THE ACTION AT NEUVILLE-AU-PLAIN
By Bob Murphy
THE 2D BATTALION 505 WAS COMMANDED by Lt Col. Benjamin Vandervoort, one of the top officers in the airborne command, a seasoned combat officer who made the 505 combat jumps in Sicily and Italy in 1943. He broke his ankle on the D-Day jump, got a quick makeshift cast put on, and walked around with a crutch, never leaving the frontlines. Under his command, the 2/505 had the responsibility to secure and defend Ste. Mère-Eglise from an obvious oncoming attack from the north.
The 3rd Battalion 505 PIR (3/505) and about 300 troopers had taken Ste. Mère-Eglise by 0430 hours on D-Day without much opposition, but they would get hit hard from the south of town later that morning by the advancing German infantry companies.
Normandy was a big cow country with many dairy farms. The Germans got a bunch of cows from a local field and drove them in front of their attack as a shield. But a young buck private, Dominick Ditullio, turned the cattle away onto a field and then threw grenades at the German “cowboys” driving the cattle. He killed one German leader, and the others who were not wounded took off. On June 7, Ditullio was killed trying to help his wounded comrades.
The 3/505 held off the Germans from retaking Ste. Mère-Eglise from the south. But while the vicious battle was raging at La Fière, with a regiment of enemy trying to cross the little Merderet River bridge, the Germans had a large force on the way to drive the 505 paratroopers out of Ste. Mère-Eglise. Lieutenant Colonel Vandervoort ordered a platoon of 44 men from D Company (D/505) to go to the hamlet of Neuville-au-Plain and set up a defense on the main route into Ste. Mère-Eglise. The platoon leader was a Native American named Turner Turnbull, nicknamed “Chief Turnbull.” A big man with a fearless reputation, Chief Turnbull positioned his men to the left and right of the route with a bazooka team to hit the oncoming tanks. They waited, but not for long.