OPERATION "ELMIRA"

IX Troop Carrier Command - 82nd Airborne Division


Lewis H. Breton

Paul L. Williams

Julian M. Chappell

Maurice Beach

Charles H. Young

Frank X. Krebs
 
'Elmira' was considered an essential mission, delivering two battalions of glider artillery and 24 howitzers to the 82nd Airborne Division. It consisted of four serials of aircraft, the first to arrive ten minutes after 'Mission Keokuk', a similar but much smaller mission to reinforce the 101st Airborne Division. To reduce congestion over the landing zones, two serials of mission Elmira were delayed two hours until just before sunset. These carried both battalions of glider field artillery and their guns. Because the missions were flown on British Double Summer Time, both were daylight missions, with the first wave taking off at 1907 and arriving at 2104, and the second wave taking off at 2037 and arriving at 2255.
The planned and briefed landing zone for the gliders was LZ W, located two miles southeast of Sainte-Mère-Église, but a smaller landing zone had also been put in operation that morning north of the town on Drop Zone O.
 
      
 
6 June 44
Hour Unit #Plane Air Force #AC Airfield DZ - LZ
2110 Btry C 80th AAA Bn 437th TCG 26 Ramsbury (469) LZ "W"
2120 82nd Airb. Rec. Plt 438th TCG 50 Greenham Common (486) LZ "W"
2300 319th GFA Bn 436th TCG 50 Membury (66) LZ "W"
2310 320th GFA Bn 436th TCG 50 Welford (474) LZ "W"