US101st Airborne

 

The insignia of the US 101st Airborne division, from Kemp p.61.

 

Major-General Maxwell Taylor, from MacDonald p.22.

Paratroopers board Dakota's as they leave for Normandy, from Kemp p.56.

 

 

 

The mission of the 101st Airborne division was to drop inland of the flooded areas behind Utah Beach to secure the exit roads and key bridges at Carentan, holding position for the US 4th Division to get through from the beach.  Specifically, they were to capture the causeway bridges running behind the beach between St. Martin-de-Varreville and Pouppeville, take over the la Barquette lock, destroy a highway bridge northwest of the town of Carentan, and a railroad bridge just west from there, as well as establishing two bridgeheads on the Douve River, northeast of Carentan.  Under the cover of night, about 12:15 am, pathfinders, veteran paratroopers carrying large flood lights to mark the drop zones for the rest of the paratroopers and gliders.  When the Dakota’s carrying the pathfinders for the 101st and 82nd Airborne flew over the German defenses the Germans mistook them for fighter planes and filled the sky with flak in defense.  The flak fire was so intense that it forced most of the Dakota’s off course causing only 38 of the 120 pathfinders to land on target.  The pathfinders that missed targets landed in stray fields, streams, swamps and even gardens or rooftops.  Most were completely confused when they first tried to get their bearings and locate their targets before the rest of the paratroopers landed.  However, the confusion of the pathfinders also confused the German troops and officers as they tried to make sense of where the paratroopers were landing.  Deployment of decoy paratroopers dropped away from the actual designated drop zones added to the German confusion.  Upon landing the decoys would set off firecracker explosives that imitated machine gun fire, causing German troops to report the wrong coordinates of the real allied paratrooper invasion. The German headquarters were further confused because of difficulties with communication lines.  The French Resistance workers, informed of the invasion through code phrases broadcasted over the radio, cut down so many telephone lines that incoming reports to the German commanders could not give accurate pictures of the invading Allied forces.  Meanwhile the confused pathfinders had to find their target fields in order to light them up before the full scale American airborne assault set to begin at 1:15am.

 

General Eisenhower talks to troops of the 101st Airborne Division before departure for Normandy, from Goldstein p.79.

Just as the pathfinders had trouble hitting landing zones due to high winds, fog, and heavy anti-aircraft fire, as the full scale airborne assault commenced and 13,000 US troops from the 101st and 82nd Airborne descended on Normandy, many were scattered over vast areas.  For many in the 101st the first problem after landing was to find the rest of their units and regroup.  The paratroopers were equipped with crickets, small signaling devices used to identify unknown troops as friendly or enemy, but the Germans soon caught on to the signals.  Through the mass confusion and missed drops, sometimes even into enemy camps, about 1500 soldiers from the 101st were captured or killed.

 

Paratroopers of the 101st assemble a gun dropped in training, from Goldstein p.62.

Just before four am, gliders land carrying reinforcements for the 101st as well as artillery and supplies.  The gliders run into similar problems as the paratroopers while landing, and many gliders are destroyed in crash landings, killing several of the soldiers in them.

The confusion of the paratroopers was equally met by confusion on the German side, as they tried to decipher where the main airborne invasion was coming from, and when the troops finally managed to regroup they quickly went about their objectives.  By nightfall the 101st had secured the beach exits from Utah beach and succeeded in securing the la Barquette lock.  Unfortunately, the men of the 101st could not secure bridgeheads on the Douve River.  However, they did succeed in holding positions until the US 4th Division made contact with them.

The US 101st Airborne Division sustained major casualties and lost a majority of their equipment but still managed to successfully invade Normandy and carry out almost all of their objectives, including their most important role, to hold their key positions until the 4th Division could come through.

 

Index     Introduction     Training and Preparation       Equipment     Anti-paratrooper Defenses      US 101st     US 82nd    British 6th     Conclusion     Bibliography