The 505th Regiment was led by William? Colonel Ekman commanded the plan to land on the east bank of the Mettler River and capture Rafiel, Novel Opland, and Saint-Man-Ygris with 3 paratrooper battalions. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The 1st Battalion was defeated by the Germans on the way to Rafael, and the battalion commander and acting battalion commander were killed one after another, and failed to complete the scheduled task of occupying Rafael.

The 2nd Battalion landed at the predetermined location, and the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Van Divoort, had a broken ankle during the landing, and he asked the soldiers to push him in a trolley to hold on to the command, gathered half of the men, and completed the preparations for the attack on Novel Opland, and was about to launch an attack, when he received an urgent order from the regiment commander.

Since there was no news of the 3rd Battalion, in order to ensure the completion of the main task of the regiment to capture St. Man-Rigris, an important transportation hub, the 2nd Battalion changed its original mission and replaced the 3rd Battalion to seize this important objective.

Van Divoort left Lieutenant Turner with 42 men to monitor the enemy at Novel Oprah, and he led the rest of the men to immediately attack St. Manigris in the south, and Turner's squad fought tenaciously for eight hours, repelling the German counterattack on the northern flank of St. Manygris, ensuring that the main force held the key St. Manigris.

The 3rd Battalion landed at the predetermined location, and the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Krauss, gathered 180 men, led by local French guides, with the help of night cover, to capture Saint-Manygris in one fell swoop, but due to the interruption of communication, it was impossible to report to the regiment in time, and then organized a defense with the 2nd Battalion that rushed to it, repelled many German counterattacks, and firmly controlled this important transportation hub.

The 507th Regiment was led by George? Commanded by Colonel Millis, it was planned to land on the west bank of the Mettler River, capture Bvan and control the road to the Mettler River from the northwest. Because the guide group was wiped out by the Germans, the airborne field was not marked, and most of the airborne troops landed in the swamp by mistake, and the 1st Battalion gathered only 100 people to attack Rafiel.

The commander of the 2nd Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Timms, gathered 50 men and attacked Ndileville, but due to the lack of troops, the attack failed and was forced to go on the defensive. The landing of the 3rd battalion was extremely scattered, and it was simply impossible to launch an organized attack.

Although the commander of the regiment was captured the day after the landing, and the remnants of the regiment led by the commander of the 2nd Battalion, Tims, concentrated near Rafiel with all their might, and after several hours of fierce fighting, failed to complete the scheduled task, the regiment still captured several important heights, pinned down the German forces, and undermined the solidity of the German defenses.

The 508th Regiment, commanded by Colonel Lindquist, planned to land north of the Douver River, occupy Bonlape, control the crossing on the Douver River, and the 3rd Battalion as the reserve of the division. Because the transport plane was fired upon by German anti-aircraft fire when it was airborne, it had to drop paratroopers at high altitude and high speed, resulting in a scattered landing of airborne troops.

Division Commander Li Qiwei, who was later the commander-in-chief of the US forces in the Korean War, recalled that after landing in the air space, he did not encounter any subordinates, fortunately he did not encounter the enemy, but fortunately he quickly gathered some personnel of the division headquarters, but the number of officers was much larger than the soldiers, and he had to laugh at himself and say:

"I've never seen so many officers lead so few soldiers into battle."

The commander of the 508th Regiment and a small number of troops mistakenly landed near Rafiel, and were immediately transferred by the division commander to the nearest ferry to participate in the battle. Most of the 1st and 2nd Battalions landed in a heavily fortified German area, suffering heavy casualties, the commander of the 1st Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Batchel, was killed, and the commander of the 2nd Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Shanley, led the remnants of the two battalions in a bloody battle to finally capture the Schafdupont crossing.

The 3rd Battalion landed 1,600 meters southeast of the intended airborne zone, the battalion was very dispersed, and the first day was busy gathering troops as a reserve for the division and was unable to engage in combat.

At 2 o'clock in the morning of August 25, the follow-up echelon of the 82nd Division of 220 men and some heavy equipment flew in 52 gliders to reinforce them, but due to the thick clouds and German anti-aircraft fire, only half of them landed in the predetermined area.

In the afternoon, another 1,174 men and some heavy equipment were reinforced by 176 gliders, but the landing site was controlled by German fire and was forced to land in other areas instead and failed to meet the divisional assault echelon. By the evening of June 6, the 82nd Division had parachuted a total of 8,100 men, suffered about 500 casualties, lost about 750 people, gathered about 2,000 men, and occupied the ferry crossings of Saint-Manigris and Shevdubon, leaving all the division's tasks unfinished.

The assault echelon of the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army consisted of the 501st, 502nd, and 506th Paratrooper Regiments and reinforced detachments, a total of 6,500 people, commanded by the division commander, Major General Taylor, on board 432 transport aircraft, and planned to land north of Carentan, seize four access roads behind Utah Beach, and control bridges and ferries on the Dover River.

The 501st Regiment planned to seize the bridge over the River Dover with the 1st and 2nd Battalions, and the 3rd Battalion as the division's reserve. Unfortunately, the 1st Battalion landed in the anti-airborne area of the German army and suffered heavy casualties. Johnson personally commanded the remnants of the battalion, about 150 men, to seize the sluice gates of the Carentin Dam and then gather some scattered men, and then attempted to seize the bridge over the Dover River, but was intercepted by the Germans on the way and unable to move on.

Johnson used the naval liaison officer at the regimental headquarters to establish radio contact with the American cruiser "Quincy" on the sea, which was one of the few effective sea and land contacts on the day, and after repelling the German counterattack with the help of the cruiser's artillery fire, he saw that the number of troops was too small to seize the bridge as planned, so he directed the cruiser to bombard the bridge in an attempt to destroy the bridge, but unfortunately the range was too far to achieve the wish.

The commander of the 2nd Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Ballard, gathered most of the men, but because the Germans were stubbornly resisting and could not seize the bridge, they had to organize a defense with the favorable terrain, so they could not complete the regiment's mission. The 3rd Battalion, as the reserve of the division, was originally the landing area of the subsequent echelon of the alert division.

The division commander found that the landing situation of the whole division was very chaotic, and in order to ensure the completion of the main task of the division, he ordered the 3rd Battalion to immediately seize the No. 1 access road behind the beach. The 3rd Battalion, under the command of the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ewell, occupied Route 1 at 8 a.m. on 6 June, repelled the German counterattack, and soon joined up with the naval landing force.

The 506th Regiment was led by Robert ? Colonel Zinke commanded the plan to seize Passages 1 and 2 and blow up the two bridges near Leport. Due to the very poor landing situation of the regiment, only 10 of the 81 transport aircraft airdropped personnel in the predetermined area, and the rest were far from the target, reaching a distance of 32 kilometers at the farthest distance. The commander of the 1st Battalion gathered only 50 men, and when he arrived at the No. 1 passage, he found that it had been occupied by the 3rd Battalion of the 501st Regiment, so he returned to the regimental headquarters to stand by.

…… (To be continued.) )