"We're going to attack and try to break through the German skirmish line. I want to get back to where there are some officers and kill their leadership."

"This is what we came to Normandy for," he concludes. "Now, follow me."

Without a look back, Turnbull follows an alleyway between two small buildings next to the town hall and then dashes across the open ground between the town and the eastern hedgerow.

Germans spot him and open fire, missing Turnbull but hitting several paratroopers behind him.

The rest of the men trail Turnbull as he bursts through the hedges and into a small field where surprised German officers stand!

"Amerikaner!" one of them cries pointlessly before Turnbull shoots him. The paratroopers quickly kill the remaining Germans before pushing into the next hedgerow.

It's an intense, bloody, but very short attack that does the damage that Turnbull hopes. This last desperate gamble throws the German attack into confusion. The Germans attack stalls.

Turnbull and his men do not survive the attack, however. Only the wounded and Corporal Kelly live to tell the story of what happened at Neuville-Au-Plain.

Catch up with the Mission.