82nd Airborne

Normandy 1944

Stephen Smith, Simon Forty

• Publisher: Casemate
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781612005362
• eBook ISBN: 9781612005379
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de l'armée et de la marine

An account of the heroic D-Day actions of the US Army's first airborne division in the series that brings World War II battles to life.
Since its formation on August 15, 1942, the 82nd Airborne, commanded by Major General Matthew B. Ridgway, trained exhaustively for their new role, which involved parachuting from C-47s and insertion by Waco CG-4A gliders. After participating in the invasion of Sicily and performing night parachute drops onto the Salerno beachhead in September 1943, the bulk of the division left for the United Kingdom and training for D-Day.
Reorganized with two new parachute infantry regiments, the 507th and the 508th, joining the 505th, the division dropped onto the Cotentin peninsula between Ste-Mère-Église and Carentan on the night of June 5–6, in a mission codenamed Boston. Their glider-borne component, the 325th GIR, arrived the next day. Widely dispersed on landing, the division overcame its problems and strong German defenses to take the important town of Ste-Mère-Église. Further intense action along the Merderet River ensured that the Utah beachhead wasn't compromised, and subsequently, the division fought on losing 5,245 troopers killed, wounded, or missing. When withdrawn after 33 days of action, the division could be satisfied it had performed heroically and helped establish the Allied forces' foothold in France.
The Past & Present Series reconstructs historical battles by using photography, juxtaposing modern views with those of the past together with concise explanatory text. It shows how much infrastructure has remained and how much such as outfits, uniforms, and ephemera has changed, providing a coherent link between now and then.

Into action

Just before midnight ushered in June 6, 1944, 377 C-47s roared to life on airfields across southern England. The 82nd Airborne was finally on its way to spearhead the greatest invasion in history. The lesson of Sicily learned, the US flight plan avoided the Allied fleet in the Channel, instead coming in over the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula. The British had set up a floating beacon off Guernsey to guide the pilots to their turning-point, and this they did. But then directly over the target area in Normandy was a cloud bank. It was a fluke accumulation that the weather people couldn’t have predicted. The lead serial, carrying the 2/505, jumped over the bank, and the pilots, assisted by accurately dropped pathfinders, put on their green lights right over target. They were going a bit too high, too fast, but at least the 2/505 and the 1/505 landed on or near their drop zone. They were about the only ones.

The following formations flew straight through the clouds, and pilots naturally began spreading out in the soup. By now German AA fire was also streaming up, and pilots either swerved or ducked to avoid it. The rest of the pathfinder teams had either been misdropped or couldn’t light up because Germans were on their DZs. The pilots couldn’t see the ground below, and had to observe radio silence; meantime all they knew was they weren’t allowed to carry any paratroopers back to England. A few pilots circled back through German fire to make sure, while others just put on their green jump-lights while they could.

The result was that, while the lead 505th PIR landed with fair accuracy, the 507th and especially the 508th became scattered to the winds. Half their men landed on the wrong side of the Merderet, while half of the rest became lost to their units.

In addition to the problems of the pilots, there were two other issues for the paratroopers, which Allied intelligence should have solved. First, after all the months of reconnaissance, no one had realized that the Germans had created vast flooded areas around the Merderet and Douve rivers. With grass and weeds growing up through the swamps, Allied aerial recon hadn’t recognized the water, and only anticipated “soft ground.” A number of heavily laden paratroopers drowned after falling into the flooded areas. And even if a man could usually wade out of the swamps, they were doom to any equipment bundle that fell in. Much of the careful plan to equip the 82nd with radios, heavy weapons, and ammo was lost in the marshes.

Glidermen wearing Mae Wests on their way to boarding.

On display at the Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover AFB, DE, the “Turf & Sport Special” was rescued in 1986. Its markings are those of the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron, which it wore on the night of D-Day.

Waiting to board a Horsa glider. Aside from the hastily painted recognition stripes—a last-minute initiative to prevent Sicily-type friendly-fire incidents—note the quick attempt to cover over the RAF roundel with a USAAF star.

The second intelligence surprise was that somehow the true nature of Normandy’s hedgerows had failed to filter down to the Americans. Aerial recon indeed showed hedges dividing fields. These were not unusual in America and commonplace on training grounds in England, never a huge obstacle. But the French hedgerows (bocage) were different—veritable walls built up over centuries, of packed stone, earth, and roots, with foliage up to 30 feet high. The Americans had expected bushes; instead they fell into a labyrinth.

Of all the misdrops in the dark early hours of June 6, the ones on Sainte-MèreÉglise were the most spectacular. Intended to land outside the town, two or three sticks—at least 30 men—came floating down right on top of it. A house had earlier caught fire from a bomb or flare, so that at two in the morning the citizens as well as the German garrison (an AA support company) were all in the street...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Introduction
• Background
• Into action
• Aftermath
• Bibliography
• Key to Map Symbols