PEGASUS BRIDGE
The Orne River bridges were strategic targets on the night
of 5–6 June. Spanning the river and canals at the east end of the landing
beaches, they were attacked by elements of the British Sixth Airborne Division
to delay German counterattacks against Sword Beach.
The structure that became known as Pegasus Bridge was at Benouville, nearly three miles south of Ouistreham on the coast. It was a small span, which, with the nearby Ranville Bridge, was seized in a textbook assault by six Horsa gliders under Maj. John Howard. As a result of the British attack, the Café Gondrée, owned by the family of that name, became the first French building liberated in the Normandy campaign. Today the cafe houses a small museum in tribute to the Sixth Airborne troopers who led the assault. Because of its age, the Pegasus Bridge was replaced with a replica after the war. The original bridge rests beside the cafe as part of the museum displays.
AIRCRAFT
Handley-Page Halifax
The four-engine, twin-tail Halifax bore a general
resemblance to its more famous counterpart, the Avro Lancaster, and shared the
“Lanc’s” rags-to-riches story. The Lancaster evolved from the Avro Manchester;
similarly, the Halifax began life on the drawing board as a twin-engine bomber
but was altered to the multi-engine configuration. Originally powered by four
1,280 hp Rolls-Royce Merlins, the Halifax Mark I first flew in October 1939,
barely a month after the war began. However, developmental problems delayed its
combat debut until March 1941. The original version, as well as the Mark II and
V, retained Merlins until increased demand for Lancasters, Spitfires, and
Mosquitos mandated an engine change.
The most common Halifax variants were the Mark III, VI, and
VII, all powered by Bristol Hercules air-cooled radials of 1,600 to 1,800
horsepower. The later models also had a different silhouette, with the original
front turret deleted in favor of a more streamlined nose to improve top speed.
The Mark III was rated at 277 mph.
Halifaxes dominated RAF Bomber Command’s No. 4 and 6 Groups
but also flew in Coastal Command and Transport Command. Like most British
bombers, the Halifax was a single-pilot aircraft, with six other men completing
the crew: flight engineer, bombardier (bomb aimer in the RAF), navigator, and
gunners. In four years of RAF Bomber Command operations, Halifaxes logged
75,500 sorties with an average bomb load of three thousand pounds.
Extremely versatile, the Handley-Page bomber doubled as a
maritime patrol plane, electronic countermeasures platform, paratroop
transport, and glider tug. The latter duty was an especially important aspect
of the Halifax’s contribution to Overlord. In June 1944 at least twenty Halifax
squadrons flew from the UK with Bomber Command while others served in the
Mediterranean theater.
Total production was 6,176 aircraft, including some postwar
manufacture. The type remained in RAF service until 1952.
Armstrong Whitworth
A.W.41 Albemarle
The first three production Albemarles left the factory in
December 1941, by which time the decision had been made to adapt the aircraft
as a glider tug and airborne forces transport.
Deliveries to the RAF began in January 1943 when No. 295
Squadron received its first aircraft; the type was blooded with Nos. 296 and
297 Squadrons, part of No. 38 Wing operating from North Africa, in the invasion
of Sicily in July 1943. On D-Day (6 June 1944) six No. 295 Squadron Albemarles
operating from Harwell, served as pathfinders for the 6th Airborne Division,
dropping paratroops over Normandy.
In the glider tug role, four squadrons of Albemarles were
used to tow Airspeed Horsas to France in support of ground operations, while in
September 1944 two of No. 38 Group’s squadrons participated in the ill-fated Arnhem
operation, towing gliders carrying troops of the 1st Airborne Division.
Production of the Albemarle, apart from the prototypes, was undertaken by A. W.
Hawksley Ltd, part of the Hawker Siddeley Group: production came to an end in
December 1944 when 600 Albemarles had been built. Original orders had covered 1,080.
Douglas C-47 Skytrain
Arguably the most important aircraft in history, the Douglas
DC-3 airliner revolutionized the commercial aviation industry when it appeared
in 1935. By 1940 its military potential was obvious, and the Army Air Corps
issued a contract to Douglas that year. With a simplified interior,
strengthened fuselage, and wide cargo doors, the Skytrain could carry
twenty-seven troops, up to twenty-four casualty litters, or five tons of cargo.
