4JAS WW2 RE-ENACTMENT AND
LIVING HISTORY ASSOCIATION

History of the 101st Airborne Division in WWII

5. Normandy

Paratroopers were laden with 150lbs or more of equipment before jumping and often had to be helped onto the plane. In this image the trooper is equipped with a British made leg bag. The intention was that these would be let down on a rope before landing to slow the paratroopers descent. The bags arrived last minute with no training and invariably fell off after jumping.

The weather closed in and the invasion was postponed a day so again on the 6th June the men assembled ready for take off. Operation Hornpipe (the Airborne element of Operation Overlord) was on! Over 500 planes rumbled into the air and headed towards the Channel Islands from there they swung towards Normandy with the men of the 101st aboard and their first Rendezvous with Destiny. In some planes men began discarding “unnecessary” equipment such as rubberised gas mask bags and in some cases even the reserve chutes. This is not surprising when one considers that most men were weighed down by around 70kg of equipment and were planning to drop at low altitude in the depths of night. In other planes men slept as the effect of the as yet untested sickness pills, that every man was ordered to take, made themselves felt.

5.1 D-Day

At 00:15 Captain Frank Lillyman led his Pathfinders out of the plane and onto French soil. Although he is credited as being the first many others have also made the claim. In Lillyman’s words so many made the claim “….that plane must have carried 1000 people in it!” The Pathfinders role was to mark out the designated landing zones so that the following planes could more accurately disgorge their men. In reality those initial planes were mostly so far off target that any assistance the Pathfinders were able to exercise was next to useless. The following landings were equally chaotic with planes flying too high, too low, too fast and often in totally the wrong place, typically between 4 and 20 miles away. Some men drowned landing in the fields the Germans had flooded to guard against exactly this sort of attack and more tragically others drowned after receiving the jump command too late and landing in the sea.

General Maxwell Taylor took over command of the 101st from General Lee and dropped into France with his men although on landing he found himself alone in a cow field. He joked afterwards that this was not the command he envisaged.

General Taylor landed ready to issue commands but found himself alone in a cow field for the first 20 minutes until he met up with a trooper from the 501st (identifying each other with their crickets).

Across the Cotentin Peninsula the paratroopers slowly gathered into mixed groups and the next 24 hours was characterised by dozens of skirmishes both large and small. In one incidence Dr. Bill Best set up a field treatment centre in a small farmhouse with enemy mortar rounds and artillery shells crashing all around. After a while the farmer, Monsieur Jean Bartot came running down the stairs desperately gesturing that all was not well with his wife. On investigation Dr. Best found that she had gone into labour (certainly brought on early by the intense shelling). He delivered the baby boy before returning to his war duties. The baby, Jean Yves Bartot is credited as being the first baby born into liberated France.

The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 506th were charged with securing causeways 1 and 2 to Utah but had problems assembling due to the off target jumps (only 10 of 80 planes was anywhere near close enough).

The 502nd was to destroy the guns covering causeways 3 and 4 and then secure the causeways themselves. Their commander, Colonel Moseley suffered a broken leg on landing but he commandeered a wheel barrow and had himself pushed around. Meanwhile the commander of their 3rd Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole whose prime job it was to secure the causeways 3 and 4 had been mis-dropped near St. Mere Eglise and took until 13:00 to get to assigned position meeting infantrymen of the 4th Division coming the other way! The objective had been secured by G Company alone.

Meanwhile Staff Sergeant Harrison Summers assembled a mixed gang of 15 paratroopers near St. Martin de Varreville and attacked a heavily garrisoned farm complex of five houses (the famous XYZ complex). They killed 30 Germans near the barracks before moving through the complex house by house earning him the nickname “Sergeant York” the US WW1 hero Alvin C York, who led a similar action, later depicted in a 1941 movie of the same name starring Gary Cooper. In total Summers and his men accounted for over 75 Germans killed and a further 100 fled. Eventually other paratroopers arrived on the scene together with infantrymen from the 4th Division but the battle had been won. Staff Sergeant Harrison Summers was awarded the distinguished service cross.

