Screaming Eagles of Mercy Two 101st Airborne medics treated U.S. and German wounded in the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damien on D-Day.

Warfare History Network ^ | Spring 2025 | By Paul Woodadge and Kevin Hymel

[artichokegrower]

Around noon on June 6, 1944, a German soldier wielding a machine gun burst into a small church six miles from Utah Beach in Normandy, France, ignoring the Red Cross flag hanging from the door. He had been fighting most of the day against American paratroopers in the towns, farms, and hedgerows. Inside the church, he found wounded soldiers laid out on pews and the floor as two American medics tended to them. The German leveled his MG-42 machine gun at the occupants and prepared to fire, but then he noticed the medics were treating German soldiers as well as American soldiers. He lowered his weapon and headed back to the door. Before he left, he made the sign of the cross then locked eyes with one of the medics. Then he was gone.

[artichokegrower]

Amazing story

[Jeff Chandler]

The MG-42 was an amazing gun.

[stanne]

It is in Carentan. I have visited

Click and scroll through the photos

The French devoted the renovated windows to the airborne

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1967109-d8379632-Reviews-Eglise_Saint_Come_et_Saint_Damien_d_Angoville_au_Plain-Angoville_Au_Plain_Carent.html

[logi_cal869]

I think that Raphaël Glucksmann has assuredly NOT visited this church. /s

[Hieronymus]

Fitting Church as Cosmas and Damien were physicians, IIRC.

[logi_cal869]

Notable:

From time to time, enemy mortars landed on or around the church. Late in the afternoon, a mortar round hit the roof and exploded, dropping a piece of plaster onto Moore’s unhelmeted head. A bit later, another mortar crashed through the roof and fell to the floor between the rows of pews filled with the wounded. The mortar cracked one of the stone squares on the floor but failed to detonate. Wright quickly scooped it up and tossed it outside. The single round, exploding inside the confined space of the church, could have easily killed them all.

and

While Moore and Wright had toiled in the church on D-Day, they might not have noticed several silver-dollar sized seals carved into the stone altar. They had been chiseled by passing Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military order of knights founded after the Christian conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, to protect a hospital in the city during the First Crusade. The order later expanded to escorting European pilgrims journeying to the Middle East. How appropriate it was that warriors dedicated to healing in the 12th century had left their lasting mark in the church, just like the blood-stained pews left from two 20th century warrior healers.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I am not sure, but that might have been a scene from “Band of Brothers.”

[FLT-bird]

“Hitler’s Buzzsaw”. The M60 we used in Vietnam was an MG-42 knockoff.

[imardmd1]

Model for our M60 adaptation of it.

[Thud]

I like an incident in the 1942 Battle of Gazala when Rommel inspected a British field hospital filled with German and British wounded. The British army controlled the hospital at the time. No one on either side initially noticed that a German was inspecting the place because Rommel and his staff were all dusty the same as the wounded of both sides. There's a scene in the movie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, where some characters make a similar mistake with a dusty Union cavalry column.

Eventually a wounded German realized that Rommel in person was inspecting him and tried to salute. That visibly raised the suspicions of the British staff so Rommel and his own staff left and departed in their vehicles.

[fastrock]

Men of honor

[rlmorel]

Great story.

In my mind’s eye, I can see it.

I see two Germans with a wounded buddy between him draped on their shoulders walk up to the church. It is a sunny morning. They are filthy dirty, and one of them has a cigarette butt dangling from his mouth.

There are wounded men from both armies outside on stretchers, and someone comes out and takes the wounded German inside.

The two uninjured Germans stand viewing the scene, and without a word, begin to pick up stretchers and bring them inside.

[Midwesterner53]

This 101st Veteran is so proud of our greatest generation!

[oldplayer]

Here’s an article that Freepers might actually read. Nice post, Artichokegrower.

[fini]

"The MG-42 was an amazing gun."

I fired a MG42 in the 1990s while training with the Italians. I asked how often did a MG42 jam. The Italians looked at me like I was crazy. I was used to the M60 machinegun, which malfunctioned a lot (Take 6 M60s to the range with 4000 rds and by the end two of the M60s needed repair.) That day, we fired over 6000 rds with three MG42s without one jam or malfunction.

If my memory is correct, the M60 was a lightened MG42, but they made the parts too frail. The m60 bolt was about 1/3 the size of the bolt of the MG42 and the M60 bolt failed so often that we always kept a spare (absolutely against regulations, but everyone did it for obvious reasons).

[SSS Two]

The German leveled his MG-42 machine gun at the occupants and prepared to fire

It seems to me that firing an unmounted MG-42 would be more than a little unwieldy.

[Waverunner]

The MG34 and the MG42 were designed to be the main offensive weapon of the German squad.
The three man team of gunner, loader, and ammo bearer had a weapon that could do walking fire, fire from a bipod, or a tripod.
It was accurate, and had an incredible rate of fire.
We should have copied both of them as soon as we had one.
A little barrel and chamber mod would have been necessary.

[linMcHlp]

bttt

[Mr Radical]

I've carried one (not fired one!) and I wouldn't like to carry one very far nor all day! I've been told that it could be fired from the hip, but that required a special standing stance, not really "walking fire", and beyond the capabilities of the average European stature of the day - and that MG42 gunners were often specially selected for their big size and strength. Perhaps there's a clue in "The German leveled his MG-42 machine gun at the occupants and prepared to fire"!

[bravo whiskey]

IIRC in the US army the machine gun supported the squad. In the German army the squad supported the machine gun.