Two reliable Pratt and Whitney radial engines of 1,200 horsepower each gave the
C-47 the altitude performance to cross some of the world’s highest mountain
ranges.
Total USAAF acceptances of transports based on the DC-3 was
10,343 during the war years, with nearly half delivered in 1944. During that
year a typical Skytrain cost $88,578. The army total included some four hundred
civilian airliners impressed into service with various numerical designations
(C-48 to C-84); some of the subvariants were named “Skytroopers.” RAF use of
the type was extensive, under the name “Dakota.” C-47s are well depicted in the
movie Band of Brothers.
After the war, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower listed the C-47 as one
of the major reasons for victory in Europe. Certainly its contribution to
Overlord was significant, as more than nine hundred Skytroopers and Skytrains
provided most of the airlift for American and British paratroopers, in addition
to towing gliders. Seventeen C-47s were shot down on 5–6 June.
The “Gooney Bird” was so adaptable that the U.S. Air Force
still retained a thousand C-47s in 1961. Some of those were converted to
“gunships” with heavy machine-gun and cannon armament during the Vietnam War.
GLIDERS
General Aircraft
Hamilcar
Recognizing the need for armored support of airborne forces,
the British Air Ministry requested a large glider that could deliver a
seven-ton light tank or forty troops. Named for the Carthaginian general, the
Hamilcar entered service in 1942 and usually carried a Tetrach tank. With a
110-foot wingspan and thirty-six-thousand-pound gross weight, it was the
largest and heaviest glider built by any of the Allied powers. Of some four
hundred Hamilcars produced, seventy were employed in Normandy. Others were
flown in the Arnhem operation three months later.
Airspeed Horsa
Britain’s primary combat glider, the Airspeed Horsa, shared
the American CG-4’s general configuration and service history. Like the U.S.
Waco, the Horsa was first flown in 1941. Also like the CG-4, it had a hinged
nose to facilitate loading troops and small vehicles. With a two-man crew and
capacity of twenty-five troops, it was capable of heavier loads than the Waco,
partly due to its larger size (8,370 pounds empty and eighty-eight-foot
wingspan). Tow speeds are listed between 100 and 150 mph.
Horsas were committed to combat in the invasion of Sicily in
July 1943 and, like the Waco, figured prominently at Normandy and Operation
Market-Garden, the Holland operation of September 1944. Some 355 gliders were
involved in the British airborne phase of Overlord, with a hundred pilots
killed or injured.
Total Horsa production was 3,655 aircraft.
Waco CG-4
With five airborne divisions, the U.S. Army needed large
quantities of gliders in addition to transport aircraft for paratroopers. The
need was met by Waco Aircraft Company’s CG-4 (Cargo Glider Model 4), which was
accepted in 1941. The CG-4A was a large aircraft, with a wingspan of
eighty-three feet eight inches, and a hinged nose to permit the cockpit portion
to be raised for easy vehicle loading. Standard loads were thirteen troops, a
jeep with crew, or a 75 mm pack howitzer and crew.
The Waco could be towed at 125 mph, usually by a Douglas
C-47. When within range of its objective, the glider’s tow line was released
and the two-man crew made the approach to the landing zone. Its steel tube
fuselage proved stronger than those of most British gliders, which were made of
wood.
CG-4s were introduced to combat in the Sicilian invasion of July 1943 and were also widely employed in Overlord and in Anvil-Dragoon, the invasion of southern France in August 1944. In far smaller numbers they also saw action against Japan. Some twelve thousand were built throughout the war, with 750 provided to Britain’s Glider Pilot Regiment. In keeping with RAF practice of “H” names for gliders, the Waco was dubbed the “Hadrian.”
AIRBORNE OPERATIONS
In the fifteenth century Leonardo Da Vinci envisioned
airborne soldiers, and in the nineteenth century Napoleon Bonaparte pondered
invading Britain with French troops in hot-air balloons. But not until the
1940s did the technology exist to transport large numbers of specially trained
soldiers behind enemy lines and deliver them by parachute, glider, or transport
aircraft.
German airborne forces included paratroops and glider and
transport-lifted infantry, all controlled by the Luftwaffe. Eventually nine parachute
divisions were established, but few Fallschirmjaeger (literally “parachute
hunters”) made combat jumps. Nonetheless, Germany led the way in combat
airborne operations, seizing Belgium’s Fort Eben Emael in 1940. The Luftwaffe
also made history in the first aerial occupation of an island—the costly Crete
operation in 1941. However, Germany’s Pyrrhic victory proved so costly that no
Fallschirmjaeger division was again involved in a major airborne operation.
