EVENTS 2010

January 16th-17th

Mid-Winter Weekend, Bishop Stortford

January 31st

Militaria 2010, Sloneleigh Park, Coventry

February TBC

4JAS Trip to Malta

April 4th-5th

1940's Weekend, Matlock, Derbyshire

April 5th

4JAS Group Meet, Aldbourne, Wiltshire

April 10th-11th

Military Convention, Malvern

May 1st-3rd

Fortress Wales, Margam Park, Port Talbot

May 15th-16th

Bunker Bash, Brentwood, Essex

May 15th-16th

40's Weekend, Haworth, W. Yorkshire

May 29th-31st

1940's War Weekend, East Lancanshire Railway

May 29th-31st

1940's Family Weekend, Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes

June 4th-5th

Normandy

June 25th-26th

1940's Weekend, Severn Valley Railway, Kidderminster

July 3rd-4th

1940's Weekend, Severn Valley Railway, Kidderminster

July 21st-25th

War and Peace Show, Beltring, Kent

July 31st - Aug 1st

Military Odyssey, Detling, Kent

September 4th-5th

Victory Show, Cosby

September 12th

Newhaven BOB Show, Newhaven

September 18th-19th

Birkenhead Transport Festival & RBL 40's Dance

September 25th-26th

Multi Period Event, Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey

September 25th-26th

1940's War weekend, East Lancanshire Railway

October 16th-17th

The Railway at War, Pickering, North Yorkshire

October 30th-31st

Poppy Appeal Collection, Birkenhead

November 5th-7th

Poppy Appeal Collection, Birkenhead

November 11th

Armistice Day

November 12th-13th

Poppy Appeal Collection, Birkenhead

November 14th

Remembrance Sunday

November 20th-21st

Malvern Military Convention

December TBC

Chrismas Event / Meet

History of the 101st Airborne Division in WWII

2. Early days.


The founding father of the 101st Airborne Division, General Bill Lee was unable to take part in the Normandy invasion due to a heart attack shortly before the operation.
General William C. Lee was the first commander of the 101st and was so passionate about the potential of his new Division that on 19th August he went on record with his famous General Order number 5, The 101st Airborne Division, which was activated on August 16th 1942 at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny. General Lee was very much the right man for the job. Following the scare posed by the German invasion of Belgium, General Lee, then a Major, was posted to command the fledgling Parachute Test Platoon at Fort Benning in July 1940. His command comprised just 48 men, all unmarried, all drawn from the 29th Infantry Division. They very much started from ground zero, literally inventing or designing everything they needed as they went along, including the assault parachute.

These early beginnings so convinced the military high command that by September the platoon was expanded to battalion size and named the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion.

After a secret mission to Britain in Spring 1942 to discuss the role of an airborne army Lee campaigned for the establishment of division sized deployments of airborne troopers culminating in the formation of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions.

Initially the 101st comprised:
Headquarters Company,
327th Glider Infantry Regiment (GIR), Col. George S. Wear
401st GIR, Lt. Col. Joseph H. Harper
502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), Lt. Col. George C. Howell (soon replaced by Lt. Col. George van Horne Moseley
506th PIR, Col. Robert F. Sink
501st PIR, Col. Howard R. Johnson
377th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (PFAB), Lt. Col. Ben Weisberg
321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion (GFAB), Lt. Col. Edward L. Carmichael
907th GFAB, Lt. Col. C.F. Nelson
101st Airborne Signal Company
326th Airborne Engineer Battalion (AEB)
426th Airborne Quartermaster Company
The last 5 were made up mostly from similar units in the 82nd.



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