Читать книгу Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes - Martin Bowman - Страница 69

D-Day begins 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 needed targets. The paratroopers know that if the accompanying assault by sea fails there will be no rescue. Departing from Portland Bill on the English Coast, 6,600 paratroopers of the 101st Division in 490 C-47s and 6,396 paratroopers of the 82nd Division are dropped over the neck of the Cotentin peninsula. (Force B of the 82nd Division has a strength of 3,871 glidermen.) Two parachute regiments of the 101st Division are to drop just west of the lagoon, silence a heavy battery and seize the western exits of the causeways leading from Utah beach and head off a German eastern advance. One parachute regiment is 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 farther inland, is to drop astride the Merderet River south and west of Ste-Mère-Eglise, block the Carentan–Cherbourg road, and extend the flank protection westward by destroying two more bridges over the Douve and secure the Merderet crossings.

Heavy fog and German guns mean that the pilots are unable to drop the paratroopers precisely as planned. Only one-sixth of the men in the 101st Division reach their destination points. The first regiment of the 82nd Division fare better but the second suffer heavy supply losses and much of the division is left without sufficient arms. Both Divisions form smaller improvized squads and by 04:30 the 82nd have captured Ste-Mère-Eglise.

19:00 Merderet crossing at Chef du Pont controlled by 82nd Airborne Division. Elsewhere paratroops are so heavily engaged fighting for their lives they have no chance of blowing the bridges over the Douve or forming a compact bridgehead over the Merderet.

US Airborne Forces

82nd Airborne Division

Major General Matthew B. Ridgway

505th Parachute Infantry

508th Parachute Infantry

507th Parachute Infantry

325th Glider Infantry

101st Airborne Division

Major General Maxwell D. Taylor

501st Parachute Infantry

506th Parachute Infantry

502nd Parachute infantry

327th Glider Infantry

101st Division casualties total 1,240, of whom 182 are killed. 82nd Division suffers 1,259 casualties of whom 156 are 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. Of the 6,600 paratroopers of the 101st Division, only about 2,500 had assembled by the end of the first day.

101st Airborne Division troopers with local civilians in Ste-Marie-du-Mont.

National Archives