The first invaders of Normandy, on June 6, 1944, did not arrive by sea during the day but by air at night. Part of Operation Neptune, the channel-crossing phase of the larger Operation Overlord, some 820 C-47 troop carrier airplanes dropped more than 13,000 U.S. paratroops of the 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions on the Cotentin Peninsula. Their mission was to strike the German Utah beach defenses from the rear, black enemy counterattacks on the beachhead, take key communication centers, and seize bridges and causeways over rivers and marshes. Approximately 100 additional C-47s dropped gliders laden with more troops and equipment before the first amphibious forces landed. (1) How well did the pre-dawn troop carriers do? The common impression is that they did very poorly. (2) The troops seemed to have been scattered all over the peninsula. In this paper, I want to explore that impression and raise some other questions. Why were the troops so separated from each other? Just how scattered were the drops after all? Were there other reasons the airborne divisions took so long to assemble? In short, has history been fair to the troop carrier pilots?