Map shows the areas behind Utah beach within which the 101st Airborne Division landed on D-Day. Some, many miles off target

At the Northernmost limit of operations on D-Day Lieutenant Colonel Pat Cassidy and his 1st Battalion of the 502nd established a flank around Foucarville just off exit causeway 4 from Utah. Fighting started early, at around 02:00 when Captain Cleveland Fitzgerald CO of C Company and Lieutenant Harold Hoggard of A Company stormed the village with just 11 men. At dawn they were reinforced by 40 more men and established roadblocks and barricades throughout the village. Fitzgerald was badly wounded in the fighting but the men held the village against heavy German counter attacks, taking 82 German prisoners late in the day. Cassidy was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for the spirited fighting on D-Day and post battle analysis identified that probably Cassidy’s battalion was the most effective outstanding in performance in the whole Normandy operation.

Meanwhile further South troopers from various units of the 506th led by Lieutenant Richard Winters (CO E Company) took out four 105mm artillery pieces at Brecourt manor in action that will be detailed elsewhere on this site.

Further South still were four more 105mm artillery guns in the hamlet of Holdy covering exit causeway 1 from Utah. One stick of paratroopers had mostly landed directly on this position during the night and had been slaughtered coming down. The 5 survivors from the stick including 2 members of the mortar platoon (who discarded their ineffective M1 carbines and equipped themselves with a Thompson and a BAR) and then joined a bazooka man to knock out the guns at Holdy before roaming the nearby countryside seeking out Germans to avenge the deaths of their comrades.

Doc Lage’s medical staff came across a crashed glider shortly after landing within which was a Jeep marked up as belonging to the 82nd Division Headquarters. This was commandeered and the identification marks obscured. From then on it served as the unit’s transport for the next week until a routine check by MPs near Carentan identified its true identity whereupon it was confiscated.

Down at the Douve River just North of Carentan the 1st Battalion of the 501st had been detailed to take the lock and five river crossings. The 506th were to take 2 further bridges nearer the coast. Unfortunately as elsewhere the units were widely scattered and it was only by dawn that 150 men had gathered around Colonel Johnson, one of the few surviving senior officers in that sector. They made a dash for the lock and secured it without casualties. Later Johnson received radio communications from Colonel Robert Ballard that he had a further 250 men but could not reach him due to intense enemy presence between the two units. The solution lay in Lieutenant Farrell who had been trained in directing naval fire and successfully called in a strike from the 8 inch guns of USS Quincy which rapidly removed the German problem allowing the two forces to link up and secure the 501st objectives.

The 506th men were less lucky with their bridges. Their commander had been killed in the jump and only Captain Charles Shettle and 13 men were able to assemble for the assault. However, as they approached the bridges the Battalion grew to a total of 29 men as they picked up mis dropped stragglers. Pfc Donald Zahn volunteered to cross one of the bridges and successfully did so under heavy fire. He was soon joined by Pfc George Montilio and the two of them held the bridge earning them the Distinguished Service Cross and for Zahn, a battlefield commission, Montilio was promoted to sergeant. By the end of D-Day Shettle’s “Battalion” had secured their objectives and were holding them.

By the end of the day the objectives behind Utah had been met resulting in remarkably few casualties on the beach. Only 12 by noon and totalling only 197 (including 60 lost at sea) by the end of the day, a day where some 20,000 men had crossed that beach!

5.2 D-Day +…

At La Barquette small arms and artillery firing continued off and on over the next day with attempts at a negotiated truce being thwarted by sporadic shooting and threats (including more than one execution) by German officers against their men. Eventually late in the day after there had been over 150 German casualties German surrenders grew to around 350.

