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Drop In The Night: 82nd

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Title
Drop In The Night: 82nd
Description
During the night June 5-6 1944, paratroopers of the three parachute regiments of the 82nd "All American" US Airborne Division were dropped over the Cotentin peninsula. Their objective: to secure their drop zone, capture Sainte-Mère-Eglise and the bridges on the …
Subject
Publisher
Date
1944-06-06
Scenario#
6687
Scenario Description
During the night June 5-6 1944, paratroopers of the three parachute regiments of the 82nd "All American" US Airborne Division were dropped over the Cotentin peninsula. Their objective: to secure their drop zone, capture Sainte-Mère-Eglise and the bridges on the Merderet river and destroy the bridges on the Douve. Dropped in pitch black, the paras found themselves scattered all over the Normand bocage and countless swamps dotting the region, often far from their intended drop zones. Thankfully, the Germans camp was in disarray too, its troops disoriented by an enemy that seemed to pop out everywhere at once, and was thus only able to muster isolated counter-attacks. By the morning of June 6, US reinforcements arrived, with Force "B" gliders landing near Les Forges. Operation Boston was a success.
Location
Sainte-Mère-Eglise, France
Battle Name
Battle Narrative
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.
Narrative Source
Wikipedia: Mission Boston
Combatants
German
American
Additional Information
Game Type: Breakthrough
Board Type: Countryside
Website Access: Classified

Geolocation