101st Airborne D-Day Attack: Parachute Behind Enemy Lines Under Nazi Attack

By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven

They attacked behind enemy lines hours before D-Day, parachuted into high-risk enemy territory and fought heavy concentrations of Nazi troops to secure bridges and roadways for Allied invading forces.

The 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions, now famous in part for these D-Day missions, took on an assignment knowing there would be heavy casualties – all for the Allied WWII Normandy invasion.

“The 82nd and 101st fought pockets of German defenses to keep roads and bridges open,” Elizabeth Coble, Command Historian XVIIIth Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, N.C., told Warrior Maven in an interview.

As paratroopers, some air-dropped from C-47 aircraft and others landed with “glider” aircraft, all under heavy enemy fire. Glider aircraft were soft-skinned aircraft without an engine.

“Many aircraft were pulling Gliders, when they got close to their objective, the pilots cut the rope and troops landed in a flat clear field,” Coble said.

Gliders carried troops, artillery pieces, ammunition and other heavy equipment.

Airborne forces started dropping just hours before the larger D-Day invasion which launched on June 6, 1944. The landings took place at around 7AM. However, German forces were ready to attack landing forces and heavy Nazi Flak gun fire destroyed some of the arriving aircraft.