I'm sure Dick Winters believes the DSC was appropriate at the time and having it upgraded to MoH now is just misplaced sentimentality.
Agreed.
I'm sure Dick Winters believes the DSC was appropriate at the time and having it upgraded to MoH now is just misplaced sentimentality.
November 28, 2001
Honorable Rick Santorum
U.S. Senate
120 Russell Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3802
Dear Senator Santorum:
I am a retired U.S. Army Colonel with 30 years commissioned service. Prior to my retirement last June, I served as the chief of Military History, U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The purpose of this letter is to solicit your support in correcting a 57-year injustice to one of your constituents, Major Dick Winters of Hershey, Pennsylvania. You may recall major Winters from Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers and the recent HBO mini-series of the same name. During World War II, Winters commander Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division. As with most members of "The Greatest Generation," Winters served honorably and dedicated his life to defending our way of life. Thought he earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions on D-Day, I respectfully request your support in up-grading his Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor, our nation's highest award for valor.
A brief recapitulation of Winters' heroism under fire is in order. Landing at Ste. Merc-Eglise on D-Day, 1st Lieutenant Winters assembled his company (the company commander had been killed in the airborne drop) and joined his battalion in the village of Le Grande-Chemin just three kilometers from Ste. Maric-du-Mont, just to the rear of Utah Beach. There Winters, now acting company commander, received orders to destroy a four-gun German battery near a French farmhouse named Brecourt Manor, which was wrecking havoc on the 4th Infantry Division landing at Utah. With only 12 men, Winters set out to destroy the battery and its 50-man platoon infantry. Carefully reconnecting the enemy position under fire, Winters directed several soldiers to lay down covering fire, while he led the charge straight down the hedgerow leading to the first gun. When one of his men's weapon jammed, Winters yelled, "Follow me!" and assaulted the first gun. Repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire and firing his M-1, he destroyed the first gun. In the process, Winters killed two Germans as the remainder of the crew fled. Now in the connecting trench, Winters crawled forward and looked in the direction of the second gun. Seeing two enemy soldiers setting up a machine gun, he fired and shot them both. Now it was time to assault the second gun. Leaving three men to hold the first gun, Winters led the other five in a wild charge down the trench, throwing grenades ahead of them, firing their rifles. As he approached the gun, the crew fled and was cut down. Next Winters charged the third gun and captured it. Finally reinforcements arrived from a sister company and they took the last gun. Now under intense direct fire, Winters ordered a withdrawal after destroying all the guns with TNT. As was his custom, Winters was last to leave.
With only two men, what amounted to a squad. Winters had destroyed a German battery that was looking straight down causeway No. 2 and onto Utah Beach. Winters' casualties were four dead, two wounded. He and his men had killed fifteen Germans, wounded many more, and taken twelve prisoners; in short, they had wiped out the fifty-man platoon of elite German paratroops defending the guns and scattered the gun crews. As Ambrose summarizes in Band of Brothers (p.84), Winters had done everything right, from scouting the position, to laying down a base of covering fire, to putting his best men on the challenging missions, to leading the charge personally at exactly the right moment. It was in personally leading the attack, repeatedly exposing himself to direct enemy fire, and for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty outside Brecourt Manor on D-Day that Winters merits favorable reconsideration for the President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3, 1863, to award in the name of The Congress the Medal of Honor to first Lieutenant Dick Winters, United States Army.
Colonel Robert Sink, the 506th regimental commander, initially recommended Winters receive the Medal of Honor, but his recommendation was down-graded to the DSC, which General Omar Bradley presented to Winters. Having studied this engagement for several years and in reviewing the combat record of the company, I believe Winters action at Brecourt deserves reconsideration for three reasons. First, Major General Maxwell Taylor, the commander of the 101st Airborne division, placed an artificial limit of a single MOH for the Normandy campaign. In the 101st that went to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole for leading a bayonet charge. Thought Winters displayed conspicuous gallantry under fire at the risk of his own life, Taylor's decision ensured Winters and other deserving soldiers would not be properly recognized. Second, European Theater historian S.L.A Marshall misreported the action at Brecourt in his book Night Drop: The American Airborne Invasion in Normandy (p. 281). Marshall erroneously reported that Winters "hiked to Utah Beach, borrowed four Sherman (tanks) from the 4th Infantry Division, and sicked them on the enemy guns. When the armor wiped out the battery, the (Winters' 2nd) battalion arose and went." Marshall simply got in wrong. When he conducted his interviews in July 1944, he relied on hastily written operational reports that would have better explained Winters' attack on the battery. The guns were indeed destroyed, not by armor, but by a direct infantry attack personally led by Lieutenant Winters. Last, but not least, Winters'' own after-action report of the attack compiled on June 9, 1944, down-played his personal role in the engagement. Crediting a number of soldiers, who certainly critical in the unit's success, Winters refused to mention his own name, confining his summary to "Mission completed, we rejoined our battalion, which had departed after the four 88's were destroyed."
Senator Santorum, please support this request for reconsideration for the MOH while Dick Winters is still with us. His intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty on June 6, 1944, his Fighting spirit and his daring leadership under fire inspired his men and exemplify the highest traditions of military service. I will gladly assist the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Army in any additional research and assistance that hey may require in support of this request. Now is the time to honor this gallant officer whose selfless service to the United States and to the men of Easy Company, 506th PIR inspire us all. On a final note, I assure you that I am making this request on my own accord, with no knowledge of Winters, because I firmly believe that his intrepid leadership under fire the merits the thanks of a grateful nation.
Very respectfully
signed: Cole C. Kingseed
Cole C. Kingseed
Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.)
The reason that Major Winters only got the DSC was because the commanding general of the 10lst Airborne Division made a decision that ONLY ONE MOH would be given out for D-Day actions. It was presented to a LT Col Cole for actions on D-Day. Cole later died in combat. If not for this decision to only award one MOH, Major Winters probably would have had it years ago.