Elsewhere the Field Artillery Battalions started using captured guns, alongside replacement guns shipped in by sea, their own having been mostly lost during the previous day’s jumps. (See elsewhere on the site for details on the 377th PFAB). It took until D-Day +15 (22nd June) before they were fully equipped though! In the meantime the main field artillery support was being provided by the seaborne 65th FAB (Armored) which landed early on D-Day.

On D+2 Colonel Sink, still with a mixed group attacked and took Ste. Come du Mont. The fighting was particularly gruelling but they withstood six German counter-attacks despite being intensely fatigued.

At the wooden bridges over the Douve Captain Shettle’s “Battalion” became embroiled in increasing enemy activity but held until on the evening of D+2 they were relieved by men from the 327th GIR.

Not everywhere reported the same success though. A few miles from Carentan in the small village of Graignes a number of 82nd and 101st troopers were holed up against increasing numbers of German attackers. Eventually on D+5 they overran the hamlet and captured the survivors (mostly just the wounded) still there. Most of the able bodied had melted away into the swamps before being overrun. Being deprived of a clear victory angered the German attackers so much that the village was largely burnt to the ground and the survivors bayoneted and left in a ditch near le Mesnil Angot several miles South of Graignes. The atrocity is ascribed to the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division though they were never positively identified or later charged.

As more of the 101st were relieved from their primary objectives, more became available for their next objective, capturing Carentan.

5.3 Carentan

A Belgium Gate similar to that used on the causeway into Carentan. Although originating in Belgium these obstacles first found prominence sealing access routes through the Maginot Line. The Germans used them reasonable frequently on the Atlantic Wall as obstacles for landing craft as well as to seal exit routes off the beaches.

The route selected by the 101st into Carentan led down a causeway (the N13/D913)across flooded fields and swampland and ended at a Belgian Gate barricade before the town. As such there was no room to spread out, everyone being concentrated along that single line. Colonel Cole was assigned to lead the assault and urged to proceed with all haste as it was feared that Carentan would become the main staging area for German counter attacks on the invasion forces. Air support was minimal and there was little or no communications with the Air force anyway. Artillery and armoured support was also lacking, these resources being deployed elsewhere. So the advance was infantry only. Cole’s force edged up the causeway with men being picked off one after the other by German snipers. Eventually during the night of June 10th-11th a few troopers made it past the Belgian Gates but then ran into trouble. Firstly from German Stukas which bombed and then strafed the road (though 1 was shot down) and then by a concentration of German machine guns that periodically swept the causeway keeping the paratroopers pinned down on the far side unable to advance or retreat. Colonel Cole made his way to the front of the column brandishing has 1911 Colt demanding why the column had stopped.

This photo was taken after the famous bayonet charge ordered by Colonel Cole. It shows Colonel Cole, far left and Major Stopka, far right at the Ingouf Farmyard after the event. The photo was staged by the Signal Corps for the newsreels and papers back home.

By daybreak a few hundred men had squeezed through the Belgian Gates but were still pinned down behind the causeway unable to advance any further. Casualties were mounting. In one show of bravery machine gunner Chester Elliott (I/502) stood up cradling his .30 cal with a partial belt of ammo and inspired by Cole’s bravery (Cole had stood there brandishing his pistol at the Germans), advanced across the 4th causeway bridge. Germans poured out from an adjacent hedgerow and Elliott, firing from the hip, mowed many of them down. Eventually though he was forced to retreat, losing his LMG on the way. I company had been decimated and Cole ordered the 30 or so survivors to retreat to the end of the pinned down column whilst he pondered what to do next. Firstly he tied sending 3rd platoon, H Company across a field to take an outlying farm house (Ingouf Farm). However, this was occupied by German machine gunners who allowed the paratroopers to advance up to 70 yards from the farm before opening up. Thos not killed instantly dropped to the ground, pinned down again.

This photo shows the Ingouf Farm from the point where Colonel Cole ordered his famous bayonet charge.

