82nd Airborne Division: D-Day plans
Posted by Mitch Williamson in America on Monday, January 23, 2012
Top: Waco CG-4 (Hadrians to the British) gliders in invasion stripes
landing in Normandy, June 1944. The stripes were put on the wings in great
secrecy a few days before the invasion. Bottom: Build-up to D-Day: assembling
CG-4 gliders out of packing cases somewhere in England, 1944.
There were a number of possibilities considered, including
the extremes of an airborne assault on Paris (which would be held until a link
up with the sea-borne invasion force) and dropping the troops directly on the
coastal defences at the beaches. More sanguine heads prevailed and eventually
it was decided that the first Allied soldiers on French soil were indeed to be
paratroops dropping ahead of the sea-borne landing. They would, however, drop
inland to serve as a blocking force preventing reinforcements reaching the
invasion beaches, and simultaneously seizing vital roads and bridges that would
enable a breakout from the beachhead in due course. As ever they would also
create as much confusion and havoc as possible in the enemy rear.
The US airborne troops were to arrive in Normandy in three
different ways. Some 18,000 men from the 82nd and 101st would drop by
parachute. Close behind them would be the gliders, and finally a small
contingent (principally artillery) would come in across Utah Beach.
The final plan-its last revision made only a few days before
the invasion called for the 82nd to drop on both sides of the Merderet River in
order to secure Neuville-au-Plain, Ste-Mere-Eglise, Chef-du-Pont, Etienville,
Amfreville and their surrounding areas. They were also to destroy bridges
across the Douve River denying German reinforcements that route to the beaches.
To provide some measure of mutual support should things go
badly on the beaches, the 101st's DZs were close to those of the 82nd. Some
re-assignment of objectives saw the 82nd draw Ste-Mere-Eglise originally slated
for the 101st. This irony was reversed a few months later when the 101st got
the toughest assignment at Bastogne by equal happenstance.
The gliders were to undertake the first operational night
landing ever attempted, hopefully with the aid of beacons set up by pathfinders
dropped ahead of them. There were not going to be enough gliders or pilots so
some of the glider infantry and artillery were going to have to be part of the
amphibious landing and link up with the rest of the division as soon as
possible.
Originally D-Day was to be 5 June, but bad weather forced a
postponement. Troopers by this time were already at the airfields and ports.
The 456th PFA for instance had boarded ship at Rothgate dock in Cardiff on 3
June, its vehicles and guns having been loaded over the previous few days.
Airfields all over southern England were lined with aircraft bearing the
hastily applied black and white 'invasion stripes' mandated for the day.
(Aircraft recognition was poor throughout armies in 1944, and the Allies wanted
no repeat of the Sicily debacle.)
At 17.15hrs on the 5th the 456th was amongst a growing
armada that set sail for France, at about the same time as the paratroopers
were checking their equipment and weapons. They expected to be on their own for
a while before the 'legs' got off the beaches and were consequently heavily
armed in addition to their bulky T5 parachutes and reserves. Troopers carried
as much ammunition, grenades and fighting knives as could physically be
managed. Most men hefted nearly 100 pounds of equipment-making the mandatory
yellow 'Mae West' life preserver a somewhat doubtful assistance in the event of
a water landing. Surprisingly few accidents were reported in the circumstances,
although the 505th suffered three killed and ten wounded when a grenade
exploded as its men were boarding their aircraft.
At around 23.00hrs the first pathfinders took off, and a
little over an hour later over 1,000 C-47s were following them. The greatest
invasion in history was under way. Some 378 of these aircraft carried the
82nd's three regiments with 52 gliders accompanying them with anti-tank guns
and other heavy equipment.
The assault force was to fly what today would be called a
'Io-hi-Io' profile. Crossing the English Channel at 500 feet or less to avoid
radar, they would climb to 1,500 feet while crossing the coast in an attempt to
escape German small-arms fire and light flak, before dropping once again to 500
feet as they approached the drop zones.
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