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- 101st Airborne Division, US Army during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

101st Airborne Division, US Army



   After the United States entered WW2, the 101st Division (US Army) was re-organised as an airborne unit and, on 15 August 1942, was activated as the 101st Airborne Division (nicknamed 'Screaming Eagles'). In mid-May of 1944, the Division shipped to England to train for Operation Overlord, the impending invasion of Normandy, as part of VII Corps (US). The Division first engaged in combat early on D-Day, June 6, when it conducted an airborne assault ('Mission Albany') behind German coastal defences in Normandy to prepare paths inland from the beaches where Allied forces were to land later that day during Operation Neptune, the opening phase of Operation Overlord that aimed to establish and consolidate a beachhead. In late August 1944, the Division was re-assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps (US), which was part of the newly formed 1st Allied Airborne Army. Except for short relief periods, the Division was in continual action from D-Day through April 1945. In addition to the Normandy campaign, the Division participated in major actions in Holland (Operation Market Garden), the Ardennes (the Battle of the Bulge, known officially as the Ardennes Counteroffensive), Alsace, and the Ruhr Valley. At the end of November 1945, the Division was de-activated.

The Division comprised the following front-line US Army units:

  • 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment
  • 502d Parachute Infantry Regiment
  • 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment
  • 327th Glider Infantry Regiment
  • 401st Glider Infantry Regiment
  • 326th Airborne Engineer Battalion
  • 81st Airborne Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion
  • 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion
  • 377th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion
  • 463d Parachute Field Artillery Battalion
  • 907th Glider Field Artillery Battalion
  • 101st Parachute Maintenance Battalion
  • 326th Airborne Medical Company


 

15th May 1944 Orders Issued

1st Sep 1944 Maps

3rd Sep 1944 Orders

4th Sep 1944 Poor Weather

14th Sep 1944 Orders

16th Sep 1944 Orders

16th Sep 1944 Orders

17th Sep 1944 In Action

17th Sep 1944 In Action

19th Sep 1944 Advance

20th Sep 1944 Advance

20th September 1944 Attack Made

21st Sep 1944 In Action

22nd September 1944 Rounds Fired

23rd Sep 1944 Position Obscure

25th Sep 1944 On the Move

25th Sep 1944 Attack Made

6th Oct 1944 Counter Attacks

6th Oct 1944 Reliefs

8th Oct 1944 In Defence

9th Oct 1944 Enemy Attack

10th Oct 1944 In Action

11th Oct 1944 Enemy Infantry

12th Oct 1944 Artillery in Action

23rd Dec 1944 Orders

23rd Dec 1944 Bridges Held

24th Dec 1944 Assalts Made

24th Dec 1944 Intelligence


If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.



Those known to have served with

101st Airborne Division, US Army

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records of 101st Airborne Division, US Army from other sources.



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Want to know more about 101st Airborne Division, US Army?


There are:29 items tagged 101st Airborne Division, US Army available in our Library

  These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War.


PFC. Bernard W Allison 321st Glider Field Artillery Regiment

Bernard Allison served with the 321st Glider Field Artillery Regiment.

Michelle Allison



Pvt. John B. Kimak Coy E. 506th Parachute Infantry Regimentt

John B Kimak Jr 101stPIR training camp in Georgia

Pvt. John B Kimak Jr

John Kimak, Junior 1924 - 2014, was my grandpap, and this is his story.

My grandfather was 18 years old, from Woods Run Ave, 15212, Pittsburgh, PA when he enlisted in the military in WW2. Grandpap entered the military on 30th of November 1942, where he did his training in Georgia and was separated 26th of December 1945. He served with the 101st Airborne Division USAAF.

I wish I had more to share. I wish I had asked more questions when I was younger, when he was alive. I wish I had just paid more attention to his stories. The following is information I received from my uncle (his son).

Grandpap was a WWII Army soldier who saw action in the invasion of Europe on D-day. He was in the 101st Airborne Paratrooper, 506th Regiment - Regimental Headquarters Company, Company E, the original Band of Brothers. His job was to hook up phone wires for communications. He was eventually captured by the Germans and spent most of the war in a German prison camp, Stalag 4F Workcamps Hartmannsdorf-Chemnitz Saxony 51-12. Here we know he and the others were not treated very well. He was a POW from 7th of June 1944 until 7th of May 1945, a month short of being a full year. His rank when discharged was Private and it was an administrative screw-up that he wasn't officially Private First Class.

If anyone knew him, or served, or was a POW with him, I would love to know. I do not have all the facts and I know his name is missing from so many sites.




S/Sgt. Harold H. Fuhrman HQ Coy. 101st Airborne Division

T/Sgt. Harold H. Fuhrman in 1942

My father, Harold Fuhrman, enlisted in the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in 1942. He shipped off to England in preparation for the D-Day invasion. While there, he was transferred to Division HQ where he served as a clerk. He made the invasion in a glider the evening before the general attack, was in combat for three days, and was then captured and spent the remainder of the war in various German POW camps. The last one (and the only one I know of) was Stalag III-C near Kuestrin, Germany. The camp was liberated by the Russians in April 1945, and he made his way east through Warsaw, Poland to the Crimea, where he boarded a ship that docked in Italy and then made its way to the USA.

Jerry Fuhrman



Pvt. Warren Harding Decker 509th PIR 101st Airborne Division

Pvt. Warren H. Decker was wounded and captured during "suicide" mission of the El Djem Bridge on December 27, 1942. POW camps included PG 98, PG 59, Stalag VI, Stalag IV, the "Black March away from Allied/Soviet forces, Wobbelin concentration camp, Stalag IIIA, Stalag IIB, then finally Stalag VIIA.

He remained a POW until liberated by 14th Armored Division of Patton's 3rd Army at Stalag VIIA, Moosburg, Bavaria, Germany on April 29, 1945.

Robert E. Decker









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