Brink, van den Brink La 101st Airborne en France

Le crépuscule des aigles

Activated in August 1942, the U.S. 101st Airborne Division saw its first combat action in Normandy on the night of June 6, 1944. It played a decisive role in linking the front lines at Omaha and Utah Beaches. In its subsequent engagements, it distinguished itself through outstanding performance: in the Netherlands in September 1944, then at Bastogne and in Alsace during the winter of 194445, before concluding its campaigns in May 1945 with the capture of the Kehlsteinhaus. In the interimand again in the summer of 1945the division spent two periods in France, first in Champagne and then in Burgundy, to rest, reorganize, and train. These periods enabled the 101st to further develop, re-equip, and integrate new personnel. These periods are only sparsely documented and often give rise to ambiguities regarding specific locations and dates. Nevertheless, they constitute an integral and vivid part of the division's historya history filled with drama and, at times, even humorous episodes. The aim of this book is to reconstruct these little-known yet crucial phases in both time and space. With the end of the war in Europeand subsequently in the Pacificthe U.S. Army rapidly embarked upon the immense task of repatriating and demobilizing its millions of soldiers. Without warning, the 101st Airborne Division was deactivated in Auxerre on November 30, 1945. Raised as a combat unit in France, it thus ultimately met its end in France as well.