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In order to
protect the Utah Beach sector, on the western flank of the landing zone,
the Allied High Command decided to drop two American divisions of
paratroops there during the night preceding the assault. Their mission
was to check any German counter-attacks. Major-General Ridgway’s 82nd
Airborne Division was to capture the important road junction at
Sainte-Mère-Eglise and the bridges across the Merderet. Major-General
Maxwell Taylor’s 101st Airborne Division was to try and take
control of the beach exits behind Utah.
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Final preparations before their departure |
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Between
midnight and 3 am, nearly a thousand Dakota C-47 transport planes
dropped more than 13,000 paratroops over the Cotentin, though the
conditions in which they did so were far from ideal. Many aircraft,
taking evasive action to escape the heavy flak, flew too high and too
fast. The soldiers often fell a considerable distance from the drop zone
they had been assigned, some as much as twenty or even thirty kilometres
away. Many became lost, tangled in the branches of trees or bogged down
in the marshes, where some even drowned. Several sticks of men dropped
right into the centre of Sainte-Mère-Eglise itself, to be greeted by
deadly fire from the German garrison. |
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A few seconds before the
great leap into the unknown |
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At 4 am, a
hundred Waco gliders carrying reinforcements and equipment were released
above the Normandy countryside. Many crashed into hedges on landing,
which is how Brigadier-General Don Pratt, assistant commander of the 101st
Airborne, met his death.
Many units
were incapable of regrouping to carry out the precise missions they had
been assigned. Fortunately, this scattering had the effect of perplexing
the Germans, who were quite unable to assess either the strength or the
positions of their adversaries. This resulted in a night of confused and
sporadic fighting in the countryside.
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A wrecked glider |
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Nevertheless,
at around 4.30 am, a battalion of the 82nd Airborne, commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Krause, managed to secure Sainte-Mère-Eglise.
In
the morning, it took many hours for the parachutists to regroup prior
to meeting up in the early afternoon near Pouppeville with the advanced
parties of the 4th Infantry Division, which had landed on the
beach of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont at dawn. |
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Paratroops attempting to flush out a sniper hiding in the church tower
in Sainte-Mère-Eglise |
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