Assaults from the Sky

This is the second volume of a comprehensive five part work on D-Day that includes a multitude of personal military accounts from Allied personnel, Germans and French men and women ?who were there'. Overlord began with an assault by more than 23,000 airborne troops, 15,500 of them American, behind enemy lines to soften up the German troops and to secure key objectives. 6,600 paratroopers of the US 101st ?Screaming Eagles' Division in 633 C-47s and 83 gliders and 6,396 paratroopers of the US 82nd ?All American' Division in 1,101 C-47s and 427 gliders are dropped over the neck of the Cotentin peninsula. Two parachute regiments of the 101st Division were to drop just west of the coastal lagoon, silence a heavy battery and seize the western exits of the causeways leading from ?Utah' beach and head off an eastern German advance. One parachute regiment was to drop north of Carentan, destroy the rail and road bridges over the Douve and hold the line of that river and the Carentan Canal so as to protect the southern flank of the Corps. The 82nd Division, landing further inland, were to drop astride the Merderet River south and west of Ste-Mère-Église, block the Carentan-Cherbourg road and extend the flank protection westward by destroying two more bridges over the Douve and secure the Merderet crossings, thus forestalling any attempt to contain the invasion forces behind the inundations and opening the way for an early drive to the west coast of the peninsula. 101st Division casualties totalled 1,240, of whom 182 were killed. 82nd Division suffered 1,259 casualties of whom 156 were killed. Of the 6,396 paratroopers of the 82nd who jumped, 272 or 4.24 per cent were killed or injured as a result of the drop. But 101st Airborne Division linked up with the US 4th Infantry Division beach landings at Pouppeville, the most southerly exit off ?Utah' Beach and the 82nd secured the area north of Ste-Mère-Église after fierce fighting and drove the enemy north. By this action, the 82nd Airborne Division considerably delayed the German 243rd Infantry Division from contacting the Allied beach assault force. ILLUSTRATIONS: 60 images