Thereafter, the Luftwaffe parachute forces were employed as light infantry in
every theater of operation. Two German airborne divisions, the Third and Fifth,
responded to the Allied invasion in Normandy but were hampered by inadequate
ground transport.
The British army authorized small airborne units in 1940 but
did not form the Parachute Regiment until 1942. That unit served as a training
organization, producing seventeen battalions, of which fourteen were committed
to combat. The battalions were formed into the First and Sixth Airborne
Divisions, the latter involved in Operation Overlord. Both divisions were
committed to the Arnhem assault, Operation Market-Garden, in September 1944.
The U.S. Army formed five airborne divisions during World
War II, of which three (the Eighty-second, 101st, [see U.S. Army Units] and
Seventeenth) saw combat in the Mediterranean or the European Theater of
Operations. The Eleventh served in the Pacific; the Thirteenth went to Europe
in 1945 but was not committed to combat.
Apart from isolated uses of airborne battalions, the first
Allied airborne operation of note occurred during Operation Husky, the
Anglo-American invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Subsequent operations on the
Italian mainland perfected doctrine and techniques so that by 1944 the United
States and Britain could integrate three airborne divisions into the plan for
Overlord. By isolating the vulnerable beachheads from German reinforcements
during the critical early hours of 6 June, the airborne troopers gained
valuable time for the amphibious forces.
Later uses of British and American airborne forces included
the Arnhem operation in September 1944 and the Rhine crossing in March 1945.
Airborne operations were considered high-risk undertakings,
requiring commitment of large numbers of valuable assets—elite troops and
airlift—and incurring the danger of assault troops being isolated and
overwhelmed. The latter occurred on a large scale only once, when supporting
Allied ground forces were unable to reach British paratroopers at Arnhem,
Holland, in September 1944.
Because they were by definition light infantry—without
armored vehicles or heavy artillery—paratroopers were laden with enormous
personal burdens. Many D-Day troopers carried nearly two hundred pounds of
equipment, including their main and reserve chutes, life preserver, primary and
secondary weapons and ammunition, water and rations, radios or mines, and other
gear. It could take as much as five minutes for a trooper to pull on his
parachute harness over his other equipment, and if they sat on the ground many
men needed help standing up.
Normal parameters for dropping paratroopers were six hundred
feet of altitude at ninety miles per hour airspeed. Owing to weather and
tactical conditions, however, many troopers were dropped from 300 to 2,100 feet
and at speeds as high as 150 miles per hour.
American paratroopers had to make five qualifying jumps to
earn their wings, after which they received a hazardous-duty bonus of fifty
dollars per month, “jump pay.”
The U.S. Eighty-second and 101st Airborne Divisions dropped
13,400 men behind Utah Beach on the west end of the Allied landing areas, while
nearly seven thousand men of the British Sixth Division secured bridges behind
Sword Beach to the east. The primary objective of the airborne troops was to
isolate the beachhead flanks from substantial German reinforcement; the British
were more successful than the Americans in doing so. The Sixth Division’s
seizure of the Orne River bridges became a classic airborne operation.
The elite of the elite among paratroopers were the
pathfinders, who were first on the ground. Preceding the main force by nearly
an hour, the pathfinders were responsible for guiding troop-carrier aircraft to
the landing zones and for marking the target areas. Specialized navigational
equipment included the Eureka/Rebecca radar beacon, which transmitted to the
lead aircraft in each C-47 formation, and automatic direction-finder (ADF)
radios. Holophane lights were laid in T patterns on the ground to mark each
drop zone.
Owing to fog, enemy action, and the confusion common to
warfare, in Overlord only one of the eighteen U.S. pathfinder teams arrived at
the correct drop zone. One entire eight-man team was dropped into the English
Channel.
Because of wide dispersion over the Cotentin Peninsula, only
about one-third of the American paratroopers assembled themselves under
organized leadership, and many landed in the wrong divisional areas. One
battalion commander roamed alone for five days, killing six Germans without
finding another American. While some troopers sought cover or got drunk on
Calvados wine, many others displayed the initiative expected of elite troops.
In Normandy the airborne was especially effective in disrupting German
communications.
