American airborne landings in Normandy

The American airborne landings in Normandy were a series of airborne drops by American airborne units during Operation Neptune on 6 June 1944. These consisted the use of the 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions

Prelude

The primary objective of the 101st Airborne was to seize the area between Saint-Martin-de-Varreville and Pouppeville, behind Utah Beach, in order to aid the exit of the 4th Infantry Division from Utah. The second objective was to destroy two bridges on the Carentan highway along with a railroad bridge west of it, which would gain them control of the Barquette lock and establish a bridgehead northeast of Carentan over the Douve river. That was done in order to protect the southern flank of VII Corps. The 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, as well as the 506th PIR, were assigned to the first objective. .

28 May

The mission of the 82nd Airborne was changed this day due to the discovery that the 91st Luftlande Division had moved into their planned DZ area. Now instead the division was assigned a new objective, that two regiments were to be landed west of the Merderet River, while one other regiment would land east of Saint-Mère-Église in order to secure the Merderet bridges .

5 June

Before 0000

Nineteen US aircraft carrying pathfinders, equiped with seven color coded Aldis lamps along with AN/PPN-1 "Eureka" radar beacons, departed ahead of the

were sent out ahead of the main wave of C-47s

Approx. 0000

At around midnight, the main wave of C-47s took off from England. The planes then came together over the English Channel, and then followed their routes towards the DZs.

Drops

6 June

0015 to 0010

At approximately this time, the nineteen aircraft carrying the pathfinders, approaching the DZs, encountered unexpected cloud banks, which hindered their navigational abilities. Only some teams actually managed to get to their assigned DZ and properly mark them.

The pathfinder transports didn't radio back anything about the clouds due to the need to keep radio silence. When the main wave of C-47s began arriving, they encountered those could banks, which also disrupted their navigational abilities, leading to many aircraft climbing to different altitudes to avoid a mid-air collision.

Approx. 0130 - Beginning of Mission Albany

0130 is around the time that the units of the 101st Airborne began their drops.