Americans lose one or both para divisions ww2

  • Thread starter Deleted member 1487
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Deleted member 1487

What if the US lost one or both of its most famous paratrooper divisions? Let's say first that one of the Italian drops doesn't work out too well for the 82nd and it is for all intents wiped out. Then D-day happens, but the majority of the 101st get captured or killed, basically ceasing to exist as a division. What effect does it have on national moral and military planning?
 

Markus

Banned
I have no idea about the likelyhood of the invasion of Sicily going that wrong but it´s hard to imageine the loss of any allied AB division in normandy as they were dropped so close to the beaches. Market-Garden would be a fine opportinuty to loose two divisions though; all bridges in front of the allied ground troops get blown up in a timely fashion and one division is cut off at Arnhem, the other at Nimwegen, only the 6th British survives at Eindhoven.

See map.

I would imagine the effect on moral to be quite bad, the one on planning would be IMO negligable as defeating Germany does not require additional airborne operations.
 

Hyperion

Banned
In such scenarios, it would probably just result also in the division being reconstituted with new personnel intented for other AB divisions, or the activation of other divisions such as the 11th and 17th sooner, and possibly some other units such as the ghost divisions for the deceptions leading up to the D-Day invasion being earmarked for formation into actual combat units.
 
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