La Fiere Counterattack

While the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne’s 505th PIR clung to their positions at the La Fiere Causeway, elements of the German 1057th Grenadier Regiment counterattacked through Cauquigny to the west, sweeping away the defenders they met there. Their next …

1944-06-06

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While the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne’s 505th PIR clung to their positions at the La Fiere Causeway, elements of the German 1057th Grenadier Regiment counterattacked through Cauquigny to the west, sweeping away the defenders they met there. Their next mission was to retake the vital bridge across the Merderet River, which had been captured by the American troopers during the morning.

Le Fiere Causeway, France

Mission Boston was a parachute combat assault at night by Major General Matthew Ridgway's U.S. 82nd "All American" Airborne Division on June 6, 1944, part of the American airborne landings in Normandy during World War II. Boston was a component element of Operation Neptune, the assault portion of the Allied invasion of Normandy, codenamed Operation Overlord. 6,420 paratroopers jumped from nearly 370 C-47 Skytrain troop carrier aircraft into an intended objective area of roughly 10 square miles (26 km2) located on either side of the Merderet river on the Cotentin Peninsula of France, five hours ahead of the D-Day landings. The drops were scattered by bad weather and German anti-aircraft fire over an area three to four times as large as that planned. Two inexperienced units of the 82nd, the 507th and 508th Parachute Infantry Regiments (PIR), were given the mission of blocking approaches west of the Merderet River, but most of their paratroops missed their drop zones entirely. The veteran 505th PIR jumped accurately and captured its objective, the town of Sainte-Mère-Église, which proved essential to the success of the division.

Wikipedia: Mission Boston

German

Americans