Airborne: 82nd Airborne Division 1970 US Army "The Big Picture" All American Division
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"
TRACES THE
HISTORY OF THE "ALL AMERICAN" 82ND AIRBORNE, THE
FIRST ARMY AIRBORNE DIVISION, IN
WORLD WAR II, IN SANTO DOMINGO IN
1965, AND IN
VIETNAM."
Public domain film from the
National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/82nd_Airborne_Division
The
82nd Airborne Division is an active airborne infantry division of the
United States Army specializing in parachute landing operations.
Based at
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the 82nd Airborne Division is the primary fighting arm of the
XVIII Airborne Corps.
The
82nd Division was constituted in the
National Army on 5
August 1917, and was organized on 25 August 1917, at
Camp Gordon, Georgia. Since its initial members came from all
48 states, the unit acquired the nickname "All-American", which is the basis for its famed "AA" shoulder patch.
Famous soldiers of the division include
Sergeant Alvin C. York,
General James M. Gavin,
Dave Bald Eagle (grandson of
Chief White Bull),
Senator Strom Thurmond (325th
GIR in
World War II)
...
History
The 82nd Division was first constituted on 5 August 1917 in the National Army. It was organized and formally activated on 25 August 1917 at Camp Gordon, Georgia. The division consisted entirely
of newly conscripted soldiers. When commanders discovered that the division contained draftees from the forty-eight
US states that existed at the time, they nicknamed it "the All-American division."
The bulk of the division was two infantry brigades... It sailed to
Europe to join the
American Expeditionary Force in fighting
World War I.
World War I
In early April, the division embarked from the ports in
Boston, New York and
Brooklyn to
Liverpool, England, where the division fully assembled by mid-May
1918. From there, the division moved to mainland Europe, leaving
Southampton and arriving at
Le Havre, France, and then moved to the British-held region of
Somme on the front lines, where it began sending small numbers of troops and officers to the front lines to gain combat experience. On 16 June it moved by rail to
Toul, France to take position on the front lines in the
French sector. Its soldiers were issued French weapons and equipment to simplify resupply. The division was briefly assigned to
I Corps before falling under the command of
IV Corps until late August. It was then moved to the
Woëvre front, in the
Lagney sector, where it operated with the French
154th Infantry Division...
World War II
Louisiana to
Italy
The 82nd Division was redesignated on
13 February 1942 as Division
Headquarters, 82nd Division. It was recalled to active service on 25
March 1942, and reorganized at
Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, under the command of
Major General Omar N. Bradley. During this training period, the division brought together four officers who would ultimately steer the
US Army during the following two decades:
Matthew B. Ridgway,
Matthew D.
Query, James M. Gavin, and
Maxwell D. Taylor. Under
General Bradley, the 82nd Division's
Chief of Staff was
George Van
Pope.
On
15 August 1942, the
82nd Infantry Division became the
Army's first airborne division, and was redesignated the 82nd Airborne Division. In
April 1943, its paratroopers deployed to
North Africa under the command of Major General Matthew B. Ridgway to participate in the campaign to invade Italy. The division's first two combat operations were parachute assaults into
Sicily on 9 July and
Salerno on
13 September. The initial assault on Sicily, by the
505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was the first regimental-sized combat parachute assault conducted by the United States Army. The first glider assault did not occur until
Operation Neptune as part of
D-Day.
Glider troopers of the 319th and 320th Glider
Field Artillery and the 325th
Glider Infantry instead arrived in Italy by landing craft at
Maiori (319th) and Salerno (320th, 325th).
In
January 1944, the
504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which was temporarily detached to fight at
Anzio, adopted the nickname "
Devils in Baggy Pants", taken from an entry in a
German officer's diary. While the 504th was detached, the remainder of the
82nd moved to the
United Kingdom in
November 1943 to prepare for the liberation of Europe.
Post WWII
The division returned to the
United States on 3
January 1946 on the
RMS Queen Mary.
In New York City it got a ticker-tape
parade. In
1947 the
555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was assigned to the 82nd and was reflagged as the
3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
Instead of being demobilized, the 82nd found a permanent home at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, designated a
Regular Army division on
15 November 1948...