Go To Town

Through the afternoon, German artillery continued to pound the men of 3/325th Glider Infantry, and the menace of counter attack loomed. Fearful for Fox Company’s open flank, Harney pleaded with his colonel for support. Before himself collapsing from exhaustion. Colonel …

1944-06-09

CD04

Through the afternoon, German artillery continued to pound the men of 3/325th Glider Infantry, and the menace of counter attack loomed. Fearful for Fox Company’s open flank, Harney pleaded with his colonel for support. Before himself collapsing from exhaustion. Colonel Lewis sent Rae’s 507th Regiment men forward to Fox Company’s right flank. Lewis’s successor, Lt. Colonel Sitlcr, was no less conscious of the impending threat, and collected a scratch force of rear area troops to support Harney’s stand. As afternoon gave way to evening, the storm broke over Fox Company. Fox Company survived the intensified bombardment to meet the long awaited German assault. By the time Sitler’s drafts of CP, supply, and communications troops reached them, the situation was more or less stable. These newcomers provided a morale boost as well as numbers. Harney advanced. Three Shermans appeared, briefly supporting the Company before pulling back to less exposed positions. Meanwhile, Sitler’s alarm had reached General Gavin, who characteristically came forward to make his own appraisal of the situation. Finding Rae digging foxholes, Gavin ordered him instead to move forward. Asked ‘How far do you want me to go?’, Gavin’s reply was brief: ‘Go to town! ’ Rae took the general literally. By nightfall his company had punched through the German positions to the hamlet of Le Motey on the Amfrcville road. As dawn broke on 10th June, 2nd Battalion of357th Infantry Regiment led 90th Infantry Division over the causeway and through the Airborne bridgehead. The 1057th Grenadiers remained a potent force; well capable of using the heavy bocage to make 90th Division’s further advance a nightmare. But the fight for the Mcrderct crossing was finally over.

West Of Cauquigny, 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