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Before watching the AV documentary it might be useful to have a brief background
to
his
own story of D-Day:
Among the scores of US divisions stationed in Northern Ireland during
WWII was the 82nd Airborne. USA’s first airborne division, The
82nd was stationed at: Ballyscullion, Bellaghy, Castledawson, Gortaloway,
Kilrea,
Rasharkin and
Wilmont House in Belfast.
The 82nd Airborne led the D-Day assault on Normandy
and its paratroopers, along with those of the
101st Airborne, were the first allied forces to
arrive in France. Parachuting in their thousands
behind Utah beach in the first hour of 6th June
1944, they formed the prelude to Operation Overlord,
the biggest military invasion in history.
| "I'll
never forget the sheer terror of that night..." |
82nd's objectives were... to drop several miles inland from
the proposed amphibious beachhead, code-named Utah, alongside the Merderet
river, destroy bridges over the river and clear the western portion of
the beachhead area between the sea and the river. Finally, they had to establish
a bridgehead on the river’s west bank.
| "The
scary thing was... the pilots didn't know where we were either..." |
The theory and the execution however turned out to be two very different scenarios.
Bad weather meant that the pathfinders from 82nd and 101st had identified
only a few of the intended drop-zones. Many of the pathfinders were themselves
lost.
As soon as the first planes of paratroopers crossed the coast of the Cotentin
peninsula things started going badly wrong. Many of the drop-zones remained unmarked
and most of those that had, couldn’t be found.
Many of the pilots got lost in the thick clouds. Heavy flak coming from the
enemy
beneath
caused
the formations to scatter. Planes were being shot down everywhere and the
operation incurred heavy losses.
| "We
jumped out into the darkness with no idea where we would land..." |
Paratroopers
had to jump from their transport planes whether ready or not, often above
optimum speed. The result was that troops were dispersed much more widely than
planned
and very few knew where they were when they landed. Some landed in the
English channel. Many landed in the River Merderet or in the surrounding
fields
which had been
flooded by the Germans. Huge numbers of men were drowned upon landing.
Other unfortunate troops came down into the town of Saint Mere Eglise.
Some were sucked
into the flames
of burning buildings. Some became
entangled on wires and telegraph poles. Others, illuminated by the flames,
were shot on sight.
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| For
further background detail on the 82nd's
landings you can read a brief chronology
of the events that lead up to their
D-Day- click
here |
|
This is one soldier's reflections on the day and how it has been
commemorated by the French. |
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print version
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