During the night of 5-6 June 1944, the Pathfinders were the first allied soldier to set foot on Norman soil, the paratroopers of the 82nd and the 101st Airborne Divisions fighting all night until the 4th Infantry Division, landing on Utah Beach, linked up with them. German troops and defenses, paratroopers' eyewitness accounts, unpublished material, a superbly illustrated album.
During the night of 5-6 June 1944, the Pathfinders were the first Allied soldiers to set foot on Norman soil. The paratroops of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions fighting all night until the 4th Infantry Division, landing on Utah Beach, linked up with them. German troops and defenses, paratroopers' eyewitness accounts, unpublished material, are all presented here in this superbly illustrated album.
The fortunes of war and clear-headed decisions by commanders on the scene combined to make Utah Beach the most successful and least costly of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. Strong ocean currents and the confusion of battle placed the landing force a mile south of its target, but further away from German artillery and in a sector that was less heavily defended because the land inland was flooded. The first craft ashore happened to contain Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. who immediately brought order to what might have been a chaotic situation. The U.S. 8th Infantry Regiment quickly began to move inland for a crucial linkup with the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, all of whose landing zones were behind Utah Beach. The personalities, units and individual actions of this dramatic D-Day landing are all covered in the usual Battlegroud Europe fashion, with numerous illustrations, maps and a guide to the area as it is today.
The attack on Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion was one of the most successful military operations ever undertaken, especially bearing in mind the complexities of such a massive air & seaborne assault. Joseph Balkoski describes the unfolding drama.
This major addition to our Battleground WW2 Series covers the U.S. airborne and seaborne landings on the Cotentin Peninsular on D-Day 6 June 1946. It tells a dramatic story of near disastrous drops by the U.S. 101st (The Screaming Eagles) and 82nd (The All American) Airborne Divisions and how they gallantly regrouped and gained their objectives at St. Mere Eglise and Carentan. Meanwhile the 4th U.S. Infantry Division were the first American seaborne troops to land (at Utah) followed closely by the 90th Infantry Division.This book graphically describes how these divisions eventually linked up and succeeded in cutting off the vital port of Cherbourg. The book also describes the 'big picture' leading up to D-Day and is particularly interesting in its revelations about the notorious 'Operation Tiger' when over 700 American troops died during training.
In June 1944 the Allies opened the long-awaited second front against Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, and this was to be the start of a long struggle throughout Western Europe for the Allied forces in the face of stiff German resistance. The European Theatre was where the bulk of the Allied forces were committed in the struggle against Nazi Germany. It saw some of the most famous battles and operations of the war – Normandy, Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge – as the Allies sought to liberate Western Europe in the face of bitter and hard-fought German resistance. From the beaches of D-Day through to the final battles in war-ravaged Germany, the war across the breadth and depth of Western Europe is brought to life through scores of carefully researched and intricately detailed maps.
Formed at the beginning of World War II, the 101st Airborne Division has fought in almost every major conflict since then, including Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. Going from a parachute and glider infantry in its early days to an air assault division in our own--the only one in the world--the "Screaming Eagles" are trained to destroy enemy forces while seizing land and resources. They are a rapid deployment group prepared to go anywhere in the world within thirty-six hours. And, for good reason, they are probably the best-known army division in the world. In this book, top military photographer and former U.S. Army Ranger Russ Bryant takes you inside the 101st Airborne. In training and in action, on land and in the air: Here are the Screaming Eagles as youve never seen them, in a close-up, multi-faceted portrait of courage and skill as a fact of everyday life. The book brilliantly illustrates why the 101st Airborne is the vanguard in its field--and in the world.
