When The 505th Parachute Infantry Landed In Hell Instead Of Holland

When The 505th Parachute Infantry Landed In Hell Instead Of Holland

The morning of September 17th, 1944, arrived over the Netherlands with the kind of crystalline clarity that made airborne operations both possible and deadly. Colonel William Ekman of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment stood in the open doorway of his C-47 transport aircraft, watching the Dutch countryside unfold beneath him like a vast tactical map written in autumn fields and medieval villages. Behind him, eighteen other aircraft carried the men of his regiment toward what Field Marshal Montgomery had promised would be the operation that ended the war in Europe by Christmas. Operation Market Garden was the largest airborne assault in military history, a coordinated drop of three entire divisions designed to seize the bridges across the major rivers of Holland and open a corridor for British armored forces to drive straight into the heart of Nazi Germany.
Ekman had commanded the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment since its formation at Fort Bragg in 1942, molding civilian volunteers into one of the elite formations of the 82nd Airborne Division through months of training that had transformed farm boys and factory workers into professional soldiers capable of fighting behind enemy lines with minimal support. The regiment had proven itself during the invasion of Sicily and the fighting in Italy, establishing a reputation for tactical competence and aggressive leadership that had made it one of the most reliable units in the American airborne arsenal. Now they were embarking on what intelligence officers promised would be their most important mission, a deep penetration into German-occupied territory designed to collapse Nazi resistance in Western Europe through a single decisive stroke.

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