Glider-borne infantry regiments were part of every airborne
division, and though they did not originally receive “jump pay,” these soldiers
were still part of an elite organization. Gliders possessed the dual advantages
of delivering a more concentrated force to the landing zone and providing
certain heavy equipment unavailable to paratroopers—especially light artillery
and reconnaissance vehicles. Gliders were usually flown by noncommissioned
pilots, who, once on the ground, took up personal weapons and fought as part of
the infantry units they had delivered to the target.
82nd Airborne
Division
Activated by Maj. Gen. Omar N. Bradley at Camp Claiborne,
Louisiana, on 25 March 1942, the Eighty-second Division was designated an
airborne formation on 15 August and began jump training at Fort Bragg, North
Carolina, in October. By then the commanding general was Matthew B. Ridgway,
who would remain at the helm for two years. Deployed to North Africa in May
1943, the “All Americans” jumped into Sicily on 9 July and shuttled around the
Mediterranean theater until moving to Northern Ireland in time for Christmas.
D-Day training was conducted in England from February 1944, leading up to Drop
Zone Normandy.
Through most of its combat career the division included the
504th and 505th, 507th, and 508th Parachute Infantry Regiments (the latter two
detached from the Seventeenth Airborne Division), plus two glider and two
parachute field artillery battalions. Dropped behind Utah Beach on the eve of
D-Day (minus the 504th, still understrength from Italy), the Eighty-second was
spread between Sainte-Mère-Église and Carentan. The next day the paratroopers
were reinforced by the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, arriving by air and
overland via the newly won beachhead.
•505th PIR: Lt. Col. William E. Ekman.
•507th PIR: Col. George V. Millett, Jr.
•508th PIR: Col. Roy E. Lindquist.
•325th GIR: Col. Harry L. Lewis.
Of 6,400 All Americans who jumped into Normandy, nearly 5
percent were killed or injured in the drop. The 507th’s commander, Colonel
Millett, was captured on D+2 and was succeeded by Lt. Col. Arthur Maloney. In
the three weeks after D-Day the division lost 457 killed, 2,571 missing, twelve
captured, and 1,440 wounded. However, many of the missing subsequently rejoined
their units, having been dropped far from their assigned zones.
Despite persistent German opposition along the Merderet
River, the division established a bridgehead at La Fiere on D+3. The next day,
10 June, the 505th seized Montebourg Station, and on the 12th the 508th crossed
the Douve River, reaching Baupt on the next day. On D+10 the 325th and 505th were
as far as St. Sauveur-le-Vicomte, and the division occupied another important
bridgehead, at Pont l’Abbé, on the 19th. Ridgway’s troops then attacked along
the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, and on 3–4 July took two important
hills overlooking La Haye-du-Puits. Following five weeks of almost nonstop
combat, the Eighty-second was withdrawn to England.
In August, Ridgway was succeeded by Maj. Gen. James M.
Gavin, who prepared the division for its next operation. That jump occurred
during Operation Market-Garden at Nijmegen-Arnhem, Holland, in September,
followed by operations in Belgium and Germany. On VE-Day in May 1945 the
division was engaged along the Elbe River. In all, the Eighty-second sustained
8,450 casualties (1,950 dead) throughout the war.
101st Airborne
Division
The “Screaming Eagles” were activated at Camp Claiborne,
Louisiana, on 15 August 1942 under Maj. Gen. William C. Lee, who turned over to
Maxwell D. Taylor in March 1944. Arriving in England in September 1943, the
101st began intensive training for Normandy with the 327th and 401st Glider
Infantry plus the 501st, 502d, and 506th Parachute Infantry Regiments.
•501st PIR: Col. Howard R. Johnson
•502d PIR: Col. George V. H. Moseley, Jr.
•506th PIR: Col. Robert F. Sink
•327th GIR: Col. George S. Wear
On the night of 5–6 June, Taylor’s division air-assaulted
into Normandy, securing beach exits from St. Martin to Pouppeville. On D+1 the
506th pushed southward from Cauloville and encountered stiff resistance near
St. Come-sur-Mont. The next day, the 8th, the division engaged in the battle
for Carentan, with the 502d fighting steadily along the causeway over the next
two days. On the 11th the 502d Parachute and 327th Glider Infantry (reinforced
with elements of the 401st) pushed the Germans into the outskirts of Carentan,
permitting the 506th to occupy the city on the 12th, D+6. The inevitable German
counterattacks were repelled over the next two weeks, at which time the
Screaming Eagles were relieved by the Eighty-third Infantry Division. In
Normandy the division sustained 4,480 casualties, including 546 known dead,
1,907 missing (many of whom later turned up), and 2,217 wounded.
