World War II Airborne Battles (WWII History Magazine Special).pdf

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Warfare History Network Presents
OP. VARSITY
AIRBORNE
BATTLES
World War II
The
Final
Drop
D-DAY:
The Fight for
MARKET-GARDEN:
Ste-Mere-Eglise
A Bridge
TOO FAR
Glider Assault
on Eben Emael
Fallschirmjägers
Bloody Fight for Crete
FIRST VICTORY:
CONTENTS
PAGE
52
78 |
GLIDER ASSAULT ON PEGASUS BRIDGE
A bold British glider assault seized a pair of vital
bridges in the early hours of D-Day.
BY CHRISTOPHER MISKIMON
BY FLINT WHITLOCK
0 4 |
EDITORIAL
06 |
AIRBORNE TOUR OF DUTY
General James M. Gavin and the 82nd Airborne
Division became legendary during World War II.
BY MICHAEL D. HULL
9 0 |
CLOSE ENCOUNTER
An American airborne engineer recalls his drop
into southern France and an operation with British
comrades.
BY CHRIS BLENDHEIM
16 |
THE FALL OF EBEN EMAEL
A handful of well-trained German glider troopers
subdued a seemingly impregnable fortress in a
matter of hours.
BY ROY STEVENSON
96 |
ACTION AT ARNHEM
BY DAVID H. LIPPMAN
2 6 |
SCANDINAVIAN AIRBORNE ASSAULT
German paratroopers fought stubborn defenders
during operations against Denmark and Norway.
BY HENRIK O. LUNDE
A bridge across the Rhine proved an insurmount-
able goal for the ill-fated British 1st Airborne dur-
ing Operation Market-Garden.
BY DAVID H. LIPPMAN
112 |
AMERICANS IN MARKET-GARDEN
Troopers of the U.S. Airborne Divisions fought with
distinction during the air-ground assault in the
autumn of 1944.
BY GEN. MICHAEL REYNOLDS
38 |
PYRRHIC PARACHUTE VICTORY IN CRETE
German parachute troops found the resistance
from Commonwealth soldiers particularly brutal in
the fight for the Greek island.
BY RICHARD RULE
128 |
CANINES TO THE RESCUE
To help downed airmen, the U.S. Army trained dogs
to parachute out of airplanes.
BY MICHAEL DOLAN AND KEVIN HYMEL
5 0 |
AIRBORNE!
The U.S. Army’s elite infantry had to earn their
wings before they could leap into battle.
KEVIN M. HYMEL
130 |
THE LAST DROP
The mission to breach the Rhine in March 1945
was the Allies’ biggest—and final—airborne/glider
operation of the war.
BY STEPHEN L. WRIGHT
52 |
TARGET: SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE
In Normandy on the night of June 5/6, 1944, the
U.S. 82nd Airborne Division overcame countless
SNAFUs to take a key village.
BY FLINT WHITLOCK
142 |
ANGELS TO THE RESCUE
Thousands of prisoners were at risk outside Manila
when the 11th Airborne Division staged a daring
and coordinated assault to bring them to freedom.
BY DONALD J. ROBERTS II
6 8 |
A SCREAMING EAGLE’S JOURNEY
Trooper Lud Labutka of the 101st Airborne Divi-
sion, fought his way through Normandy, Holland,
and the Battle of the Bulge.
BY RICHARD A. BERANTY
Cover: An American paratrooper prepares to board a transport plane for a combat jump, somewhere in Europe.
World War II Airborne Battles
© 2014 by Sovereign Media Company, Inc., all rights reserved. Copyrights to stories and illustrations are the property of their creators. The contents of
this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without consent of the copyright owner.
Published
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It took 6 Years to Fight… and 300,000 American Lives to win.
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agazine.com
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Mi lit ar y
He rit ag
e Pr es en
ts:
D-DAY!
