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 (1939-1945) WWII
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17thfabn
Ohio OH USA
Posts: 187
Joined: 2008
Plan for the 82nd Airborne to capture Rome fall 1943
10/5/2022 11:22:38 AM
In the Autumn 2022 issue of World War II there is an article about negotiations for the surrender of Italy in 1943.

One of the wildest ideas was for the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division to conduct an air assault on air fields around Rome and in conjugation with Italian troops secure the City of Rome.

Of course fortunately for the 82nd Airborne, and the Allied cause this didn't happen.  We all know how well the Anzio landings worked. Or the Market Garden operation in the Netherlands.  Imagine the 82nd being that much more isolated. It is hard to think of any outcome other than the entire division being killed or captured. 

Per the article it appears that some aircraft were already in the air with troops on board when the mission was scrubbed at the last minute. 
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NYGiant
home  USA
Posts: 953
Joined: 2021
Plan for the 82nd Airborne to capture Rome fall 1943
10/6/2022 11:21:51 AM
It will have been a debacle
DT509er
Santa Rosa CA USA
Posts: 1258
Joined: 2005
Plan for the 82nd Airborne to capture Rome fall 1943
10/6/2022 1:38:24 PM
Lessons lost but recalled at the last minute saved the "All Americans" from surely a suicidal jump into Rome. Sicily avoided a massacre with troopers scattered about, jumps in Africa by the 509th were at best haphazard, while the jump into Avellino, Italy was a failure; although the jump onto the beach at Salerno was very successful, but that was a much smaller unit than a division jump.

I imagine the 82nd would have fared about as well as the Russian Paratroopers at Hostemel airfield had they made the jump into Rome.

"Airborne!"

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"American parachutists-devils in baggy pants..." German officer, Italy 1944. “If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.” Lord Ernest Rutherford
RichTO90
Bremerton WA USA
Posts: 711
Joined: 2004
Plan for the 82nd Airborne to capture Rome fall 1943
11/8/2022 6:12:47 PM
Quote:
In the Autumn 2022 issue of World War II there is an article about negotiations for the surrender of Italy in 1943.

One of the wildest ideas was for the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division to conduct an air assault on air fields around Rome and in conjugation with Italian troops secure the City of Rome.

Of course fortunately for the 82nd Airborne, and the Allied cause this didn't happen.  We all know how well the Anzio landings worked. Or the Market Garden operation in the Netherlands.  Imagine the 82nd being that much more isolated. It is hard to think of any outcome other than the entire division being killed or captured. 

Per the article it appears that some aircraft were already in the air with troops on board when the mission was scrubbed at the last minute. 


Since I responded to your question on TankNet I guess I'll post that here too.

In the original plan for AVALANCHE the 82d Airborne was to be dropped the night of D-1/D-Day in the vicinity of Capua to close off Naples and the south from German reinforcements advancing south on the A1 Highway. Then, on 18 August, the CCS informed Eisenhower of the status of negotiations for an Italian Armistice, which then looked to be near certain and to occur before the 9 September D-Day for AVALANCHE. Eisenhower then conceived GIANT II, which shifted the 82d from landing by parachute and glider at Capua, to an airlanding at four airfields around Rome - Roma Urbe "Littoria", Alfredo Barbieri Guidonia, and the Aeroporto Militare at Furbara and Cerveteri, with the Italians supplying transportation, fuel and ammunition. Plans were in place by 6 September but then on 7 September Maxwell Taylor and Colonel William Gardiner of Troop Carrier Command slipped into Rome to finalize discussions. They realized the plan was unworkable, the Germans were disarming Italian forces who weren't resisting and had control of all the tranport, fuel, and ammunition, while they were rapidly moving reinforcements into the city. On 8 September, Eisenhower cancelled GIANT II. No aircraft were in the air, no troops had boarded aircraft, no aircraft were even warming up...poetic license at best by the article.
DT509er
Santa Rosa CA USA
Posts: 1258
Joined: 2005
Plan for the 82nd Airborne to capture Rome fall 1943
11/18/2022 12:12:20 PM
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Someone SPAM this post and poster out of here!
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"American parachutists-devils in baggy pants..." German officer, Italy 1944. “If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.” Lord Ernest Rutherford
Brian W
Atlanta GA USA
Posts: 1204
Joined: 2004
Plan for the 82nd Airborne to capture Rome fall 1943
11/21/2022 7:50:03 PM
He's gone
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