Matthew Ridgway - World War II

World War II

In August 1942, Ridgway was promoted to major general and was given command of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division upon Omar N. Bradley's assignment to the 28th Infantry Division. The 82nd, having already established a combat record in World War I, had earlier been chosen to become one of the army's five new airborne divisions. The conversion of an entire infantry division to airborne status was an unprecedented step for the U.S. Army, and required much training, testing, and experimentation.

Unlike his men, Ridgway did not first go through airborne jump school before joining the division. Ridgway successfully converted the 82nd into a combat-ready airborne division; he remained in command and eventually earned his Paratrooper wings.

Ridgway helped plan the airborne invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and commanded the 82nd in combat there. During the planning for the invasion of the Italian mainland, the 82nd was tasked with taking Rome by coup de main in Operation Giant II. Ridgway strongly objected to this unrealistic plan, which would have dropped the 82nd on the outskirts of Rome in the midst of two German heavy divisions. The operation was cancelled only hours before launch. In 1944, Ridgway helped plan the airborne operations of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Europe. In the Normandy operations, he jumped with his troops, who fought for 33 days in advancing to Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte near Cherbourg (St Sauveur was liberated on June 14, 1944).

In September 1944, Ridgway was given the command of the XVIII Airborne Corps which was deployed in Operation Market Garden. The XVIII Airborne Corps also helped stop and later push back German troops during the Battle of the Bulge. In March 1945, he led his troops into Germany during Operation Varsity, and was wounded in the shoulder by German grenade fragments on March 24, 1945. In June 1945 he was promoted to lieutenant general. At war's end, Ridgway was on a plane headed for a new assignment in the Pacific theater, under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, with whom he had served while a captain at the United States Military Academy at West Point.