During the World War II there was many different aspects on the Allies side that helped them defeat the Axis Powers. One crucial aspect for the Allies was the well-built airborne divisions. The 82nd Airborne Division, from the United States Army, was considered to be the firmest and most successful division during the Second World War. After being reactivated for World War II, the men of the 82nd Airborne division took on intense training to later on take part in some of the most dangerous missions of World War II.
Before the 82nd Airborne division was actually considered an airborne division, this division was strictly an infantry division. The 82nd infantry division was formed at Camp Gordon, Georgia on August 25, 1917. This division soon acquired the nickname “All-Americans” as a result of having men from all 48 States, at the time. In 1918 the All-Americans were sent to France to fight in World War I. With only fighting for five months this division was already apart of three major combat battles against the German Army. Soon after World War I was finished the 82nd Infantry division was then deactivated. The All-Americans were now just memories of the First World War.
After America was brought into the Second World War, The 82nd Infantry Division was reactivated back into the United States Army under the command of General Omar N. Bradley. With this division being reactivated meant there was many untrained and unexperienced men in this infantry division. Most of the soldiers volunteered after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. All of the paratroopers were volunteers. Bradley taught these men how to use a gun, conditioned these men to run for long periods of time, and made all these men muscularly stronger. By August 1942 the 82nd...
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...he skills of a paratrooper they were then asked to go to a war for the first time. These men of this division showed just how powerful they were just after their first appearance in war. Then this division was asked to be a part of one of the most famous mission in the United States Army’s history, D-Day. This division then took on this challenge of D-Day and were very successful in their mission. If the 82nd had not gone into Normandy the night before D-Day then the whole outcome of D-day would, with any doubt, have a different outcome for both sides. The task that this division took was pure bravery and courage. Training as an unexperienced soldier, then fighting in a war, only several months later, for your country just shows how much fearlessness and guts this whole division had, classifying them as the best division to ever be a part of the United States Army.
The award-winning novel by Stephen Ambrose, Band of Brothers: Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, discusses one of the greatest examples of mission command in the form of 1st Lieutenant Richard Winters and his role in the Brecourt Manor Assault. This battle is a textbook example of how to fight against a superior enemy force that outnumbered the unit by four times as much. Facing overwhelming odds with just 16 paratroopers against over 60 German Soldiers, 1LT Winters nevertheless prevails and succeeds in achieving his objective while minimizing casualties to just three Soldiers lost. Looking back further into the American Revolution, the Battle of Bunker Hill on the American side is one of the earliest examples of Mission Command under the command of COL William Prescott.
Naturally they wanted to pull personnel and equipment from a unit that had some experience. So they turned to the branch and unit that had the most of both the 101st Airborne, having had the experience of flying in Vietnam. So they pulled Charlie and Delta Companies from the 158th Aviation Battalion with their new UH-60 Black Hawks, they also need some heavy lift capabilities and picked up Alpha Company of the 159th Aviation Battalion with CH-47C and then they needed some light scout aircraft so talked to Bravo Company 229th Attack Helicopter Battalion with the OH-6A...
The actions taken by Moore and his command group from Company Commanders to NCO’s, saved the lives of numerous American soldiers. This battle shows the leadership and unit discipline were needed to survive and be combat effective in adverse situations. Throughout the battle you see numerous Army Values and Warrior Ethos being used. “I will never leave a fallen comrade”, was the etho used the most, to reach the separated platoon. The battle also shows that not all tactical orders are effective, but as leader you must never second guess yourself.
The Harlem Hellfighters were originally called the 369th infantry during WW1. They got there nickname from Germany. German soldiers were called the “Hellfighters.” The 369th infantry was made up of all African Americans from Harlem, NY. Therefore, the 369th infantry got its nickname the “Harlem Hellfighters.” These African American men had many hardships throughout the 1900s. “The first all-black fighting unit to arrive in France was New York’s 369th Infantry.” (Martin) The motto of the 369th Infantry was “God damn, let’s go.” The 369th Infantry “spent 191 days in the front-line trenches, that’s more than any other unit during WW1. There was often nothing between the German Army and Paris but these black volunteers from New York.” (Martin) “A. Phillip Randolph was pessimistic about what the war would mean for black Americans. He pointed out that Negroes had sacrificed their blood on the battlefields of every American War since the Revolution, but it still had not brought them full citizenship.” (National Archives) The 369th infantry were actually not allowed to participate in the farewell parade of New York’s National Guard, the so-called Rainbow division. The reason was that “black isn’t a color of the Rainbow.” (National Archives)
the end of their basic training in the Dynamiting and Demolition School at Camp Perry,
By 1945, they created more than Three-Hundred Bomb Machines. Which they set up on both sides of Atlantic Ocean to defeat Hitler’s Nazi Army. Day by day they Nazis were getting beaten in air, land and sea. By intercepting and decrypting the Nazi Enigma Coded messages, allied forces changed the out come of many events of
The Americans landed on wide open beaches, far from any towns, and they didn't make use of any of the specialized armored tanks that were offered to them by the British Army, except the swimming Sherman, and many of those were sunk when they were off loaded to far out at sea, and sank in the rough water. Heavy fog and German guns proved to have challenges. The pilots were unable to drop the paratroopers as planned. Many of the US paratroopers of the 101 and the 82nd Airborne were also drowned when the USAAF dropped them in a huge swamp, about 30 miles off target. In some cases it took them 2 days to become an effective fighting force again, because they were so spread out.
