James M. Gavin - World War II - D-Day and Mission Boston

D-Day and Mission Boston

Gavin was part of Mission Boston on D-Day. This was a parachute combat assault conducted at night by the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division on June 6, 1944, and part of the American airborne landings in Normandy. The intended objective was to secure an area of roughly 10 square miles (26 km2) located on either side of the Merderet River. They were to capture the town of Sainte Mère Église, a crucial communications crossroad behind Utah Beach, and to block the approaches into the area from the west and southwest. They were to seize causeways and bridges over the Merderet at La Fière and Chef-du-Pont, destroy the highway bridge over the Douve River at Pont l'Abbé (now Étienville), and secure the area west of Sainte Mère Église to establish a defensive line between Gourbesville and Renouf. Gavin was to describe the operation as having two inter-related challenges - it had to be 'planned and staged with one eye on deception and one on the assault'. Gavin's success lay in balancing these two factors to near perfection.

To complete its assignments, the 82nd Airborne Division divided itself into three forces:

• Force A (parachute): the three parachute infantry regiments and support detachments, commanded by Assistant Division Commander Brig Gen. James Gavin,
• Force B (glider): the glider infantry regiment and artillery battalions, and airborne support elements, commanded by Division Commander Maj Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, and
• Force C (seaborne): remaining combat elements, division support troops and attached units including tanks, landing at Utah Beach, commanded by Assistant Division Commander Brig Gen. George P. Howell.

Boston was the second of two combat jumps, with "Mission Albany" preceding it by one hour to drop the 101st Airborne Division. Each mission consisted of three regiment-sized air landings. Drop Zones T and N were west of the Merderet River from north to south, and Drop Zone O was east of it, just northwest of Sainte Mère Église. In the process units would also disrupt German communications, establish roadblocks to hamper the movement of German reinforcements, establish a defensive line between Neuville and Baudienville to the north, clear the area of the drop zones to the unit boundary at Les Forges and link up with the 101st Airborne Division.

The drops were scattered by bad weather and German antiaircraft fire over an area 3 to 4 times as large as planned; ironically, this gave the Germans the impression of a much larger force. Two regiments of the division were given the mission of blocking approaches west of the Merderet River, but most of their troops missed their drop zones entirely. The 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment jumped accurately and captured its objective, the town of Sainte-Mère-Église, which proved essential to the success of the division.