All American

Lt. Colonel Maloney gathered his marsh-soaked stragglers from the hodgepodge of formations of the 82nd Airborne. The bridges over the Mederet River and the town of Chef-du-Pont were to be their primary objectives. They were mission-critical for the greater invasion …

1944-06-06

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Lt. Colonel Maloney gathered his marsh-soaked stragglers from the hodgepodge of formations of the 82nd Airborne. The bridges over the Mederet River and the town of Chef-du-Pont were to be their primary objectives. They were mission-critical for the greater invasion forces’ exit from the beaches and movement westward in order to cut the Cotentin Peninsula between Ste. Mere Eglise and Carentan. Heavy fighting ensued for the east bank of the river. As the day wore on the American losses mounted. Only a timely reinforcement of additional heavy weapons from battalion would help thwart the German counterattack—but would it be enough?

Chef Du Pont, 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

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