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101 Airborne
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Lo stemma della 101a Divisione Aviotrasportata
L'aquila calva
Il generale Dwight D. Eisenhower parla con il primo tenente Wallace C. Strobel e paracadutisti della Compagnia E del 502º Reggimento di Fanteria Paracadutista il 5 giugno 1944
General Dwight D. Eisenhower speaking with 1st Lieutenant Wallace C. Strobel and men of Company E, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment on 5 June. The placard around Strobel's neck indicates he is the jumpmaster for chalk No. 23 of the 438th TCG.
Truppe della 101ª Aviotrasportata in posa assieme ad una bandiera nazista catturata durante l'operazione dell'aviotrasportata dello sbarco in Normandia
101st Airborne troops posing with a captured Nazi vehicle air identification sign two days after landing at Normandy.
Il soldato Ware applica pitture da guerra al soldato Plaudo in Inghilterra nel giugno 1944
Private Ware applies last second war paint to Private Plaudo in England June 1944.
Soldati della 101a Aviotrasportata ispezionano un aliante precipitato, nel settembre 1944
Men of the 101st Airborne Division inspect a broken glider, September 1944.
La 101a Airborne Division
La 101st Airborne Division (101ª Divisione aviotrasportata), nota anche come Screaming Eagle (aquila urlante) è un'unità di fanteria elitrasportata dell'esercito statunitense.
Attualmente detiene il suo quartier generale a Fort Campbell, in Kentucky. È una delle più prestigiose e decorate unità dell'U.S Army, e l'unica divisione con due brigate d'aviazione.
Durante la seconda guerra mondiale fu impiegata come unità di paracadutisti nel teatro d'operazioni europeo partecipando in particolare alla battaglia di Normandia, l'operazione Market-Garden e l'assedio di Bastogne. Durante la guerra del Vietnam la 101ª fu trasformata in divisione aeromobile e quindi in divisione d'assalto aereo ma per ragioni storiche mantiene ancora oggi l'appellativo di aviotrasportata. Ha poi partecipato alla prima e seconda guerra del Golfo ed in teatri di guerra quali l'Iraq e l'Afghanistan, dove opera tutt'oggi.
Storia
La 101ª Divisione aerotrasportata fu attivata il 16 agosto 1942 a Camp Claiborne, in Luisiana. Il 19 agosto 1942 il suo primo comandante, il maggior generale William C. Lee, promise alle sue nuove reclute che la 101ª "non aveva nessuna storia, ma aveva un appuntamento con il destino".
Nel suo primo discorso, nel giorno in cui nacque la divisione, il generale Lee lesse l'Ordine generale numero 5, datato 19 agosto 1942:
«La 101ª Divisione aerotrasportata venne attivata il 16 agosto 1942 a Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. Non ha una storia, ma ha un appuntamento con il destino»
«Per la natura del nostro armamento, e delle tattiche in cui noi ci perfezioneremo, saremo chiamati ad effettuare operazioni di vasta portata ed importanza militare, e noi abitualmente entreremo in azione quando il bisogno è immediato ed estremo.»
«Permettetemi di richiamare la vostra attenzione sul fatto che il nostro distintivo è la grande aquila americana. Questo è un simbolo adatto per una divisione che schiaccierà i suoi nemici, cadendo su di loro come un fulmine dal cielo.»
«La storia ci ha messo a disposizione un record di alte prestazioni che spereremo di scrivere negli annali dell'esercito americano, e la popolazione americana, dipende totalmente e completamente dagli uomini di questa divisione. Ogni individuo, ogni funzionario, ogni semplice soldato si deve quindi considerare come una parte necessaria di uno strumento complesso e potente per il superamento del nemico e della nazione. Ciascuno, nel proprio lavoro, deve rendersi conto che non è solo un mezzo, ma un mezzo indispensabile per ottenere la vittoria.»
Lo Sbarco in Normandia
I paracadutisti ricognitori della 101st Airborne Division aprirono la strada nella notte precedente al D-Day. Partirono dal campo di aviazione RAF North Witham di Lincolnshire, dove si erano precedentemente addestrati assieme ai paracadutisti della 82nd Airborne Division.
Gli obiettivi della 101ª Divisione aviotrasportata erano quelli di rendere sicure le quattro uscite dietro le spiagge di Omaha e di Utah Beach, distruggere una batteria d'artiglieria tedesca nel villaggio di Saint-Martin-de-Varreville, catturare gli edifici nel vicino paesino di Mésirès, nel quale i nazisti avevano allestito baracche ed un posto di comando per le postazioni d'artiglieria. In seguito i paracadutisti avrebbero dovuto: catturare il blocco di Douve River a la Barquette, catturare due passerelle che conducevano da Douvre a Porte Brévands, sabotare i ponti autostradali che conducevano da Douvre a Saint-Come-du-Mont e rendere sicura la valle di Douvre River.
Nel processo l'unità doveva inoltre interrompere le comunicazioni tedesche, istituire posti di blocco ostacolare la circolazione dei rinforzi tedeschi, stabilire una linea difensiva tra la testa della spiaggia e Volognes, ripulire l'area delle zone d'atterraggio al limite di Les Forges, ed unirsi con la 82ª.
Zone di lancio: "Able", "Charlie", "Dog".
