Night, June 5th-6th, 1944. The biggest combined operation of the war has just begun.
To secure the rear of Utah Beach, south of Cotentin, 13,000 paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were dropped between Sainte-Mere-Eglise and Saint-Come-du-Mont. The dispersion was immense and it took several hours for the officers to gather a sufficiently powerful combat group. Nevertheless, all the missions were completed that evening. The 101st then received the order to seize the strategic crossroads of Carentan, in order to allow them to connect with the American troops at Omaha Beach. For a week, General Taylor's men battled against another elite airborne unit, Fallschirmjager Regiment 6 - the first time in the Battle of Normandy where paratrooper fought paratrooper.
