A total of 13,100 American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne and the 101 Airborne leapt into the night sky on 6th June, charged with seizing and holding the western flank during the early hours of D-Day. As a part of the German defensive scheme they had flooded vast swathes behind the beaches of Utah and there were only four causeways where the troops landing could feasibly exit the narrow strip of foreshore. The Airborne troops were to take control of these causeways, making sure the marines could safely leave the beaches. Their role was also to secure the bridges over the Douve River at Carentan and destroy the Saint Martin de Varreville, Azeville and Crisbecq gun emplacements. They were also charged with liberating the village of Sainte Mere Eglise, which sat on the main road between Cherborg and Paris. By holding the bridges and the main road they would be able to prevent reinforcements reaching the German troops on the peninsula and allow the amphibious force to breakout more easily from the tenuous beachhead. At midnight on the 6th June, after a 24 hour delay due to stormy weather, the operation got under way. Lieutenant Norman Harry Poole became the first paratrooper to land in occupied France as part of the Titanic teams who landed west of Saint Lo and set about deploying recordings of fake battle noises and were joined by 200 dummies, parachuted into the area to complete the charade. The advanced partys objective was to distract and confuse the Germans ahead of the actual landings.
*Please note, continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life