Located a few hundred metres west of the village of Sante Marie du Mont, inland of Utah Beach, Batterie Holdy was a site where four 105mm howitzers were positioned in a short hedgerow trench line, similar to nearby those at nearby Brecourt Manor.
Unlike its famous sister batterie, Holdy hasn’t been touched by the Hollywood history brush and remains relatively unknown to visitors to the Normandy landing beaches.
This is a shame as the capture of the site by the US Airborne was equally as daring and important.
Created to fire on the landing beach area around the Baie des Veys south of La Madeline on what was to become known as Utah Beach, this site not only featured the four big guns but mortar and machine gun positions too. The farmhouse across the field to the rear of the hedgerow trench was used as a communications centre and as many as fifty German troops were stationed here.
It was a site where a miss-dropped group of US paratroopers met their end, many machine gunned as they came to land and there are reports of those who landed alive being captured and tortured by the German troops.
At dawn, a company led by Captain Lloyd E Patch of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) along with Captain Knut H Raudstein’s Charlie Company, and around a dozen paratroopers from the 502nd PIR assault the batterie, killing many of the Germans and took control of the guns, putting three out of action.
While in the process of destroying the guns, the troops attempting to capture Sainte Marie du Mont called for them to be repurposed and fire upon an observation/sniper position at the church. It was put to use in destroying the position, allowing the Allied troops to capture the village in the afternoon.
Today the site operates as a holiday gite, and the trenches are almost completely filled except for one gun position which is usually filled with water. Access to the site is with permission only.