In late June the 101st moved to Cherbourg and in mid-July
returned to England. There it began refitting before Operation Market-Garden,
the Arnhem operation, which took place that September.
Under the acting division commander, Maj. Gen. Anthony C.
McAuliffe, the Eagles held Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge.
In nearly a year of combat, the 101st lost 11,550 men, including 3,236 dead or
missing.
Sixth Airborne
Division
Commanded by Maj. Gen. Richard Gale. The division included
the Third and Fifth Parachute Brigades and Sixth Airlanding Brigade, each with
three battalions. The Third Parachute Brigade included the First Canadian
Parachute Battalion. The airlanding brigade comprised one battalion each of the
Devonshire, Oxford, and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, and Royal Ulster
Rifles.
•Glider Pilot Regiment: Brig. George Chatterton.
•Third Parachute Brigade: Brig. James Hill.
•Fifth Parachute Brigade: Brig. Nigel Poett.
•Sixth Airlanding Brigade: Brig. the Hon. Hugh Kindersley.
The division’s first mission was Operation Tonga on 6 June
1944, D-Day, part of the Normandy landings, where it was responsible for
securing the left flank of the Allied invasion during Operation Overlord. The
division remained in Normandy for three months before being withdrawn in
September. The division was entrained day after day later that month, over
nearly a week, preparing to join Operation Market Garden but was eventually
stood down. While still recruiting and reforming in England, it was mobilised
again and sent to Belgium in December 1944, to help counter the surprise German
offensive in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge. Their final airborne
mission followed in March 1945, Operation Varsity, the second Allied airborne
assault over the River Rhine.
After the war the division was identified as the Imperial
Strategic Reserve, and moved to the Middle East. Initially sent to Palestine
for parachute training, the division became involved in an internal security
role. In Palestine, the division went through several changes in formation, and
had been reduced in size to only two parachute brigades by the time it was
disbanded in 1948.
LEWIS HYDE BRERETON, (1890–1967)
Ironically, one of the U.S. Army Air Force’s most versatile
commanders was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. A Pennsylvanian, Brereton
ranked fifty-fifth of 193 in the Annapolis class of 1911 but soon resigned his
navy commission and transferred to the army’s coast artillery. He was drawn to
the fledgling army air service, learned to fly in 1913, and commanded a
squadron in France during World War I. In the process he became one of Brig.
Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell’s advocates, though Brereton was more interested
in tactical than strategic airpower.
In November 1941 Brereton was named commander of the Far
East Air Forces, serving as Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s air commander in the
Philippines. However, the USAAF was understrength in the region, and
MacArthur’s chief of staff hindered rather than enhanced cooperation. Often
unable to communicate directly with MacArthur, Brereton saw much of his command
destroyed on the ground in Japanese attacks on 8 December, despite several
hours’ warning after Pearl Harbor. Brereton continued fighting the Japanese
after the fall of the Philippines, briefly commanding the Tenth Air Force in
India.
Transferred to the Mediterranean area in June 1942, Brereton
headed the USAAF’s Middle East Air Force (USMEAF), working closely with the
British Royal Air Force. He became a firm advocate of joint Anglo-American air
operations as the best means of defeating the Axis Powers through airpower.
That October he assumed command of the U.S. Desert Air Task Force in time for
the El Alamein offensive, concentrating on close air support as practiced by the
RAF. Based on that experience, Brereton had formulated a doctrine when the MEAF
became the U.S. Ninth Air Force and employed his tenets through much of the
North African 1942–43 campaign. He continued leading the Ninth Air Force in the
Sicilian operation and oversaw Operation Tidal Wave, the low-level B-24
Liberator attack on Romanian oil fields in August 1943.
