Lifeline

Lt Colonel Shanley weighed his determination to hold his assigned position against the desperate state of his seriously wounded men. As the sun rose on his third morning on the hill, Lindquist radioed from Chef du Pont with the news …

1944-06-09

CD02

Lt Colonel Shanley weighed his determination to hold his assigned position against the desperate state of his seriously wounded men. As the sun rose on his third morning on the hill, Lindquist radioed from Chef du Pont with the news that Millsaps had persuaded him to make ready the life saving convoy. Shanley decided against the risky venture and turned down the offer. This scenario explores a possible outcome had Shanley decided in favor of the proposed lifeline across the causeway. Shanley’s decision not to risk the passage of a convoy of trucks over the exposed causeway was vindicated later in the morning. He sent a foot patrol through the marsh, a half mile north of the Chef du Pont cause way. The patrol returned laden with the vital plasma. They bore also the important news that German fire across the flood plain was slackening. The valley was no longer interdicted. Though the pressure from German forces to the west was maintained, the sense of isolation was diminish. From now on, Shanley’s outpost became an integral part of the 82nd Division’s advance.

Le Port-feliolet, 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