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Report Documentation Page

Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188

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1. REPORT DATE

1944

2. REPORT TYPE

N/A

3. DATES COVERED

-

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE

Action in Normandy, France

6. AUTHOR(S)

7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)

82nd Airborne Division

5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER

9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)

12. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited

10. SPONSOR/MONITOR'S ACRONYM(S)

11. SPONSOR/MONITOR'S REPORT NUMBER(S)

13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

JFSC - WW II Declassified Records.

14. ABSTRACT

15. SUBJECT TERMS

16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF:

a. REPORT

unclassified

b. ABSTRACT

unclassified

c. THIS PAGE

unclassified

17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT

UU

18. NUMBER OF PAGES

64

19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON

Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98)

Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18

I -- ' iAACE II -2- NARi.TIVE III - DISTRIBUTION IV A- MEXES

. . .; 33 Days of action without relief, Without replacements,

E:ery mission aocomplishied. Nio ,otmudl gained ever relinquished. (Report of ilejor General RIDGW4i.Y.)

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O0OMDCT EFFIECIENCY: Excellent, short 60% Infantry, 90% Artillery. (?.Co G-3 report as of 062400 June 1944,)

WMPS: GSGS 4347, ATIC~OE, 1/25,000, -f.eets 31/20 SE, 3k/18 NE, SE,

-GSGS 42499, RANOE, l/loo00,0 Sheets 5E, 62, 5F, s6F.

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ACTIO1' IOF,fT10 ?:DY' -

JtES , JULY 1944

ES.SI2IOi I - P~FaCE

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SECTION I _- PREFACE

The 82d Airborne Division arrived in the European Theater of Operations: on 9 December, 1943, bronzed by the summer suns of NORTH AFRICA and SICILY ead' bled and battle-tested in campaigns in SICILY and the ITALIAN mainland. One. .egimental Combat Team, the 504th, -hadbeen left behind when the Division sailed from.NAPLES ITALY, on 19 November, 1943.

The 504th R'egimental Combat Team, (.consisting of the 504th Parachute Infantry, the 376th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, and Company C, 307th i.rborne Engineer Battalion) was detached from the Division and was'fighting in the mountains north of the VOLTUTO River when the 82d sailed from 1iAPLES. ~ater it was 'o spend more than 60 days of gruelling warfare on the famous ANZIO Beachhead before rejoining the Division in May in ESTGLATD.

The Division disembarked at BEL3F.ST, NORTH IIRELANrD, and occupied an area

northwest, of thdt city. Division Headquarters was established at CASZE IDAW'SO1N,

,which was approximately thirty miles from BELFAST. The Division was attached

to XV Ccrps.

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A shortage of adequate training facilities, the short days and long nights, and no facilities at all for airborne maneuvers, handicapped training. The need

for such facilities and training became.-increasingly important with the attachment to the Division on 14-'January, 1944, of the 2d Airborne Brigade* which in-

cluded the Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company and the 507th and 508th

Parachute Infantry Regimonts, and preparations were made for the 82d to move to the NTOTTINGHAI - IICEST1,- MANREET HAi3ORO area in the English Midlands. Brig. Gen. lAfiWEELL B. TAZLOR, Division Artillery Commander, rejoined the Division after duty with tho North African Theater of Operations.

The move to the midlands: was made in mid-February, 1944, and an intensive program of airborne and other types of training was begun. A parachute school

was opened to train reinforcements, and a series of para6hute problems was mapped out to begin with battalion drops and to culminate with a drop of three regiments. Glider personnel trained with the British Horsa gliders as well as with the CG-4A (Waco) gliders, took training rides of more than two hours duration?

Division Headquarters was established in a hutted camp in Braulnstone Park, LEICESTER. The telephone code names of "ILeader" and ItKeystone"l, employed by the Division in NiORTH AFRILCA, SICILY, and ITALY, were dropped and the Divisionbecame kunown as "Champion". The 456th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion,.

which had seen much of its personnel detached and left in ITALY, was reorganized.

The 2d Battalion, 401-st Glider Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, was attached to the 325th Glider Infantry. This: move gave the 325th a totalof three batt,-

lions. Brigadier General TAYLOR left the Division to become Oo.imzanding General

of the 10lst Airborne Division. The Division was attached to VIII Corps.

