Mission Albany | |||||||
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Part of the American airborne landings in Normandy, Operation Overlord | |||||||
Insignia of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States | Nazi Germany | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Maxwell D. Taylor | Friedrich von der Heydte | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
101st Airborne Division 65th Armored Field Artillery Battalion Company A, 746th Tank Battalion |
6th Fallschirmjager Regiment German III Battalion-191st Artillery Regiment. | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
6,928 paratroops 2,300 seaborne glider troop reinforcements | Approximately 6,000 (7 battalions infantry, one regiment artillery) | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
(Campaign) 546 killed 2,217 wounded 1,907 missing | Estimated 4,500 killed, wounded, and missing |
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 during World War II. It was the opening step of Operation Neptune, the assault portion of the Allied invasion of Normandy, Operation Overlord. Five hours ahead of the D-Day landings, 6,928 paratroopers jumped from 443 C-47 Skytrain troop-carrier planes into the southeast corner of France's Cotentin Peninsula.[1] The troops were meant to land in an area of roughly 15 square miles (39 km2), but were scattered by bad weather and German ground fire over an area twice as large, with four sticks 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.