Soon thereafter the Ninth Air Force moved to Great Britain,
receiving new groups and equipment for the forthcoming invasion of northern
France. The Ninth was designated the U.S. tactical air force, working alongside
the strategically oriented Eighth Air Force. Brereton’s interest in
dive-bombing and tactical airpower, dating from World War I, was reflected in
the successful use of Ninth Air Force fighters as dive-bombers during the
Normandy campaign. The P-38s, P-47s, and P-51s were especially successful in
destroying bridges, preventing or delaying German reinforcement of the
beachheads. Additionally, the Ninth Air Force included Troop Carrier Command,
which delivered paratroopers and gliders to their target zones behind the
invasion beaches on D-Day.
Often considered contentious and uncooperative by
contemporaries, Brereton had especially poor relations with Gen. Omar Bradley.
Their mutual dislike has been attributed in part to the bombing errors in
Operation Cobra, the breakout from the Normandy salient. Whatever the facts,
both commanders bore some of the responsibility for hundreds of “friendly fire”
casualties.
Based on his experience with Airborne Operations, Lieutenant
General Brereton established the First Allied Airborne Army in August 1944.
Shortly thereafter, his forces spearheaded Operation Market-Garden, the
ill-fated Allied drive into the Netherlands.
However, a far more successful operation occurred in March
1945, when Brereton’s airborne troopers led the Rhine crossing. On VE-Day he
was one of the most highly decorated American generals, on the staff of the
U.S. First Army. For his service in two world wars he received the
Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Legion
of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, and Navy Commendation Medal.
In early 1946 Brereton joined the evaluation board appointed
by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff to study the atomic bomb tests at Bikini
Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Subsequently he published his memoir, The Brereton
Diaries.
Brereton retired in Washington, D.C., where he died at age
seventy-seven.
RICHARD GALE, (1896–1982)
Commanding officer of the British Sixth Airborne Division,
Maj. Gen. Richard Gale led the vertical assault on the eastern flank of the
D-Day beaches. Born in London, he was commissioned in the British army in 1915
and finished the First World War as a company commander, holding the Military
Cross. His postwar service was almost entirely in India, between 1919 and 1936.
However, in 1942 he was selected to form the First Parachute Brigade. He became
first commander of the Sixth Division the next year.
In the Overlord briefing “Windy” Gale told his troopers,
“What you get by stealth and guts you must hold with skill and determination.”
He landed by glider early in the morning of 6 June and directed the seizure of
key bridges leading to the British and Canadian beaches. Gale’s next major
operation was the Rhine crossing in March 1945, and by VE-Day he commanded I
Airborne Corps.
Postwar assignments largely involved the Middle East; Gale
commanded British and UN forces in Palestine and Egypt from 1946 to 1949.
Knighted in 1950, he led the British army of the Rhine and NATO’s Northern Army
Group from 1952 to 1957 and was deputy NATO commander from 1958 to 1960.
Gale’s autobiography, Call to Arms, was published in 1968.
He died in his native London on 29 July 1982, four days past his eighty-fourth
birthday.
Major General Matthew Ridgway and Major General James M. Gavin during the Battle of the Bulge, December 19, 1944.
MATTHEW BUNKER RIDGWAY, (1895–1993)
Commander of the Eighty-second Airborne Division in
Normandy. One of America’s most distinguished soldiers, Matthew Ridgway was the
first U.S.
Army officer named supreme commander in both the Atlantic
and Pacific areas. He was born in Monroe, Virginia, and was appointed to the
U.S. Military Academy in 1913. Following graduation in 1917 he began his army
service with postings to China, Nicaragua, and the Philippines.
In 1941 Ridgway was on the staff of the War Plans Division
in Washington, D.C., but in June 1942 he succeeded Omar Bradley as commander of
the Eighty-second Infantry Division, which became the Eighty-second Airborne in
August. Ridgway led the “All Americans” to North Africa in May 1943, preparing
for their first combat at Sicily in July. From September 1943 to March 1944
Ridgway’s troopers were committed to assaults at Salerno and Anzio, Italy.
Ridgway subsequently took the Eighty-second to Britain in preparation for
D-Day, and on 6 June they dropped into Normandy.
Later in the war, as a lieutenant general, Ridgway commanded
the XVIII Airborne Corps. Postwar assignments included the Mediterranean and
Caribbean commands. In 1949 Ridgway was appointed U.S. Army Deputy Chief of
Staff.
