The 17th Airborne Division, "The Golden Talons", was an airborne infantry division of the United States Army during World War II, commanded by Major General William M. Miley.
Activated in April 1943, the division took part in the Knollwood Maneuver and other exercises that helped ensure that the U.S. Army would retain airborne divisions. It arrived in Britain in August 1944, having missed the Allies' first two large-scale airborne operations: Operation Husky and Operation Neptune.
In Britain, the 17th came under the command of Maj. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway's XVIII Airborne Corps, a part of Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton's First Allied Airborne Army. It was not chosen to participate in Operation Market Garden, the airborne landings in the Netherlands, as Allied planners believed it had arrived too late and could not be "trained up" in time. After Market Garden, the division was shipped to France and then Belgium to fight in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. The 17th gained its first Medal of Honor during its time fighting in the Ardennes, and was then withdrawn to Luxembourg to prepare for an assault over the River Rhine. In March 1945, the division participated in its only airborne operation, dropping alongside the British 6th Airborne Division as a part of Operation Varsity, during which it gained three more Medals of Honor. The division advanced through Northern Germany until the end of World War II, when it briefly undertook occupation duties in Germany before shipping back to the United States. It was inactivated in September 1945, although it was briefly reactivated as a training division between 1948 and 1949.
Formation The German Armed Forces pioneered the use of large-scale airborne formations, first during the invasion of Norway and Denmark and later that year during the assaults on the Netherlands and Belgium in 1940 and later in the Battle of Crete in 1941.Flanagan, p. 6. The Allied governments were aware of the success of these operations (but not of the heavy German casualties incurred, particularly during the assault on the Netherlands and the invasion of Crete) and decided to form their own airborne formations.Harclerode, p. 197. This decision would eventually lead to the creation of five American and two British airborne divisions, as well as many smaller units.Harclerode, p. 107.Flanagan, p. 31. The 17th Airborne Division was activated on 15 April 1943 at Camp Mackall in North Carolina, under the command of the newly promoted Major General William Miley, a veteran of World War I. The division was originally composed of the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, activated on 11 January 1943 at Fort Benning, the 193rd Glider Infantry Regiment, and the 194th Glider Infantry Regiment.Devlin, p. 200 The official dedication ceremony for the unit took place on 1 May 1943, with thousands of civilian and military spectators, including Major General Elbridge Chapman, overall commander of Airborne Command and of all U.S. airborne forces during World War II.Devlin, p. 201
Once activated, the division remained in the United States for training and exercises. As the division, like all airborne units, was intended to be an elite formation, the training regime was extremely arduous.Flanagan, p. 15. There were and towers built from which prospective airborne troops would jump off of to simulate landing by parachute, lengthy forced marches and practice jumps from transport aircraft; to pause in the doorway of an aircraft during a practice jump resulted in an automatic failure for the candidate. The resultant failure rate was accordingly high, but there was never a shortage of candidates, especially for the American divisions, as the rate of pay was much higher than that of an ordinary infantryman. As the division trained, a debate developed in the U.S. Army over whether the best use of airborne forces was en masse or as small compact units. On 9 July 1943, the first large-scale Allied airborne operation–the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky)–was carried out by elements of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division and the British 1st Airborne Division.Devlin, p. 204. The Commanding General (CG) of the U.S. 11th Airborne Division, Major General Joseph May Swing, had been temporarily assigned to act as airborne advisor to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, for the invasion of Sicily, and had observed the airborne assault, which went badly. The U.S. 82nd Airborne Division had been deployed by both parachute and glider and had suffered high casualties, leading to a perception that it had failed to achieve many of its objectives.Devlin, p. 246.
