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Vii Corps Bridgehead

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Title
Vii Corps Bridgehead
Description
The plan was that George Company should deploy to the left of the causeway, Easy to the right. But in the turmoil of the crossing, units were mingled inextricably. By the time Captain Harney’s Fox Company came on the scene, …
Subject
Source
Publisher
Date
1944-06-09
Scenario#
N08
Scenario Description
The plan was that George Company should deploy to the left of the causeway, Easy to the right. But in the turmoil of the crossing, units were mingled inextricably. By the time Captain Harney’s Fox Company came on the scene, contact with the main bodies of the preceding companies had been lost, and such stragglers as could be rounded up were quickly taken into tow. Harney struck west down the main road. On the east bank, two generals were at work. While Gavin arranged the refueling and arming of the three Shermans at La Fiere, Matt Ridgway personally managed the clearing of wrecks and mines from the bridge. The three tanks made the crossing, and quickly made their presence felt by routing an advanced 3/325th Command Post. Captain Harney’s disquiet grew as he sensed growing opposition facing his mixed force - men from every company of the Battalion, plus some paratroopers. At length, blasted by American artillery and fearing for his open flanks, he decided to execute a phased withdrawal. Even as Harney fell back. Easy Company was belatedly responding to his pleas for flank support, moving forward to contact friends who were no longer there. And all this time, the core of George Company was fighting its own battle to the south west, assisted in no small measure by a supporting Sherman. Through all the confusion, as individual squad leaders in contact with the enemy deployed their men, an uncoordinated but intact perimeter began to form around the bridgehead.
Location
Around Cauquigny, 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
Collection:

Geolocation