defense was organized, some machine guns were placed in the crotches of the trees. During the night a lot of men were taken back to the rear and replacements came in. The next morning the 1^st Battalion had half of its strength back.

When the second attack upon the enemy fortification took place, medics found fifty boys of the battalion laying in a single field. All killed.

The men of the 22^nd Infantry Regiment made unsuccessful attacks on Crisbecq and finally decided to bypass it on the left. They headed north toward the village of Ozeville on the 10^th of June.

Note: Lieutenant Gino Valenti paid the ultimate sacrifice on June 17t^h, 1944. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia 

Written by Pierre Fallet.