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Well, you just invited destruction to the entire village...

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“The Americans converted the village boys school into a command center, mined access roads and turned the belfry of Graignes’ 12th century church into an observation post.”

@banana: "Well, you just invited destruction to the entire village..."

Might as well add a bit more from the article. 170 men from the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment - worst mis-drop on D-Day, behind enemy lines, most of their equipment in a swamp so they hunkered down, fortified a position, mined the roads and were eventually out manned and out gunned.

Probably mostly 18-20 year old green soldiers. They fought for nine hours before they fell back. Their wounded were slaughtered by the SS.

Me? I'd cut them some slack. Apology accepted in advance for our fallen.

"In Graignes, the U.S. paratrooopers were outnumbered and outgunned.

For nine hours, Rigault sat huddled with her sister against the church’s stone walls as wounded soldiers and civilians were brought in. As dusk fell and their defenses crumbled, the American soldiers were forced to retreat from Graignes.

The Germans were brutal in their reprisals against the village, Rigault recalled.

The village priest, Father Albert Leblastier, and a Franciscan priest were shot dead and their bodies burned. Homesteads were torched. The maimed paratroopers left behind were split into two groups: some were marched down the road and executed, others were “thrown into the marshes and bayoneted,” Rigault recalled. “We weren’t allowed to pull them out for several days.”"