The 101st Division at Normandy

“101st Airborne Division: The Story of the 101st Airborne Division" was published by the G. I. periodical Stars and Stripes throughout 1944 and 1945. Included in this unit history is a chapter discussing the division's exploits during the Normandy Invasion. The following excerpt was transcribed by Lone Sentry, a website which is an amazing resource of original WWII documents, photos, and publications.

"JUNE 6, 1944: the echoing rifle fire of a 101st A/B Div. "baggy pants" paratrooper heralded the greatest military operation of its kind. The invasion of Europe for which an anxious world waited had begun -- born in hedgerow-lined fields, in apple orchards and in the country lanes of Normandy where paratroopers and glider fighters of Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor's Eagle Division had dropped behind German troops manning beach defenses.

General Maxwell Davenport Taylor behind his Willy's Jeep in Normandy.

As daylight mellowed into dusk June 5, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower circulated among 101st troops at England's departure fields to wish them Godspeed, good luck.

Cocky fighters, armed to the hilt and assigned the mission of striking the first blow at Hitler's Fortress Europa, wise-cracked as they boarded C-47s. Less than four hours later in Normandy, these Airborne soldiers wrote the first pages of their glorious story with blood and courage.
They penned the lines of a combat diary with a phrase in French and a hand grenade at Pouppeville, with German dead stacked in roadside ditches on the march to St. Come du Mont, with a blinding bayonet dash across the swampy approaches to Carentan.

From 0015 in the darkness of June 6, 1944, when Capt. Frank L. Lillyman, Skaneateles, N.Y., leader of the Pathfinder group, became the first Allied soldier to touch French soil, and for 33 successive days 101st A/B carried the attack to the enemy. This was the beginning of the Airborne trail.

Captain Frank Lillyman with some of his Pathfinders.

Gen. Taylor's sky-fighters had been assigned three missions: secure causeways leading from Utah Beach for assault troops to storm ashore from landing barges at dawn; destroy bridges across roads leading into the key road and rail communication center Carentan; protect the south flank of VII Corps.

Fighting its way through hedge-lined fields, the division took every objective. When the "Battle of the Beaches" was won, many 101st units were awarded the Presidential Citation.
Congratulating the division on its work. Lt Gen. Omar N. Bradley told Eagle soldiers: "You have destroyed the myth of German invincibility."

FLAK and fog -- nemesis of cloud-hopping troops. German ack-ack and the weather joined forces to disperse the sky fleet of troop carrier planes ferrying paratroopers over the Nazi-held coastline. Methodical assembly by units was out of the question. Commanders gathered roving bands of well-briefed, battle-hungry Airborne soldiers, regardless of unit, then marched on division objectives.

An odd assortment of men was culled from thorn-thick hedges and ditches along roads to storm Pouppeville. Division Commander, Chief of Staff, clerks, MPs, artillerymen, signalmen, a sprinkling of infantry parachutists -- all combined to form a task force against this village that blocked the entrance of a causeway leading from Utah Beach. So abundant were staff officers that Gen. Taylor remarked, "Never were so few led by so many."

It was near Pouppeville in early morning darkness that a passing German patrol caught Maj. Larry Legere, Fitchburg, Mass., and thinking him a French native, asked him what he was doing out so late. "I come from visiting my cousin," the major replied in French while he pulled the pin on a grenade and let fly.

Pouppeville fell to this small band. Similar displays of adaptability and initiative by other groups nullified enemy opposition at similar key points, and causeways were secured for beach assault troops. Early in the day, the 4th Inf. Div. marched up causeways without opposition. The first obstacle to the invasion had been overcome.

Map showing general troop movements in and around Pouppeville.

At dawn of the second day, the 506th Parachute Inf. Regt., commanded by Col. Robert F. Sink, Lexington, N.C., advanced southward. Germans stubbornly defended previously fortified Vierville. The town was taken after severe fighting, and the enemy grudgingly fell back to St. Come du Mont.

Col. Robert F. Sink.

Angoville au Plain fell to the division by noon, and skyfighters smashed through hedges and over roads to the outskirts of St. Come du Mont. Resisting savagely, Germans blunted the thrust.
The Eagle was ready. Ahead lay St. Come du Mont, defended by well dug-in German parachutists. Here, 101st A/B soldiers were committed in the first large-scale attack launched by the division in the invasion campaign.

From hedgerow to hedgerow, through field after field, onto the road into town, fierce fighting raged as Eagle troopers swept into the streets of St. Come du Mont. Here the 101st Airborne first met the German 6th Parachute Regt., later to be encountered again in the Holland campaign. Twice this crack Nazi unit was to develop a healthy respect for the fighting skill of the "Yankees with the Big Pockets."

By 2000 June 7, all organized resistance ceased at St. Come du Mont. Carentan loomed next on the list of vital Allied objectives. Its seizure would provide the link necessary to coordinate the assault forces on Utah and Omaha Beaches. If Germans retained the town, Allied power would be divided during the campaign's most crucial phase. Carentan had to be taken. The Screaming Eagles were assigned the job.

Some G.I.s taking ten in the streets of St. Come du Mont.

But the path leading to it wasn't easy. Later described as "Purple Heart Lane," the route covered canals, swamp lands and the Douve River, all guarded by Germans.

Corps engineers brought up assault boats by concealed routes. Under cover of heavy artillery, the regiment crossed the river, seized the small village of Brevands, secured a supply route to support the attack on Carentan from the east. The division, attacking Carentan from three directions, achieved its objectives. Resistance ceased within the city June 11. A defensive position was immediately organized.

Later near Cherbourg, Gen. Taylor stood high atop a captured pillbox and told his battle-hardened veterans, "You hit the ground running toward the enemy. You have proved the German soldier is no superman. You have beaten him on his own ground, and you can beat him on any ground." Field Marshal (then Gen.) Sir Bernard Law Montgomery pinned the British Distinguished Service Order on Gen. Taylor's jacket.

The Eagle Division was ordered to its base in England, closing the first chapter in its combat record."

 Eric and Chuck portraying the liberation of Carentan, France - 1944.