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This is a U.S. Army Air Forces documentary short on the operations of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in the 1944 invasion of Normandy. It shows paratroops, gliders and troop carriers landing in France behind the German lines a day prior to the main invasion on June 6th, the D-Day, helping to prepare the way for the Allied invasion of Normandy.
Historical background:
Operation Overlord was the code name for the invasion of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe in 1944. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune, commonly known as D-Day). A 1,200-plane airborne invasion preceded the amphibious landing involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, and more than three million allied troops were in France by the end of August.
The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion in 1944 was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, and General Bernard Montgomery was named as commander of the 21st Army Group, which comprised all the land forces involved in the invasion. The Normandy coast was chosen as the site of the invasion, with the Americans assigned to land at Utah and Omaha Beaches, the British at Sword and Gold Beaches, and Canadians at Juno Beach. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was placed in charge of developing fortifications all along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an invasion.
The Allies failed to reach their goals for the first day, but gained a tenuous foothold that they gradually expanded as they captured the port at Cherbourg on 26 June and the city of Caen on 21 July. A failed counteraction by German forces on 8 August led to 50,000 soldiers of the German 7th Army and the Fifth Panzer Army being encircled by the Allies in the Falaise pocket. The Allies launched an invasion of southern France (Operation Dragoon) on 15 August, and the Liberation of Paris followed on 25 August. German forces retreated across the Seine on 30 August 1944, marking the close of Operation Overlord.
About the American airborne landings in Normandy:
The American airborne landings in Normandy were the first United States operations during Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy by the Western Allies on June 6, 1944. Around 13,100 American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Divisions made night parachute drops early on D-Day, June 6, followed by 3,937 glider troops flown in by day. As the opening maneuver of the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune) the American airborne divisions were delivered to the continent in two parachute and six glider missions.
Both divisions were part of the U.S. VII Corps and provided it support in its mission of capturing Cherbourg as soon as possible to provide the Allies with a port of supply. The specific missions of the airborne divisions were to block approaches into the vicinity of the amphibious landing at Utah Beach, to capture causeway exits off the beaches, and to establish crossings over the Douve River at Carentan to assist the U.S. V Corps in merging the two American beachheads.
The action did not succeed in blocking the approaches to Utah for three days. Numerous factors played a part, most of which dealt with excessive scattering of the drops. Despite this, German forces were unable to exploit the chaos. Many German units made a tenacious defense of their strong-points, but all were systematically defeated within the week.
Airborne Invasion of Normandy | D-Day Minus One | 1944 | World War 2 Documentary
TBFA_0056 (DM_0026)
