Mission Albany was a parachute combat assault at night by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division on June 6, 1944, part of the American airborne landings in Normandy. It was the opening step of Operation Neptune, the assault portion of the Allied invasion of France, Operation Overlord. 6,928 paratroopers made their jumps from 443 C-47 Skytrain troop carrier planes into an intended objective area of roughly 15 square miles (39 km2) located in the southeast corner of the Cotentin Peninsula of France five hours ahead of the D-Day landings. The landings were badly scattered by bad weather and German ground fire over an area twice as large, with some troops dropped as far as 20 miles (32 km) away.
The division took most of its objectives on D-Day, but required four days to consolidate its scattered units and complete its mission of securing the left flank and rear of the U.S. VII Corps, reinforced by 2,300 glider infantry troops who landed by sea.
Read more about Mission Albany: Overview, Mission Description, Air Movement Table - Mission Albany, Saint Côme-du-Mont, Carentan, Casualties
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“The mission is too important to allow you to jeopardize it.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)