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Airborne
Fight At
La Fiere
WWII HISTORY
RUSSIAN FRONT
Assault
on Kiev
One GI’s Bloody
Fight for Colmar
Navy Shootout
Legendary
Fighter Ace
“Flak Was Our
Worst Enemy”
B - 17 TA I L G
UNNER
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DOUGLAS BA
DER
ROSTOV
Nazi Assault O
SA
n
OPERATION BA
RBAROS
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orym
agazine.com
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ISTORY
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E D I TO R I A L
Warriors in the Wind
We are pleased to present the contributions of the airborne
forces––American, German, and British. Like comman-
dos, rangers, mountain troops, frogmen, submariners,
etc., paratroopers are regarded as one of the “elite” mili-
tary forces.
Made up strictly of volunteers, these high-risk types of
units are characterized as possessing tough, special training,
distinctive capabilities, exceptional courage, and an
unmatched esprit de corps. Often the first into battle, these
units also traditionally suffered disproportionately high
casualties. Yet, there were (and are today) no shortage of
volunteers. It is amazing what some men (and women, too)
will endure just to wear a small cloth insignia or metal
badge on their uniforms signifying that they are a cut above
the average.
Parachutes were first imagined by Leonardo da Vinci in
the 15th century and tested by the Croatia-born Renais-
sance scholar Faust Vrancic when he jumped from a tower
in Venice in 1617. People then began jumping from hot-air
balloons and, once the airplane became a practical reality,
from aircraft—primarily as a means of escape.
The credit for developing a military parachute doctrine
goes to the French, Italians, and Russians in the 1920s. But
it was Nazi Germany and Luftwaffe General Kurt Student
who advanced the concept into a potent weapon of war,
when Student’s Fallschirmjäger units used this surprise tech-
nique on May 10, 1940, to capture Belgium’s Eben Emael,
then considered the strongest fortress in Europe. On that
same day, an even larger drop of Fallschirmjäger took place
during the invasion of Holland.
One year later, though, after Germany’s successful air-
borne and glider raid on the British garrison at Crete
resulted in heavy casualties to the sky soldiers, Hitler for-
bade further large-scale airborne assaults. At this same time,
however, the British and Americans began expanding their
airborne capabilities.
In this Special Issue, we bring you fascinating stories of
the airborne forces. You’ll land with the Fallschirmjäger at
Eben Emael, and try to take “a bridge too far” with the
British paras in Holland. You’ll learn about the harrowing
experiences of a 101st Airborne Division trooper who
jumped into France and the Netherlands. You’ll be treated
to photo essays of American paratrooper training and even
the exploits of “para-dogs”––canines who earned their
jump wings!
You’ll find out about by the 11th Airborne Division’s dar-
ing attempt to rescue POWs in the Philippines, and discover
the little-known exploits of Canadian paratroopers during
Operation Varsity––the Allies’ massive crossing of the Rhine
near war’s end. There’s something here for every fan of air-
borne operations.
On a personal note, I have a strong attachment to the para-
troopers, as I made the required minimum five jumps at Fort
Benning, Georgia, in 1965 to qualify for my parachutist’s
badge. I still recall the mixture of fear and exhilaration that
I felt on those jumps—the sense that, while jumping out of a
perfectly good airplane with just a few square yards of silk
attached to my shoulders, I was doing something either
incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. I also still recall that,
during my three weeks of grueling training, I gained a healthy
respect and deep admiration for the airborne soldiers who,
just 20 years earlier, had jumped into enemy-held territory
and skies full of flying lead.
Today, some say that paratroopers are an anachronism,
as militarily obsolete as the horse cavalry, their arrival in a
battle zone having been superceded by helicopter-borne
troops. That may be true from a strictly tactical point of
view, but there is no denying that those who still qualify
for their jump wings consider their training and “elite sta-
tus” to be an important part of the overall military tradi-
tion, worthy of respect and emulation.
Flint Whitlock, Editor
Carl A. Gnam, Jr.
Editorial Director, Founder
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Samantha DeTulleo
Art Director
4
WORLD WAR II AIRBORNE BATTLES
Mark Hintz
Vice President & Publisher
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