Drop in the Night: The 101st

During the night June 5-6 1944, the 101st US Airborne Division "Screaming Eagles" was one of two divisions dropped on the Cotentin peninsula. Its objectives were to secure the beach exits, capture the lock at la Barquette, destroy the bridges …

1944-06-06

6696

During the night June 5-6 1944, the 101st US Airborne Division "Screaming Eagles" was one of two divisions dropped on the Cotentin peninsula. Its objectives were to secure the beach exits, capture the lock at la Barquette, destroy the bridges on the Douve river and the German artillery camp "WXYZ". Just like their comrades of the 82nd Airborne Division, the US paratroopers were dropped under cover of a pitch black night, right in the middle of the Normand bocage. As soon as they landed, they found themselves taking in heavy fire from the Georgians Ost-battalion at Turqueville and the German paratroopers of 6.Fallschirmjaeger Regiment at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. But when dawn rose on D-Day, they had accomplished all their objectives.

Turqueville, France

Mission Albany was a parachute combat assault at night by the U.S. 10ist Airborne Division on June 6, 1944, part of the American airborne landings in Normandy during World War II. It was the opening step of Operation Neptune, the assault portion of the Allied invasion of Normandy, Operation Overlord. 6,928 paratroopers made their jumps from 443 C-47 Skytrain troop carrier planes into an intended objective area of roughly 15 square miles (39 km2) located in the southeast corner of the Cotentin Peninsula of France five hours ahead of the D-Day landings. The landings were badly scattered by bad weather and German ground fire over an area twice as large, with some troops dropped as far as 20 miles (32 km) away. The division took most of its objectives on D-Day, but required four days to consolidate its scattered units and complete its mission of securing the left flank and rear of the U.S. VII Corps, reinforced by 2,300 glider infantry troops who landed by sea.

Wikipedia: Mission Albany

German

American

Game Type: Breakthrough

Board Type: Countryside

Website Access: Classified