German mortar rounds added to the carnage and the few US mortars available opened up in retaliation. Cole was running out of options and so gave a command that none of his men expected to hear in a WWII battle; “fix bayonets!” Staring at each other in amazement they did so and then waited. After a few minutes Cole blew on his whistle and leading by example began charging across the field towards the German positions firing his pistol blindly as he did so. Behind him his men (about 20 in total) rose up and yelling defiantly joined in the charge to relieve their follows pinned down in the field. Cole’s exec, Major Stopka, seeing this gave a similar command and with around 50 men joined the charge. Indeed Stopka soon over took Cole. The Germans were so overwhelmed by this action that US casualties were light and the charge successful. For his bravery Cole became the Division’s first Congressional Medal of Honour awardee. He was later killed in Holland, Major Stopka was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He was later killed at Bastogne.

The fighting round Carentan was becoming desperate and Cassidy’s 1st Battalion (502nd) was sent to assist Cole. Fighting intensified during the 11th June until by mid afternoon a brief ceasefire was called to allow both sides to recover their wounded. In the late afternoon the Germans counter attacked heavily but were repelled by allied artillery and the remnants of Cole’s battalion. By evening other elements of the 101st started arriving and the German commander, Colonel von der Heydte made the decision on June 12th to withdraw. By lunchtime the town had been taken by the 101st and for the first time the American forces from Utah and Omaha were able to link up.

The survivors of the German 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment had not left for good though, and on 13th June, reinforced by the 17th Panzergrenadier Division together with elements of the Gotz von Berlichgen Division, 37th Panzergrenadier Regiment and 17th SS Panzer Battalion (and a platoon of the 17th Panzerjäger Battalion) counter attacked. The German armour was constricted to use the roads due to the hedgerows and hilly terrain and funnelled through Douville towards Carentan plus a wider valley a little to the West. These became known as Bloody Gully and Bloody Gulch as the body count mounted.

A trooper from the 506th PIR being assisted from his LST on returning to England in mid July.

Lt. Joe McMillan had assumed command of D Company, 506th after the death of former commander, Capt. Jerre Cross at Dead Man’s Corner on the 8th. He spotted a lone StuG IV approaching without infantry support. However, lacking anti tank capabilities there was little he could do. “Just jump on it and rattle around a bit.” He commanded Pfc John Kliever who did so wielding a fragmentation grenade but unsure how it might be effective as he could not get it into the StuGs barrel. McMillan ran alongside shouting encouragement but equally unsure what to do next. The he saw the hatch open slightly as the Panzer crew prepared to use side arms to remove the annoying paratrooper. McMillan seized the opportunity by ripping the hatch opening and dropping a thermite grenade inside as he and Kliever jumped off and ducked into cover. Another StuG was taken out by a bazooka from E Company and another by anti tank artillery of the 81st AA/AT battalion.

The Germans were well equipped but surprisingly poorly trained. Indeed for most, this was their first taste of combat. Moreover the SS artillerymen were a law unto themselves and rather than support infantry advances selected their own targets as they saw fit. The result of this was that despite numerical superiority the Germans were fought to a standstill by the end of the day, only reaching the railyard on the outskirts of town. F/502 were surrounded and as the day ended the first elements of the US 2nd Armoured Division arrived literally in a “saved by the cavalry” style. Their D/66th immediately launched a furious attack on Bloody Gulch earning themselves the nickname “Hell on Wheels”.

101st Paratroopers filing through war torn Carentan shortly after liberation.

The second half of June was marked by holding actions to the South and West of Carentan setting the stage for the liberation of St. Lo and Patton’s breakout into France with his Third Army. By July 10th the Division was relived and moved back to bivouacs immediately inland from Utah. From the 1tth to the 13th they were subsequently transported by landing craft back to England. All told they had achieved every one of their objectives with 4,670 casualties. Although this was a very high casualty rate it was nowhere near that predicted by Air Marshal Leigh Trafford and feared by General Dwight Eisenhower, The 101st had indeed achieved their first rendezvous with destiny and now prepared for their next.

(To be continued…)

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