It was a sight that had rarely been seen before and which may never be seen again. It was almost the last large-scale night parachute jump of World War II. An hour after midnight, three hundred ninety-six C-47 aircraft, scattered over a hundred and fifty miles at ten airfields in west-central Italy, began turning over their engines. Over five thousand paratroopers of the 517th Regimental Parachute Combat Team were on board. At ten-second intervals planes taxied down dirt runways, lifted off, and circled into formation.The dust, compounded by darkness, was so thick that many pilots had to use compass bearings to find their way down the runways.
Takeoff times were from 0136 to 0151 for the ten serials, depending on the distance to the first check point at the Isle of Elba. Each serial required over an hour to get into formation, a column of "V of V's" nine planes wide. The entire formation, from the head of the first serial to the tail of the last, was over one hundred miles long. This was the ALBATROSS mission, to drop 5,630 paratroopers in Southern France. Only about 20% of the 517th landed within two miles of the Drop Zones. The 2nd Battalion had made a fair landing, but had only half its strength on hand. The 3rd was split into three groups a day's march away.
The artillery was in three groups near Frejus, Trans-en-Provence, and the DZ. The 1st Battalion was so widely scattered that it would take most of a day to get it together. The basic cause of the inaccurate landings was the heavy, unexpected fog bank. But there were other factors, including gross navigational error, excessive air speeds and altitudes, lack of practice in formation flying and failures of the red light-green light system. Paratroopers want most of all to be dropped upon their DZ. Failing this, they want at least to be concentrated together. Most of the 517th got neither. War is never easy.
Takeoff times were from 0136 to 0151 for the ten serials, depending on the distance to the first check point at the Isle of Elba. Each serial required over an hour to get into formation, a column of "V of V's" nine planes wide. The entire formation, from the head of the first serial to the tail of the last, was over one hundred miles long. This was the ALBATROSS mission, to drop 5,630 paratroopers in Southern France. Only about 20% of the 517th landed within two miles of the Drop Zones. The 2nd Battalion had made a fair landing, but had only half its strength on hand. The 3rd was split into three groups a day's march away.
The artillery was in three groups near Frejus, Trans-en-Provence, and the DZ. The 1st Battalion was so widely scattered that it would take most of a day to get it together. The basic cause of the inaccurate landings was the heavy, unexpected fog bank. But there were other factors, including gross navigational error, excessive air speeds and altitudes, lack of practice in formation flying and failures of the red light-green light system. Paratroopers want most of all to be dropped upon their DZ. Failing this, they want at least to be concentrated together. Most of the 517th got neither. War is never easy.
Happy Veteran's Day, November 11th.
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