Cleaning Vierville, St-Laurent and the cliff
by the 115th and 116th Regiments on 7 June
Meanwhile, the rest of the 5ème Ranger was improving the bridgehead. .
Cleaning work in Vierville and St-Laurent took almost all day.
In Vierville, the enemy counter-attack of the early morning had not been very vigorous and after a moment of concern when the sappers retreated from the Ormel to the village, the situation had been restored by bringing back four Rangers companies and a few tanks to protect the village.
Cie B/5Ran attacking Vierville SO neutralized several machine gun nests and numerous snipers. A section of each of the A and F/5Ran companies, supported by 4 tanks, attacked the south of the village, eliminating machine guns, snipers and enemy patrols. This force killed 25 enemies and took 85 prisoners. Snipers infiltrated the city and the Cie E/5Ran had to iron again. An enemy counterattack on the village was thus repulsed by Cie E/5Ran.
The Americans then understood the need to clean up the entire agglomeration, where they had only limited forces.
The cleaning covered all the houses of the village and of the remote neighborhoods, the Ormel, the Isles, the Than mansion, the castle wood, etc... with control of civilian populations. It was during these operations that large houses too hard to search and empty of their inhabitants (the Than mansion and L'Ormel in particular) were burned down.
Michel Hardelay said the morning of 7 June in Vierville(5) see also the account of the Piprel (2).
See then the end of the memories of Sergeant Dube (4), surprised by the German counterattack south of Vierville
See also what was told by a G.I. Retained from a fight in the path "The Ash Hunt" and the castle wood
See also following memories of the mayor of Englesqueville (2)
In Vierville, Colonel Canham moved the 116th Regiment PC to Saint-Laurent in the morning, bringing together the Command Group and the Communications Group and reconnecting with his Battalions II/116 and III/116.
The II/116 cleared the descent of the Moulins (D3) of all its snipers, in order to open it to road traffic.
III/116 took care of the cliff from St-Laurent to Vierville, to clean it from snipers and last resistors. The battalion, scattered between Saint-Laurent and the Ruquet, was only partially assembled, found some machine gun nests still in action and made some prisoners.
Then these 2 battalions crossed Vierville and left south via Louvières. They had to fight hard on their way to their goals, and at 5 p.m. they withdrew for the night in a tight defensive perimeter around Vierville while protecting the beach and the state-Major of the 29th division.
On the morning of 8 June, General Gerhardt ordered the II/116 and III/116 to advance towards Grandcamp join 1/116 and launch a new attack on Pointe du Hoc where Rangers were still isolated.
The 3rd Battalion of the 115th Regiment (III/115) had bivouaqué on the evening of June 6, east of Saint-Laurent. After an intense naval bombardment, he was tasked with reducing the fortified WN 67 and 69 points blocking the Saint-Laurent junction. He only met snipers there. At 9 a.m., Saint-Laurent was released and the III/115 has marketed on Vierville, followed by I/115. Approaching from Vierville and receiving news that they were no longer needed, they oblivted south, always on foot, carrying heavy weapons, towards Longueville.