After the fall of Sicily, the regiment was broken up into three sections, 2nd battalion was reflagged to the 20th Engineer Battalion. In preparation for the assault on Normandy the battalion was then moved to England to link up with 1st Infantry Division. The battalion was apart of the assault echelon on Omaha Beach during D-Day. After the assault they were soon back on the move as they moved through Europe. The battalion was apart of Hurtgen Forest and Battle of the Bulge. After the war ended the battalion did as it had done after every major war, it deactivated.
In late 1944, following the successful D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, it seemed that the Second World War was all but over for the Allied forces. On Dec 16, with the winter in site, the German forces launched a counteroffensive that was meant to sway the war into Hitler’s favor. The battle that shortly ensued after this counteroffensive is historically known as the Battle of The Bulge. The Battle of The Bulge initially started with the American forces being outnumbered 250,000 German troops to a mere 80,000 Americans. During this time the American Soldier’s fortitude and character were tested against ultimate adversity.
Band of Brothers, written by Stephan E. Ambrose, is a nonfiction account that tells the story of the brave men who make up Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne. Starting off in the summer of 1942, the young men in Army training at Camp Toccoa, are given an opportunity to be part of a unique unit of paratroopers. Under the orders of Captain Sobel, these men begin a long and challenging training regimen to prepare them for the D-day invasion of Normandy. After many weeks of training, the 506 parachutes behind German lines and begins to work their way back towards the beach in hopes to meet the Allies. The drops, unfortunately, does not go well, due to German anti-aircraft fire and low visibility due to fog. Never-the-less, the men hit
The book Band of Brothers talks about Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, also known as “Screaming Eagles” is recognized company, during World War II, for its successful and unsuccessful missions; Operation Overlord, Battle of the Bulge, and Market Garden. This division is vastly decorated; four Presidential Unit Citation, two Valorous Unit Awards, five Meritorious Unit Commendation, Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm and Netherlands Orange Lanyard and twenty-two Medals of Honor Recipients. If it was not for the brave men that volunteered during World War II the 506th Parachute Infantry, 101st Airborne Division would not exist. Among those brave men that volunteered was Major Richard Winters, throughout the book Richard Winters, he was a well-liked officer among his soldiers and superior leaders. Winters had a natural gift at being a leader; he displayed selfless service by putting his men before himself, was a successful leader by leading from the front not the back, and understood what his duty was as an officer and a leader to effectively or successful complete his task or mission. Ending???????
... sense I would not think that the men were out of the ordinary. Prior to the war many of the men who were in this battalion were middle aged family men who were from the working or lower class looking for jobs. I think that the men who were in battalion started off as “ordinary men.” They were men who had no idea what it was like to be in German territories, many were thinking this a job. The fact that many of the men had become wrapped with the guilt with what they had been doing shows that this was not something they had enjoyed but was something that they had to do. I feel that this proves that they were indeed ordinary men because the situation they were placed in was out of the ordinary and something that today we may not be used to this was a job to them. They had no idea what it would entail all they knew that it was job that they were told had to be done.
...17th Airborne Division. Assigned at various times to the Third, Seventh and Ninth armies, the Black Panthers fought major engagements in six European countries and participated in four major Allied campaigns. During that time, the unit inflicted 130,000 casualties on the German army and captured, destroyed or aided in the liberation of more than 30 towns, several concentration camps, four airfields, three ammunition supply dumps, 461 wheeled vehicles, 34 tanks, 113 large guns, and thousands of individual and crew-served weapons. This was accomplished in spite of extremely adverse weather conditions, difficult terrain not suited to armor, heavily fortified enemy positions, extreme shortages of replacement personnel and equipment, an overall casualty rate approaching 50 percent and the loss of 71 tanks.
The first drop done by the paratroopers was on June 6, 1944 in Normandy. This drop did not result as planned. Planes were flying at a high velocity and at a short distance from the ground. Therefore one of the planes got hit. They arrived at Carentan which they captured and flew back to Aldbourne.
Easy Company from its inception in July of 1942 to its disbandment at the end of World War II was an elite paratrooper force made up of “voluntary citizen soldiers” meaning they were in Easy Company of their own accord and for the most part where all previously not in any form of military. (Ambrose p. 16-17) "Easy company included three rifle platoons and a headquarters section. Each platoon contained three twelve-man rifle squads and a six-man mortar team squad.” Easy also had one machine gun attached to each of its rifle squads, and a 60mm mortar in each mortar team. The training they would endure was much more rigorous, as the conditions would be more perilous, “of the 500 officers who had volunteered, only 148 successfully completed the course. The enlisted men had it equally tough, with only 1,800 men being selected out of 5,300 volunteers” (Ambrose, 18) this left them feeling that themselves and the man watching their back would be much more prepared for battle than your average draftee.