The Korean War began in 1950, and the following year
Ridgway, now a four-star general, replaced Gen. Douglas MacArthur as theater
commander. Ridgway was “triple hatted,” simultaneously serving as UN commander
in chief in Korea, commander in chief of U.S. Forces in the Far East, and
Supreme Commander, Allied Powers in Japan. His appointment, coming after the
stunning reverses inflicted on UN forces by the Chinese, posed a major
leadership challenge, but Ridgway proved equal to the task. Wearing his
trademark hand grenades, he made himself visible to combat troops and oversaw
the strategy that stabilized the front.
In 1952 Ridgway was named supreme commander of Allied Forces
in Europe, the senior NATO post. However, his tenure was short-lived, as he was
recalled to Washington to become army chief of staff in 1953.
Ridgway retired to his native Virginia, where he died in
July 1993 at age ninety-eight. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
MAXWELL DAVENPORT TAYLOR, (1901–1987)
Commander of the 101st Airborne Division in Normandy. Born
in Missouri, Taylor graduated from West Point in 1922 and served in the
engineers and artillery units. He graduated from Command and General Staff
School in 1935, enhancing his growing reputation as a scholar. He studied
French, Spanish, and Japanese, and was attached to the U.S. embassy in Peking,
China, in 1937.
Upon completing the Army War College course in 1940 Taylor
was promoted to major and joined the War Plans Division in Washington, D.C.
After commanding an artillery battalion he joined the staff of the army chief
of staff. From there on he rose rapidly—from lieutenant colonel in December
1941 to brigadier general a year later.
Among the U.S. Army’s earliest parachute officers, Taylor
led the Eighty-second Airborne Division’s artillery in Sicily and Italy.
Promoted to major general in May 1944, he assumed command of the 101st in
Britain and led the “Screaming Eagles” into France. After the Normandy campaign
Taylor took the 101st back to Britain for refitting. He commanded the division
for the rest of the war, leading the Eagles in the Holland jump in September
and through the Battle of the Bulge.
After the war Taylor became superintendent of the U.S.
Military Academy and commanded the Eighth Army at the end of the Korean War.
Promoted to full general, he served as army chief of staff from 1955 to 1959
and then retired, partly to show his opposition to America’s growing reliance
on nuclear weapons. However, he was recalled as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, 1962–64. Subsequently he
was ambassador to South Vietnam, 1964–65.
Taylor left a reputation as one of the brightest, most
innovative senior officers of his era.
JAMES MAURICE GAVIN, (1907–1990)
“Jumping Jim” Gavin was one of the young paratroop
commanders who set the style for airborne leadership in the U.S. Army. Born in
New York, he was adopted by a Pennsylvania couple and enlisted in the army at
age seventeen. His potential was recognized early on, and he received an
appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Gavin rose quickly in the airborne forces, assuming command
of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment in July 1942. Subsequently he saw
combat with the Eighty-second Airborne Division in Sicily and Italy. As
assistant division commander he jumped into Normandy, where he immediately
faced a major leadership challenge. With the division badly scattered in the
night, he found himself in command of a detachment including another general, a
colonel, several captains, and one private. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill he
quipped, “Never in the history of human conflict have so many commanded so
few.”
Upon relieving Matthew Ridgway as division commander, the thirty-seven-year-old
Gavin became the youngest American major general since George Custer in the
Civil War. He assumed command of the “All Americans” in August and led the
Eighty-second in the ill-fated thrust to Nijmegen, Holland, during Operation
Market-Garden the following month. He was also in command during the Battle of
the Bulge and remained with the division until VE-Day.
In 1947 Gavin wrote an analysis of his combat experience,
published as Airborne Warfare. Much of his postwar service involved research
and development, but his ability eventually gained him the position as army
chief of staff. Gavin was concerned that President Dwight D. Eisenhower, his
former D-Day supreme commander, placed undue emphasis on America’s nuclear
arsenal at the expense of conventional forces. Unable to support what he felt
was an unwise policy, Gavin took the only honorable option and resigned his
position—an action almost unprecedented in the history of the U.S. Joint Chiefs
of Staff.
President John F. Kennedy appointed Gavin ambassador to
France, where he served from 1961 to 1963, but thereafter Gavin became a vocal
critic of American conduct of the Vietnam War. He felt that Kennedy’s
successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, would be unable to win the war and that American
vital interests were not directly threatened in any case.
In retirement Gavin wrote two more books—Crisis Now (1968),
a critical appraisal of America in Vietnam, and a biography, On to Berlin
(1978).
