D-Day Paratroopers, the Americans...

This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to paratroopers on D-Day. We’ll talk about the troops that landed, their objectives, the differences between the divisions, the role of the glider troops, and some tips on making the best possible 1/6 scale Normandy Invasion paratroopers in later postings.

In the early morning hours of 6 June 1944, thousands of paratroopers from the British 6th Airborne, the US 82nd Airborne, and the US 101st Airborne divisions began landing all over Normandy to begin Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of occupied France. Each division was later reinforced by glider troops. All 3 of the divisions had specific objectives. They were to mass their forces after landing, and assault and hold such things as bridges, causeways, crossroads, etc. As part of their defense, the Germans had flooded large fields in an effort to restrict movement of any invaders, and it was the primary goal of the airborne forces to not only cause diversions and disruptions behind the German lines, but to seize and to hold causeways and roads that would allow ground forces, and eventually armored vehicles and supply trucks to move inland.

Just after midnight, pathfinders from the airborne divisions were dropped. Their mission was to find and mark drop zones so that the aircraft could more easily drop the troops in the proper locations. They had lights, radio beacons, and so forth that they were to use. The pathfinders were the first invaders on the ground, and their mission was both highly important and extremely dangerous. There weren’t many of them, and they were lightly armed. They would be on the ground by themselves for hours before additional forces landed.

Due to a series of problems during the drops, many planes missed their drop zones. Paratroopers were scattered throughout the Normandy region, many far from their designated drop zones. Some of them couldn’t even find men from the planes they were on, let alone the rest of their unit.  Unit cohesion disintegrated, and the troops on the ground met up, organized, and fought with whoever they found in the dark.”. Many of these men were from other units. In some cases, men of both the 82nd and the 101st banded together, tried to determine where they were, and moved toward their designated objectives.

By daybreak, when the beach landings started, paratroopers were organized and assembled into viable fighting forces. Many of the designated objectives had been seized and were being held. It is said that the misdrops actually made the paratroopers more effective. Since they were scattered all over the place, the Germans were never able to organize and mount a strong counterattack, as they were unsure of where the paratroopers were or where they were headed.

In the next post, we’ll talk about the differences between the 82nd and the 101st. They were not just they same kind of guys with different patches. There were many differences.