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Just after 0100 on June 6, 1944, the first air and glider-borne troops landed in Normandy. The drops were not going according to plan at all. The pathfinders that came about an hour before them had not been dropped in the right places because the pilots had swerved around the cloud banks and had taken unnecessary evasive action around the light German anti-aircraft fire. This problem was compounded by the orders to maintain radio silence. Only one of the eighteen American pathfinders landed in the right place. But the pathfinders did manage set up their Eureka sets, ADF radios, and other beacons to help guide the paratroopers that were coming in. This was extremely necessary because this was going to be the largest drop ever of paratroopers (almost 20,400 Allied paratroopers were dropped32).
The markings that the pathfinders did make weren't much help anyway because when the gliders and the paratroopers came over France, they too, ran into the same cloud and anti-aircraft problems. More than one stick (planeload of paratroopers) was dropped in the Channel or marshes. The immense weight that the paratroopers were carrying caused many to drown when they landed in water.
Small rag-tag groups of paratroopers did manage to capture the most critical of their objectives. These included the bridges across the rivers that surrounded the invasion area, cutting off the German's support. The paratroopers also managed to hold the causeways that led off the beaches. The protection of these causeways was critical because they were the only way to get troops off the beaches and onto the roads that lead to Caen, Paris, and Germany. The groups and individuals who accomplished this without large-scale organization are some of the greatest heroes of the invasion.
http://www.princeton.edu/~ferguson/adw/d-day.shtml#june
mosquitoman said:Probably the British 6th Airborne taking Pegasus bridge was on the 5th but the main landings were on the 6th
cheddar cheese said:mosquitoman said:Probably the British 6th Airborne taking Pegasus bridge was on the 5th but the main landings were on the 6th
Yep. I think the first Horsa touched down at something like 23.52pm
RG_Lunatic said:Seriously, who cares. Even if a few men did hit dirt a few minutes before 23:59:59 hours on the 5th, is that significant?
hellmaker said:USA would have finished the war with Japan faster, not being attacked by Germany...