 General Eldridge Chapman
R E L A T E D
B I O S
Gen
Matthew B Ridgway
Lt Gen Lewis H Brereton
Maj
Gen Omar N. Bradley
517th PIR WW II
Medal
of Honor Recipient
Pfc Melvin E Biddle
R E L A T E D
S I T E S
USAAF Airborne Troop Carriers in World War II
Camp Claiborne, Louisiana
ETO
Cross Channel Attack (Hyperwar)
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The 13th Airborne during World War II
Overview
 he 13th Airborne Division was activated at Camp Mackall, North Carolina
on August 13, 1943 - Friday the 13th - under the command of Major General George W Griner. However, that
December General Griner was replaced by Major General Eldridge Chapman.
(pictured left) General Chapman, one of the U.S Army's early airborne pioneers,
was head of Airborne Command at Camp Mackall and had seen action in the Mexican Border incident and World
War I.
At the beginning of 1945 the 13th Airborne Division, embarked for Europe and arrived in February.
They billeted in the small towns southeast of Paris. The division's major units when they arrived in France
were the 515th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) commanded by Colonel Harvey J Jablonsky; the 88th Glider
Infantry Regiment (GIR) commanded by Colonel Samuel Roth and the 326th GIR commanded by Colonel
William Poindexter. To strengthen the division for the final push into Germany the 517th Parachute
Regimental Combat Team commanded by Colonel Rupert Graves was also assigned as a permanent unit.
The 517th were veterans of Italy, Southern France, Belgium and Germany and chafed under the
untested leadership of the 13th Airborne officers. The officers combat leadership would remain untested as potential
aiborne objectives were continually overrun by advancing ground troops. Another operation code-named
"Arena" called for dropping four to six Allied airborne divisions 100 miles east of the Rhine. It would be
the largest airborne operation yet but General Eisenhower was unconvinced of its necessity and cancel it.
Operation Varsity was the first airborne invasion over the Rhine into Germany itself. But
General Ridgway gave the nod to the 17th Airborne based on their combat experience in the Ardennes. The
13th Airborne would be kept in "strategic reserve".
After the German surrender on May 7, 1945 the 13th and 101st Airborne Divisions were notified
of their reassignment to the Pacific. However, the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan in August, 1945
again dashed the 13th Airborne's chance to prove themselves. That same month the 13th Airborne was
shipped home and deactivated.
books
R E L A T E D B O O K S
Annussek, Greg Hitler's Raid to Save Mussolini: The Most Infamous Commando Operation of World War II. Sept 1, 2005, Da Capo Press, 353 pp. ISBN: 0306813963
Archer, Clark Paratroopers
Odyssey : A History of the 517th Parachute Combat Team. 266p., 1985, ISBN: 0961601507
Astor, Gerald 'Battling
Buzzards': The Odyssey of the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team 1943-1945. 338p.,
7/93, Donald I Fine Pub, ISBN: 0440236932
Breuer, William B Geronimo! American
Paratroopers in WWII. New York: St. Martin Press, 1989 621 p. ISBN: 0-312-03350-8
Breuer, William B Unexplained
Mysteries of World War II. John Wiley & Sons, Sept 1998 256 p. ISBN:0471291072
Brooks, Victor Hell is Upon Us:
D-Day in the Pacific-Saipan to Guam, June-August 1944.
Da Capo Press, (Sept 2005) 384 p. ISBN: 0306813696
Davis, Donald A Lightning Strike: The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor. New York: St. Martin Press, (March, 2005) 400 p. ISBN: 0-312-30906-6
D'Este, Carlonbsp;
Decision in Normandy William S Konnecky Assc(P), 560 p. ISBN: 1568522606
D'Este, Carlo
Patton: A Genius for War 1024 pp ISBN: 0060927623
Hastings, Max Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy Simon and Shuster(JUV), 396 p.
ISBN: 0671554352
Hicks, Anne The Last Fighting General: The Biography of Robert Tryon Frederick Schiffer Pub Ltd, 320pp, ISBN: 0764324306
Keegan, John The Second World War Penguin
(P), 708 p. ISBN: 014011341X
Keegan, John Six Armies in Normandy: From D-Day to the Liberation of Paris Penguin USA(P), 365 p.
ISBN: 0140235426
Kershaw, Alex The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of WWII's Most Decorated Platoon
Da Capo Press, 288 pp November 30, 2004 ISBN: 0306813041
MacDonald, Charles B A Time For
Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge Wm Morrow & Co
(P), 720 p. ISBN: 068151574
O'Donnell, Patrick K. Beyond Valor
Free Press, 2001, 384 p. ISBN: 0684873842
O'Donnell, Patrick K. Into the Rising Sun:
In Their Own Words, World War II's Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat
Free Press, 3/13/2002, 320 p. ISBN: 0743214803
Ospital, John
We Wore Jump Boots and Baggy Pants Willow House, 1977. 118 p. ISBN: 0912450150
Ruggero, Ed
Combat Jump: The Young Men who Led the Assault into Fortress Europe, July, 1943
HarperCollins, 10/21/2003. 388 p. ISBN: 0060088753
Ryan, Cornelius
The Longest Day Touchstone Books (P), 350 p. ISBN: 0671890913
Ryan, Cornelius
A Bridge Too Far 670p. ISBN: 0684803305
Turnbull, Peter
I Maintain The Right: The 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion in WW II Authorhouse, Oct 31,2005. 204 p. ISBN: 1420871447
The Center of Military History
The War in the Mediterranean: A WWII Pictorial History Brasseys, Inc.,
465 p. ISBN:1574881302
Verier, Mike
82nd Airborne Division in
Colour Photographs (Europa Militaria, No 9) ISBN: 187 200 4857
Wildman, John B All Americans 82nd
Airborne. Meadowlands Militaria, 6/83 ISBN:091 208 1007
Wurst, Spencer & Gayle Descending From the Clouds: A Memoir of Combat in the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment: 82nd Airborne Division Casemate (Oct 2004), 256 p. ISBN: 1932033319
Yardley, Doyle R
Home Was Never Like This. Yardley Enterprises, Aug, 2002, 312 p. ISBN:0971743908
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