D-Day exercises intensify

27th April 1944: Training exercises that are as realistic as possible bring injuries and deaths

An airborne training exercise in Britain, April 1944

During glider maneuvers in England, C-47s of the 101st Airborne Division, Ramsbury Airdrome, Berks, England, fly off to land after releasing the gliders shown on the ground below them.

‘Somewhere in England’, another paratroop drop.

Britain suddenly became a very crowded little island - as hundreds of thousands of troops prepared for battle. Over a million and a half US troops were now stationed across the country, along with the supplies and equipment needed to sustain them for many months. Only a small proportion were destined for D-Day itself, but for them, a series of airborne and seaborne exercises throughout the Spring of 1944 sought to prepare them as thoroughly and realistically as possible.

For Brigadier General ‘Jumping Jim’ Gavin, now assistant divisional commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, the training¹ had to match his own experiences of parachuting into Sicily, where he had led a notable assault on the German defenders:

All manoeuvres in which decisions were required were preceded by a long gruelling physical test, usually an overnight march of about eighteen to twenty miles with full combat equipment; Then when the men expected a rest, they were presented with difficult combat situations.

After an all-day maneuver, when they were tired and hungry, a night march was ordered. After a couple of hours of marching, at about midnight, they would be ordered to halt and go into a dispersed bivouac, in anticipation a night’s rest. After about an hour of sleep, which was just enough to cause them to lose their sense of orientation to events and environment, unit commanders were suddenly awakened and given a new set of orders requiring immediate movement. They marched until daylight, when a new situation was given to them, usually a final attack order. [...]

It was exacting training, but it gave me an opportunity to get to know a lot about them and for them to learn much about themselves.

But there was an added complication for the airborne forces headed for Normandy - on D-Day they would jump at night. Spencer F. Wurst² of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment describes the additional hazards:

Two main problems were intrinsic to our night exercises. First, although night jumps did help train us in procedures, every jump produced injuries like broken arms, legs, and ankles.