June 2006 from HarperCollinsWithin hours of landing in Normandy, the men of the 82nd Airborne Division accomplished their first mission when they seized the critical crossroads town of Ste. Mere Eglise. But as the sun rose on June 6, 1944, the airborne commanders realized that most of the nearly 14,000 paratroopers dropped on the extreme right flank of the Allied invasion area had missed their targets. The scattered troopers fought in small groups, cut off from one another by the dense Norman hedgerows and cleverly dug-in German defenders. The lightly armed paratroopers stood between the vulnerable landing beaches and repeated enemy counterattacks. They fought for no-name crossroads and isolated fields along the first few miles of the long road to Berlin. Their training, courage and leadership paid off; they purchased with their blood the critical hours the Allies needed to get ashore. Often outnumbered and frequently outgunned, the men of the 82nd accomplished every mission, held every piece of ground gained, and thus helped secure the success of the greatest amphibious invasion in history.
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