120th Infantry hold onto Hill 314

10th August 1944: The isolated battalion fights on as attempts are made to supply them with morphine and plasma for the wounded - and radio batteries

German Panther Tank of the 2nd SS Panzer Division knocked out on the road to Avranches during Operation Luttich. The German armour was decimated by artillery fire called in Forward Observers cut off on Hill 314.

An officer of the American 30th Infantry Division communicates on a field telephone while a walkie-talkie lies nearby. The Forward Observers on Hill 314 relied on larger radio sets, usually carried in a Jeep.

American infantrymen cautiously approach a burning German Tiger I that they have just knocked out of action in the fighting around Mortain.

The 2nd Battalion/120th Infantry Regiment was still holding off the German counter-attack outside Mortain on Hill 314. They had sustained heavy casualties but the Germans had not been able to move them off the hill - from where they were directing US artillery fire from further back. It was known that they had many wounded and they were short of food, medicine and, crucially, batteries for the radios.

Possibly the most beautiful sight the men had ever seen, was the multicolored parachutes lazily floating down.

An attempt was being made to parachute supplies into them, but they occupied a narrow position jutting into the German lines. The US artillery now worked up an innovative solution: They would attempt to fire medical supplies into the position by putting the supplies inside artillery shells.