Fire Mission!: the Siege at Mortain, Normandy, August 1944 2 Revised edition

In August 1944, some 650 men of an understrength infantry battalion from the 30th Infantry Division fought for survival on a hill near Mortain in Normandy as the Germans launched their largest counterattack in France in World War II. For most of six days and nights, the Americans were cut off from supply lines without adequate food, water, medical supplies, or ammunition.

The decisive artillery defense, much of which was launched by forward observer Robert Weiss, has been credited with making the difference in this pivotal battle of the Normandy invasion. With only one radio, powered by dying batteries, Weiss and his team brought down a rain of brutal iron that time after time turned back the German offensive.