Читать книгу Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes - Martin Bowman - Страница 72

Paratroopers carried an average of 70 lb of equipment, officers 90 lb. With the parachute, men weighed between 90–120 lb over their body weight. The items carried were:

Standard Parachutist Pack:

M-1 Garand Rifle with 8-round clip

Cartridge belt with canteen

Hand grenades

Parachute and pack

Anti-flash headgear and gloves

Pocket compass

Machete

.45-calibre Colt automatic rifle Flares

Message book

Officer Pack (British, but similar to American officer pack):

Sten gun

Spare magazines with 9mm ammunition

2 lb plastic high explosives (HE)

2–36 primed hand grenades

Two full belts of Vickers .303 ammunition

Wire cutters

Radio batteries

Small-pack

Basic equipment webbing

48 hours’ worth of rations

Water

Cooking and washing kit

Spread throughout pockets:

Loaded .45 automatic pistol

Medical kit

2 additional lb HE

Knife

Escape/survival kit

Toggle rope

Additional personal items

Emergency Rations:

4 pieces of chewing gum

2 bouillon cubes

2 Nescafe instant coffees, 2 sugar cubes and creamers

4 Hershey bars

1 pack of Charms candy

1 package pipe tobacco

1 bottle of water purification (Halazone) tablets

Captain Robert Kirkwood, smoking a cigar, and Lt Pat Ward, Battalion intelligence officer, with twenty men in the stick from 505th Infantry, 82nd Airborne wait to board their C-47 on the evening of 5 June at Cottesmore. At least three “sticks” from the Third battalion were dropped off target at Montebourg, about 6 miles north of Ste-Mere-Eglise and Kirkwood, Ward and Lt Jack Issacs of G Company managed to gather and assemble 33 men in the subsequent fighting the group were dispersed and many casualties sustained. Kirkwood said later that “it took me three days to get back to our lines and in those three days I saw more Germans than I ever wanted to see again”.

U.S Army