Battle of Bloody Gulch
| Battle of Bloody Gulch | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Battle of Carentan and the Battle for Normandy | |||||||
The Battle of Carentan | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| United States | Germany | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Maxwell D. Taylor Howard R. Johnson John H. Michaelis Robert F. Sink | Friedrich von der Heydte | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
3 parachute infantry regiments 60 tanks (2nd Armored Division) |
1 parachute infantry battalion 1 Waffen SS motorized division 12 tanks | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
32 killed 73 wounded 4 tanks destroyed |
43 killed 89 wounded 2 tanks destroyed | ||||||
The Battle of Bloody Gulch took place around the Manoir de Donville or Hill 30 (U.S. Army designation), about 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of Carentan in Normandy, France, on June 13, 1944.
It involved elements of the German 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division and 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment, and the American 501st, 502nd, and 506th Parachute Infantry Regiments (PIR) of the 101st Airborne Division, reinforced by elements of the 2nd Armored Division and the 29th Infantry Division.
During the battle, the manor house of Manoir de Donville was the headquarters of the German forces. American soldiers nicknamed the road running past the manor "Bloody Gulch", after a place mentioned in the popular western movie Destry Rides Again.