First to Jump by Jerome Preisler Page A

drop out of the sky, rallying men from his 1st Battalion along with misdropped soldiers belonging to other units. Crossing into another field, they found Lieutenant Colonel Robert Strayer, commander of the 506’s 2nd Battalion, and his own mixed band of troopers. After a panel split in his chute, Strayer had landed hard, hurting his ankles and right knee. Although hardly able to walk, he joined Cassidy in moving through the hedgerows, assembling men from different sticks and looking for road signs that could help orient them. They soon came upon three of his officers, who’d pulled together still more strays and were gathering up supply bundles dropped from the transports. One of the officers, Captain Fred Hancock, had noticed a sign for the village of Foucarville about a mile and a half to their north. Checking his aerial map, Cassidy realized it would be a straight shot in the opposite direction to Objective W-X-Y-Z at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville—the same encampment Buck Dickson had been sent to reconnoiter for Strayer’s 2nd Battalion.
    But Captain Dickson and his men hadn’t yet reported in. Nor had anyone from headquarters been able to raise them in the field. With their status and whereabouts unknown, Strayer and Cassidy had been left without close-up intelligence about the complex.
    The lack of scouting information troubled Strayer. It was his job to destroy the big artillery guns at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville, while Cassidy’s battalion cleaned out the German garrison three hundred yards to the west. Cassidy was then supposed to establish roadblocks at two key road crossings from Utah beach that ran past W-X-Y-Z—Exits 3 and 4—allowing the troops that were coming ashore to advance without opposition from German reinforcements.
    For Strayer, his lack of a full complement of troopers for the mission was a major complication. The fact that the bulk of his men still hadn’t assembled convinced him a large number had come down far outside their designated area and would need more time to reach it. He’d also found it increasingly laborious to get around on his bad leg and felt that would make him a sure drag on any force he might try to lead against the Germans at W-X-Y-Z.
    That left the two colonels to decide how to proceed—and they immediately found themselves at odds. Strayer insisted on waiting for more of his troopers before heading toward the complex and refused to budge until they showed up. Sharply differing with him, Cassidy made it clear he intended to take his men and shove off with all due haste. He hadn’t survived barrages of machine-gun fire and mortar shells only to risk leaving the gun battery in enemy hands and the road exits vulnerable to attack.
    â€œI’ll get going,” he said. “We’re ready.”
    Strayer wasn’t swayed. He would stay back to gather his battalion and hopefully get hold of a vehicle to convey him to their objective. Since the gliders were coming in with jeeps aboard them, he was optimistic that wouldn’t take long.
    Their discussion was over. Cassidy’s 1st Battalion and the stragglers who’d joined them would now spearhead the attack on the gun battery. As dawn crept up the eastern sky, they formed into a column and set out northward to Saint-Martin-de-Varreville, marching over the road instead of using the cover of the fields and bocage where the going would be safer but slower.
    Cassidy was about halfway to his destination when he fortuitously crossed paths with Frank Lillyman and some of his Pathfinders. Though their meeting was unplanned, he’d find out they had important information to share with him.
    4.
    The hours after midnight had been busy ones for Lillyman. By two or three o’clock in the morning, the main body of paratroopers had been delivered by their transports, freeing him to venture from the drop zone in support of the 502’s primary objective—the taking of the gun