Meanwhile, preparations were being made for the Division s.participation in the invasion, of the NORIJANDY, TrANCE, Peninsula by Lllied forces in nOpe:ation. NEPTULE". 'Brigadier Genrral JAMES M. GAVIN, the assistant Division Commander, had preceded the Division on its move from ITALY end had been a member of the

airborne planning staff established by the Allies' in LONDON. The Division Staff began preliminary planning work in January and started intensive planning in February when the Division Situation Room was opened at Camp Braunstono. The Division Comnander, Major General MATTEW B. RIDGFWAY, was the senior American Airborne representative on'an inter-Allied airborne planning cozrmittee. -

"WY-Day'", the day by which all plans were to be completed, had been set by Supreme Headqua~rters, Allied Expeditionary Force, as 1 June. Regimental staffs were "Ubriefodlm on y-60 and battalion staffs on y-3ZG in accordance with instruco tions received from the First 'United States Army and VII Corps to which the Division whould be attached upon landing.

8.~~E5~9-1.-

82D AI.O' DI VI SIOLT ACTIOIT INT TO~tMKDY, FBOCS

Ji,'EB - JULY 1944 BECTICI II - NTARTIVED

E S LT2 I S T B D

SCTI0N II - NRa'RATIY$

? 26 May 1944 al plans and preparations were completed for the Division to carry out the mission assi>.e'eitV-by First United States Army. Field and

administrative orders had.been puIsphed and distributod. In a series of fa-.p. maneuvers on a special 1/5,000 map-gimental and battalion commanders had u;t: lined their plans, in order that all commanders might be briefed thoroughlry r. the prospective Division operations. Divisional seaborne echelons already ~rd

departed for the narshatllng yards and were assembled in camps scattered aloL g hb.e Welsh and southern J glish coasts. Tte Divisionh ,isiion was: to be as foL3, lows:

'Land by parachute and glider .before and after dawn of D-Dae west of ST. SAUVER LE VIOOMTE:. seize, clear andi secure the: general area ST, JA.CQUES EI NEFMU (136985) -

3ESMEVILIE (137928) (both inclusive) - ST. SUVEUR LE VI00MTE (exclusive) - BLAiDA!MUR (167982) (Inclusive), and reorganizie; seize and destroy the crossings of the

PRAIRIES AREMCAGJUSES north of LA SANGSURIERE (188898), at ST. SAUVEUR DE PIERIEM PONT (145890); destroy the crossings of the OLIONONE River. in the vicinity of ST. 10 D'OURVILLE (090894) and block crossroads vicinity LE CHEMIN (102902), ?prevent enemy forces moving north between

ST. O1DWOURVILLE and&Jtntion of OUVE River with PRAIRIE MARECAGEUSES (2M2921):; and protect the south flank of VII Corps north of the same line."

The mission, however, was :canged by the First Army Commander on 26 May due to confirmed intelligonce repO"rts the enemy had strengthened his -forces on the O0TENIN, (C0EIBOURG) Peninsula with the addition of the 91st. Infant"ry D;vision in the general area of ST. SAUVEU L- VICOMTE. The revised mission of the 82d Airborne Division was to be:

GLand by parachute and glider before and f.ter dawn of D-Day astride the MMERD T River, seize, clear and secure the general area: CR (261938) - CR (265958) - CR (269975) - RJ (274982) .- RO (283992) - bridge (308987) - NIEUVILLE

AU PLAIN (3,40985) - BANDIEtVILLE (360987) within its zone; dapture ST. MERE EGLIST (349965); seize and secure the crossings of the MERDERET River at (315957) and (321930), and a bridgehead covering then, with MLR along the general

line,: M (261938) - CR (265958) -.. (269975) - pR (2374982) -RAJ (283992); seize and destroy the crossings of the DOVE River at DEUZEVILLE LA DASTILLE (309911) and ETT.TIL.-2" talso known as PONT LA3BE) (269927); protect the aortblwest flank of VII Corps within the Division Zone: m.d be pi epared to advance west on Corps order to the line of the DOEUtr north of its junction with the PRAIRIES M'A a"!Sa":'U Now orders and other administrative details made necessary by Uhp new mnis sion were worked out quickly' and disseminated within four days. The chornge did not effect the basic plan for movement in three echelons which had bon wc.rkd out as follows:

borce .Allnl? commanded by Brigadier General JAIES M. 0,'I.J: as i'tn::. Division Oolmander, to be committed by parachute before (.-.x c'nfoDay and to include

Det Hq & Iq Co, 82d Abn Div

ePq&o;es

a. H~ E92

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