Timeline
-
January 14 1944
The 507th and 508th PIR in Northern Ireland -
Beginning of February 1944
SHAEF - Operation Neptune -
February 8 1944
Major General William C. Lee is replaced temporarily by Don F. Pratt -
February 13 1944
The 82nd Airborne Division settles in England -
February 28 1944
The IX Troop Carrier Command's US Airborne Pathfinder School settles in England -
March 1st 1944
The Airborne Command becomes the Airborne Center -
March 14 1944
Brigadier General Maxwell D. Taylor is appointed commander in chief of the 101st Airborne Division -
April 1944
Creation of Airborne "Phantom Divisions" -
End of March 1944
The 504th PIR joins England -
May 18 1944
The objectives of D-Day -
May 28 1944
D-Day objective changes -
Night of the 5 to 6 June 1944
Operation Titanic -
June 6 1944
D-Day: The longest day -
June 6 through 7 1944
Gliders landing -
July 3 and 4 1944
Drop in Dutch New-Guinea -
July 10 1944
The 101st Airborne Division returns to England -
July 13 through 14 1944
The 82nd Airborne Division returns to England -
August 2nd 1944
Activation of the 1st Allied Airborne Army -
August 15 1944
Operation Dragoon -
August 27 1944
Ridgway at the head of the XVIII Airborne Corps -
September 17 1944
Operation Market Garden -
End of October 1944
Brigadier General James M. Gavin receives his second Major General star -
During November 1944
82nd et 101st Airborne Division: ordered to rest -
November 29 1944
The 11th Airborne Division in the Philippines -
December 16 1944
Battle of the Bulge -
December 25 1944
The 17th Airborne in the Battle of the Bulge
June 6 1944
D-Day: The longest day
On 6 June 1944, between 0.16 and 2.45 am, 13,348 paratroopers from the 101st and 82nd US Airborne Divisions were dropped over the Cotentin peninsula.
Albany was the code name given to the 101st Airborne parachute drop. 443 C-47 aircraft were needed to transport the 6,928 paratroopers, nicknamed the Screaming Eagles, on their first combat mission.
They were followed 10 minutes later by the Boston mission, the parachute drop of the 82nd Airborne. This force was made up of 379 additional aircraft carrying the 6,420 All-Americans. These two operations were preceded by 20 aircraft carrying the Pathfinders teams, i.e. around 350 paratroopers who had to secure and mark out the drop zones (DZ).
At dawn, paratroopers from the 3/505th under Ltc Edward C. Krause took Sainte-Mère-Eglise.
