Millet's Men

On the night of the 6lh June, George V Millett, Colonel of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, had come down in a grain field about a thousand yards south of the DZ. He gathered a small force and struck east …

1944-06-09

N11

On the night of the 6lh June, George V Millett, Colonel of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, had come down in a grain field about a thousand yards south of the DZ. He gathered a small force and struck east for Amfreville. But the opposition proved too strong, and although his band of men continued to grow, they remained holedup out of harm’s way in the countryside to the north west of the small town. Weapons and supplies (including a generous ration of Hennessey cognac) were obtained from a German truck column. This kept the isolated force in good spirits until day three, when word came via radio from Division that they were to attempt a breakout, to link up with Timmes on the far side of Amfreville, Milieu’s men moved out in the small hours of 9th June. Moving in a single column under cover of darkness. Milieu’s force became split up as one man lost contact in the gloom with those ahead and took a wrong turning. Come daylight, the back part of the column, with Millett himself, fell into a German ambush and the survivors were captured. The rest of the column edged around the north side of Amfreville, putting up a vigorous fight as they skirted the Gray Castle. Ultimately, of four hundred men who had set out from the stronghold, a total of 149 men, 6 officers, and 26 prisoners joined the lines of the 505th PIR at Neuville-au-Plain.

West Of Amfreville, 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

American