D-Day Paratroopers US Airborne Division: Volume 1

Another treasure from ...Histoire & Collections ...a superb colour photographic collection Military Trader, May 2005 On the night of 5-6 June 1944, US paratroopers were dropped over the Cotentin peninsula, on the western part of the Normandy beachhead.With two combat assaults under its belt, the 82nd Airborne Division was now ready for the most ambitious airborne operation of the war so far, as part of Operation Neptune, the invasion of Normandy. The Division conducted Operation Boston, part of the airborne assault phase of the Operation Overlord plan. The Pathfinders of the 101st Airborne Division led the way on D-Day in the night drop prior to the invasion, with the objective to secure the four causeway exits behind Utah Beach, destroy a German coastal artillery battery at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville, capture buildings nearby at Mesieres believed used as barracks and a command post for the artillery battery, capture the Douve River lock at la Barquette, capture two footbridges spanning the Douve at la Porte opposite Brevands, destroy the highway bridges over the Douve at Sainte-Come-du-Mont, and secure the Douve River valley. In the process units would also disrupt German communications, establish roadblocks to hamper the movement of German reinforcements, establish a defensive line between the beachhead and Volognes, clear the area of the drop zones to the unit boundary at Les Forges, and link up with the 82nd Airborne Division. The uniforms, equipment and small arms of these men immortalised by'Band of Brothers' are presented here in the sharpest detail, as well as their orders of battle and insignia. Brilliantly illustrated throughout in full colour.