Altre azioni rilevanti
OperazioneMarket Garden
Battaglia delle Ardenne
Liberazione di Kaufering
Perdite
- Perdite totali in battaglia: 9,328
- Morti in combattimento: 1,766
- Feriti in combattimento: 6,388
- Dispersi in combattimento: 207
- Prigionieri di guerra: 967
101st Airborne Division
The 101st Airborne Division ("Screaming Eagles") is a specialized modular light infantry division of the US Army trained for air assault operations. The Screaming Eagles has been referred to as "the tip of the spear" by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the most potent and tactically mobile of the U.S. Army's divisions by former Chief of Staff of the Army GEN Edward C. Meyer (ret). The 101st Airborne is able to plan, coordinate, and execute brigade-size air assault operations capable of seizing key terrain in support of operational objectives, and is capable of working in austere environments with limited or degraded infrastructure. These particular operations are conducted by highly mobile teams covering extensive distances and engaging enemy forces behind enemy lines. According to the author of Screaming Eagles: 101st Airborne Division, its unique battlefield mobility and high level of training have kept it in the vanguard of US land combat forces in recent conflicts. More recently, the 101st Airborne has been performing foreign internal defense and counterterrorism operations within Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 101st Airborne Division has a history that is nearly a century long. During World War II, it was renowned for its role in Operation Overlord (the D-Day landings and airborne landings on 6 June 1944, in Normandy, France), Operation Market Garden, the liberation of the Netherlands and its action during the Battle of the Bulge around the city of Bastogne, Belgium. During the Vietnam War, the 101st Airborne Division fought in several major campaigns and battles, including the Battle of Hamburger Hill in May 1969.
In mid-1968, it was reorganized and redesignated as an airmobile division and then in 1974 as an air assault division. The titles reflect the division's shift from airplanes to helicopters as the primary method of delivering troops into combat. Many current members of the 101st are graduates of the US Army Air Assault School. It is known as the ten toughest days in the US Army, and its dropout rate is around 50 percent. Division headquarters is at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. In recent years, the division has served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At the height of the War on Terror, the 101st Airborne Division had over 200 aircraft. The division now has slightly over 100 aircraft.[12] As of December 2017, the division had about 29,000 soldiers, down from 35,000 soldiers just three years prior because of budget restraints.
World War II to Present Day
On 30 July 1942, the Army Ground Forces ordered the activation of two airborne divisions not later than 15 August 1942. The 82nd Division, an Organized Reserve division that had been ordered into active military service in March 1942, was ordered to provide cadre to the 101st Division, the other division selected for the project, for all elements except parachute infantry. As part of the reorganization of the 101st Division as an airborne division, the unit was disbanded on 15 August 1942 and reconstituted and reactivated in the Army of the United States. On 19 August 1942, its first commander, Major General William C. Lee, read out General Order Number 5:
The 101st Airborne Division, which was activated on 16 August 1942, at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny.
Due to the nature of our armament, and the tactics in which we shall perfect ourselves, we shall be called upon to carry out operations of far-reaching military importance and we shall habitually go into action when the need is immediate and extreme. Let me call your attention to the fact that our badge is the great American eagle. This is a fitting emblem for a division that will crush its enemies by falling upon them like a thunderbolt from the skies.
The history we shall make, the record of high achievement we hope to write in the annals of the American Army and the American people, depends wholly and completely on the men of this division. Each individual, each officer and each enlisted man, must therefore regard himself as a necessary part of a complex and powerful instrument for the overcoming of the enemies of the nation. Each, in his own job, must realize that he is not only a means, but an indispensable means for obtaining the goal of victory. It is, therefore, not too much to say that the future itself, in whose molding we expect to have our share, is in the hands of the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division.
D-Day
The pathfinders of the 101st Airborne Division led the way on D-Day in the night drop before the invasion. They left from RAF North Witham, having trained there with the 82nd Airborne Division. These night drops caused a lot of trouble for the gliders. Many crashed and equipment and personnel were lost.
The 101st Airborne Division's objectives were to secure the four causeway exits behind Utah Beach between St Martin-de-Varreville and Pouppeville to ensure the exit route for the 4th Infantry Division from the beach later that morning. The other objectives included destroying a German coastal artillery battery at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville, capturing buildings nearby at Mésières believed used as barracks and a command post for the artillery battery, capturing the Douve River lock at La Barquette (opposite Carentan), capturing two footbridges spanning the Douve at La Porte opposite Brévands, destroying the highway bridges over the Douve at Saint-Côme-du-Mont, and securing the Douve River valley. Their secondary mission was to protect the southern flank of VII Corps. They destroyed two bridges along the Carentan highway and a railroad bridge just west of it. They gained control of La Barquette locks, and established a bridgehead over Douve River which was located north-east of Carentan.
In the process, units also disrupted German communications, established roadblocks to hamper the movement of German reinforcements, established a defensive line between the beachhead and Valognes, cleared the area of the drop zones to the unit boundary at Les Forges, and linked up with the 82nd Airborne Division.
Drop Zones at D-Day: "Able", "Charlie", "Dog".
Other relavant actions
Operation Market Garden
Battle of the Bulge
Liberation of Kaufering
Casualties
- Total battle casualties: 9,328
- Killed in action: 1,766
- Wounded in action: 6,388
- Missing in action: 207
- Prisoner of war: 967
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