The US Army Rangers orders were clear - they were to attack the gun batteries at Maisy and silence them on D-Day - before nightfall. The Rangers did not get to Maisy until the morning of the 9th of June - where they found the guns still firing and the Germans ready and waiting for them. At 9am the commanders ordered their men to attack without any intelligence brief. Each company of Rangers captured a different area of the 144 acre site and some walked through marshes, uphill and through minefields - all whilst under fire - to then have a face to face battle in the trenches. Accounts of the battle come from the author’s interviews with the men who took part. Distinguished Service Cross’s, Silver Stars and Purple Hearts had been earned by the time the 5 ½ hour battle ended. The author shares his unique experience of digging up this previously unrecognised WW2 battlefield and he walks the reader through trench after trench and bunker by bunker. He reveals what he was found in a site that one Ranger veteran described as a town underground . Maisy Battery is unique in Normandy today and the authors detective work and subsequent onsite archaeology has been featured on the front page of the Washington Post. It is a battlefield where you are free to walk around miles of original trenches and only then can you understand the bravery of the men who fought for every inch of it. AUTHOR: Gary Sterne is a keen collector of militaria and was a co-founder of The Armourer and Skirmish Magazines. He has always been fascinated with the D-day landings and in particular was intrigued by the lack of precise information relating the mystery of the missing guns’ of Pointe du Hoc. His research led to the finding of a map which indicated the position of an unknown German gun position buried in the village of Maisy. After buying the land he was able to open the huge site to the public. The re-discovery of the Maisy Battery made headline news around the world and has subsequently changed the history of the Omaha Sector forever. The site is now one of the major Normandy D-day attractions.
100 b/w illustrations