Contents Preface vii Maps xiv 1. STARTING UP How to Put a Squadron Together 1 Where we all came from "What's your MOS?" It was not a summer camp Training crews 2. GETTING BLOODED Airborne Operations Before Our Time 25 Airborne combat begins The Germans conquer Crete Warming up Troop carrier's baptism of fire: North Africa, Sicily, Italy 3. TRAVELING On the Road to Our War 43 The trip "It's rough in the ETO!" 4. GETTING WITH IT Training and Tourism in the ETO 58 Training in England Tourists Getting to know them 5. ASSAULTING To Normandy and Back 78 D-Day: A day of revelations Securing the base "This is it!" 6. REINFORCING Our Normandy Glider Mission 98 Pre-dawn glider missions Operation ELMIRA Over LZ " W"— and on it 7. EVALUATING Second Thoughts About Operation NEPTUNE 111 NEPTUNE worked Troop carrier and NEPTUNE Judging the 81st Troop Carrier Squadron's role The airborne troopers' view Judging ourselves 8. FLYING Plane, Pilots, and Crew 125 The C-47 "We were all a little crazy" Radio operators and crew chiefs 9. GLIDING Our "Glider Guiders" 145 Whose "return trip war"? Doctrine and training Glider pilots and their status 10. ENGINEERING What It Took to Keep 'Em Flying 167 Fly it or junk it? Our Engineering TO Party of the first part On the glider line Morale on the line 11. COMMANDING How to Run Combat Operations 185 The TO of the TCC The Operations Office The motor pool Communications Intelligence 12. MANAGING How to Run a Squadron 210 The Orderly Room Sick Call! Chow! Quartermaster Supply 13. BREAKING OUT The Controversy Over Troop Carrier Freighting Potential 226 Fighters or freighters? Giving Patton the gas 14. SUNNING Italy and the Assault on Southern France 247 From Membury to Voltone Politics and strategy in Operation DRAGOON The missions "Champagne campaign"? 15. MARKET-GARDENING "Airborne Carpet" or "Hell's Highway"? 273 Three names "A bridge too far"? The first two missions Was there still a chance? 16. FALLING SHORT The Tragic Outcome of the Holland Invasion 297 An aborted mission MARKET-GARDEN falls to pieces Did troop carrier fail the test? 17. REASSESSING Glider Potential and Performance 318 The Waco and the Horsa Assessing the glider's role Their critiques and our experiences 18. RE-SUPPLYING The Battle of the Bulge 338 A dreaded winter war Hitler's Ardennes offensive 19. CAMPING OUT The French Connection 359 Setting up at Melun At home in "Tent City" Operations before the Rhine assault The first time I saw Paris 20. SUPPORTING MONTGOMERY Preparations for the Last Assault 376 Summitry Planning VARSITY Preliminaries at Melun 21. STORMING GERMANY The Drop Across the Rhine 387 Our Rhine journey Casualty lists Hell on the ground Assessing VARSITY 22. CLEANING UP The Final Missions and the Return Home 409 Repatriations Adding up "points" Last missions Tag ends Splitting up 23. THINKING BACK How It Looks to Us Now 439 Judging troop carrier "A good outfit" How our experiences changed our lives Forgotten fields Appendix 1. 81st TROOP CARRIER SQUADRON CASUALTIES 455 Appendix 2. THE ROSTER, FEBRUARY 1945 457 Appendix 3. TIME LINE: AIRBORNE HISTORY AND THE 81st TCS 467 Glossary 471 Sources 473 Index 477 Maps 1. Husky II Mission, July 11, 1943 36 2. The 81st TCS's Routes to England 50 3. Operation NEPTUNE, Routes of Troop Carrier Missions 86 4. Operation NEPTUNE, Approach and Assault Areas of Airborne Missions 92 5. Paratroop Drop of the 101st Airborne Division in Operation NEPTUNE 113 6. Operation DRAGOON, Troop Carrier Route 257 7. Operation MARKET, Initial Troop Carrier Missions, September 17, 1944 281 8. Battle of the Bulge, December 10-27, 1944 344 9. Operation VARSITY, Flight Routes, March 24, 1945 379 10. Operation VARSITY, Assault Area 391 Digitized by http://www.afhso.af.mil

New ed. of: Green light! : men of the 81st Troop Carrier Squadron tell their story. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c1989

Includes bibliographical references (p. [473]-476) and index

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