Purple Heart Lane

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Purple Heart Lane is an anecdotal nickname for Highway N13 near Carentan, France, used by American soldiers and popular historians to denote a battlefield on which Lt. Col. Robert G. Cole and his troops of the 101st Airborne Division fought during the Battle of Normandy in World War II. The name arose because Cole's troops sustained many casualties in the advance on June 10, 1944, along the causeway of N13 supporting four bridges that spanned the Douve River between Carentan and Saint Come-du-Mont, and in the battle on the morning of June 11 that resulted in a skirmish known popularly as "Cole's Charge". The Purple Heart is an American military decoration awarded for sustaining wounds in combat.

Cole and his unit of 400 men - 3rd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment- were part of D-Day mission Albany. They were called from reserve into action to attack four bridges on highway N13 to Carentan. On June 10 and 11, 1944, Cole and his battalion fought an intense battle on this causeway for nearly two days under intense German machine gun, mortar, and artillery fire. In the morning of D+5, with the Germans resisting Cole's attempts to take the bridges, Cole ordered heavy artillery on the German strongholds.

The artillery failed to suppress the German fire, so Cole, faced with the destruction of his battalion, immediately decided to assault the Germans head-on. Cole ordered his men to affix bayonets to their rifles and ordered a smoke screen to conceal the attack. At 6:15 AM, Cole blew his whistle and led his surviving men across the ground towards the German positions. At first Cole fired his pistol at the Germans, and along the way he picked up a fallen soldier's M1 Garand and bayonet. His attack, while successful, resulted in the deaths of many of his men, only 132 of the initial 250 men in his battalion remained after the assault and later defense of the capured position. This assault became known as "Cole's Charge", and the following defense against the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment (supported by the 1st Battalion, 502nd PIR) as the "Cabbage Patch".

Cole was recommended for a Medal of Honor for his actions on June 11, 1944. However he would not live to receive it, as he was killed by a sniper during Operation Market Garden on September 18, 1944 in Best, Netherlands. His mother received his posthumous Medal of Honor. Lt. Colonel Robert G. Cole was buried at American Battlefields Monuments Cemetery in the Netherlands.

[edit] In Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30

"Purple Heart Lane" is a level in the video game Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 by Gearbox Software . In the level, which is very realistic and depicts accurately what actually happened, the fictional main character of the game, Sergeant Matt Baker , must lead his men down the open causeway, while German machine, mortar, and artillery fire is shot at them. Baker leads his men, following Lt. Colonel Cole's character down the causeway. Most of the men in Baker's squad get killed running down the causeway. Upon reaching the end of the causeway, Baker and the remainder of his squad are sent to kill the Germans in the marsh shooting at the causeway. After killing the Germans, Baker approaches the Belgian Gate at the end of the causeway, where he is knocked unconscious by a bomb from a plane.

In the next level, titled "Cole's Charge," Baker regains consciousness and joins Cole in his assault across an open field at the entrenched German positions. After smoke is dropped on the field Cole blows his whistle and the attack begins. Baker and his squad proceed to route out the German positions.

Cole and Baker's squad of ten are the only ones charging in the game, compared to the 50 or more who actually participated (the rest of the battalion followed later).

Only a few men are hit when two Stuka dive bombers strafe the causeway, versus the 30 or more who were actually harmed, not to mention that the bombing actually occurred at bridge number 3, rather than at bridge 4.