Chapter 16 Summary and Analysis

"'Nous Restons Ici': The Airborne in the Cotentin" opens at dawn of June 6, with the 82nd and 101s Airborne scattered across the peninsula in small pockets. Unit cohesion is gone and mixed groups fight more for survival than for planned objectives. This confusion affects the Germans, who cannot determine the size of the attacking force. Radios have short ranges and are easily jammed. Gen. Ridgeway, "a very brave and forceful man," can only gather data on what is happening around him, but hardly head a functioning command post. Dawn brings euphoria but also the realization that they have lost their "best ally," concealment. Having lost most of their heavy equipment, the paratroopers are wisest to evade the Germans, but with a "can-do" attitude, they fight in the hedgerows, typically getting wounded and pinned down, with the German machine-gunners being unable to...