Band of Brothers

In Chapter Four, Ambrose recounts the integration of the 101stinto the VII Corps of the U.S. First Army under General Omar Bradley in preparation for D-Day (“Operation Eagle”), the invasion of Normandy, France, a site that was crucial to wresting control of Western Europe from Germany. VII Corps’ role was to capture part of the Cotentin Peninsula, code-named “Utah Beach,” which placed them on the “extreme right flank of the invasion area” (57). The central problem for Eisenhower was that he “needed to provide sufficient width to the invasion to bring in enough infantry divisions in the first wave to overpower the enemy, dug in behind Hitler’s ‘Atlantic Wall’” (57).

The terrain at Utah Beach—free of houses, with a “gradual slope and low sand dunes” (58)—should have made assault on it an easier task than those assigned to the other troops, but the German commander, Rommel, had flooded the fields surrounding the area. The flooding forced any troops attempting to enter the area onto causeways, roads that were defended with hidden German artillery (58). The paratroopers’ objective was to make a night drop to seize the causeway exits and disable German artillery to clear the way for incoming troops.

There was little room for error in the plan, so in April 1944, the entirety of VII Corps moved to Slapton Sands, Devonshire, England, which had a terrain that was similar to Utah Beach’s, to prepare.