D-Day: Eisenhower and His Paratroopers

Self | June 6, 2014 | Self

[Retain Mike]

General Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in London to command Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) for the last five months of planning for D-Day. During that time he achieved much more than the oft repeated portrayal of managing a political/military alliance. Though he never led troops in combat, his leadership sustained many unprecedented initiatives for the successful Normandy landings. The air assault exemplifies the frightful uncertainties plaguing this “Day of Days”.

The night before D-Day, 20,400 American and British paratroopers dropped behind the Normandy beaches from 1,250 C-47 aircraft plus gliders. This massive assault was attempted just 17 years after Charles Lindberg flew the Atlantic solo for the first time.

To the last moment Ike's air commander, British Air Chief Marshall Leigh-Mallory, saw only tragic forebodings reinforced by memories of American losses in North Africa and Sicily, and the German catastrophe on Crete. The German losses there were so severe that Hitler forbid any further massive air assaults. Leigh-Mallory anticipated over half the planes and gliders would be destroyed before reaching the drop zones with surviving paratroopers fighting isolated until they were killed or captured.

The unescorted transports would arrive over Normandy the night of June 5 in three streams with each 300 miles long; thereby allowing the Germans up to two hours to reposition night fighters and anti-aircraft artillery for maximum slaughter of the transports. Most pilots were flying their first combat mission. Leigh-Mallory had received specific intelligence the German 91st Air Landing Division, specialists in fighting paratroopers, and the 6th Parachute Regiment inexplicably moved into the area around St. Mere-Eglise, where the American divisions were to land. Could these movements mean the deception plan for D-Day directing attention to Pas de Calais was breaking down?

Ike remained strategically committed to the airborne assault, because it would enable the early capture of Cherbourg. Without port facilities, the limited logistic support across the beaches could doom the entire invasion.

At the same time he was devoted to the men. The evening before D-Day, Eisenhower left SHAEF headquarters at 6 PM and traveled to Newbury where the 101st Airborne was boarding for its first combat mission. Ike arrived at 8 PM and did not leave until the last C-47 was airborne over three hours later.

In My Three Years with Eisenhower Captain Harry C. Butcher says, "We saw hundreds of paratroopers with blackened and grotesque faces, packing up for the big hop and jump. Ike wandered through them, stepping over, packs, guns, and a variety of equipment such as only paratroop people can devise, chinning with this and that one. All were put at ease. He was promised a job after the war by a Texan who said he roped, not dallied, his cows, and at least there was enough to eat in the work. Ike has developed or disclosed an informality and friendliness with troopers that almost amazed me". The famous picture of Eisenhower supposedly forcefully delivering last minute instructions to the troopers actually involved talking about his experience working in a store when he was a kid.

In Crusade in Europe General Eisenhower says, "I found the men in fine fettle, many of them joshingly admonishing me that I had no cause for worry, since the 101st was on the job, and everything would be taken care of in fine shape. I stayed with them until the last of them were in the air, somewhere about midnight. After a two hour trip back to my own camp, I had only a short time to wait until the first news should come in”.

One of the first D-Day reports was from Leigh-Mallory with news only 29 of 1,250 C-47's were missing and only four gliders were unaccounted for. That morning Leigh-Mallory sent Ike a message frankly saying it is sometimes difficult to admit that one is wrong, but he had never had a greater pleasure than in doing so on this occasion. He congratulated Ike on the wisdom and courage of his command decision.

We rest in the comfort of historical certainty and will never understand the courage required to live this history forward, The above represents only one of many crushing anxieties Eisenhower persevered through. The specter of Passchendaele, the Somme, and Ypres, where the British incurred murderous losses for gains of only yards, had invaded most planning discussions. And this time the allies were intending to undertake an amphibious and air assault more daunting than any land campaign of WW I.

Partial bibliography:

Crusade in Europe by General Dwight Eisenhower

My Three Years with Eisenhower by Captain Harry C. Butcher

The Secret Life of Stewart Menzies Spymaster to Winston Churchill by Anthony Cave Brown

D-Day by Steven E. Ambrose

Picture of Eisenhower http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/pings?more=330525619

D-Day Pictures http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2009/06/05/the-65th-anniversary-of-d-day-on-the-normandy-beaches/#

D-Day: Presidential radio address to the nation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jeI3vwz3p4

[Retain Mike]

While looking someing else I again came across what Richard Winters said the evening of D-Day.

“Evening allowed a few minutes of quiet reflection. With our outposts in place, I stretched out to catch a few hours of sleep, even though the rattle of German small-arms fire continued throughout the night. The Germans were evidently not as tired as we were because they fired their machine-guns all night and hollered like a bunch of drunken kids having a party. Before I dosed off, I did not forget to get on my knees and thank God for helping me to live through this day and to ask His help on D+1. I would live this war through one day at a time, and I promised myself that if I survived, I would find a small farm somewhere in the Pennsylvania countryside and spend the remainder of my life in quiet and peace.”