Swing Board General Eisenhower had reviewed the airborne role in Operation Husky, and had concluded that large-scale formations were too difficult to control in combat to be practical.Flanagan, p. 98. Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair, commander of Army Ground Forces, had similar misgivings: once an airborne supporter, he had been greatly disappointed by their performance in North Africa and, more recently, Sicily. However, other high-ranking officers believed otherwise, notably the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, George Marshall. He persuaded Eisenhower to set up a review board and to withhold judgement on the effectiveness of divisional-sized airborne forces until a large-scale maneuver could be tried in December.Flanagan, p. 99. When Swing returned to the United States to resume command of the 11th Airborne Division in mid-September 1943, he had an additional role.Devlin, pp 212, 246. McNair ordered him to form a committee–the Swing Board–composed of U.S. Army Air Forces, parachute and glider infantry, and artillery officers to arrange a large-scale maneuver that would effectively decide the fate of the divisional-sized airborne force. As the 11th Airborne Division was in reserve in the United States, and had not yet been earmarked for overseas shipment, the Swing Board chose it as the test formation; it would be opposed by a composite combat team from the 17th Airborne Division with a battalion from the 541st Parachute Infantry Regiment temporarily attached.Flanagan, p. 100 The maneuver would also provide both divisions with further airborne training, as had occurred several months previously in a large-scale maneuver undertaken by the 82nd and the 101st Airborne Divisions.Huston, p. 98.
Knollwood Maneuver The objective for the 11th as the attacking force was to capture Knollwood Army Auxiliary Airfield near Fort Bragg in North Carolina, after which the maneuver was named. The defending forces were to try to defend the airport and the surrounding area and repel the airborne assault.Flanagan, p. 100. The entire operation would be observed by Lieutenant General McNair. His observations and reports to the U.S. War Department, and ultimately General Eisenhower, would do much to decide the success or failure of the exercise.Devlin, p. 247. The Knollwood Maneuver took place on the night of 7 December, with the troops of the 11th Airborne Division being delivered to thirteen separate objectives by 200 C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft and 234 Waco CG-4A gliders, with eighty-five percent of the airborne troops being delivered to their target without navigational error.Huston, p. 136. The transport aircraft were divided into four groups, each taking off from a different airfield in the Carolinas, with two groups dropping paratroopers and two towing gliders, and between them deployed 4,800 airborne troops in the first wave. These airborne troops then seized the Knollwood Army Auxiliary Airfield from the defending troops and secured the area in which the rest of the division landed, all before daylight. Having secured their initial objectives, the 11th Airborne Division then conducted a coordinated ground attack against a reinforced infantry regiment, as well as several aerial resupply and casualty evacuation missions in coordination with transport aircraft. The exercise was judged to be a great success by those who observed it. McNair reported that the success of the maneuver pleased him, and highlighted the great improvements in airborne training that had occurred in the months between the end of Operation Husky and the Knollwood Maneuver.Huston, p. 137. Due to the success of the units of the 11th Airborne Division during the exercise, the divisional-sized airborne force was deemed to be effective and was allowed by Eisenhower to remain.
World War II The division also participated in the Second Army maneuvers in the Tennessee Maneuver Area from 6 February 1944.Stanton, p. 96 It finished its training on 27 March 1944,Hagerman, p. 15 and transferred to Camp Forrest on 24 March 1944. The division staged at Camp Myles Standish on 12 August 1944 before departing Boston Port of Embarkation on 20 August 1944. The 17th Airborne Division arrived in the United Kingdom on 26 August.Hagerman, p. 29
Once in Britain the division was attached to U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps, under Major General Matthew Ridgway, which commanded all American airborne formations, and which in turn became part of the First Allied Airborne Army when it was formed on 21 August, under the command of Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton.Flanagan, p. 204 Although attached to XVIII Airborne Corps, the division was not chosen to participate in Operation Market Garden, a large-scale airborne operation intended to seize several bridges through the Netherlands to allow the Allied armies to bypass the Rhine river and enter Germany. The 17th was passed over in favour of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions because it had only recently arrived in the European Theater and was considered to be unprepared logistically as it was still collecting its combat equipment.Flanagan, p. 245 The division was also given command of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The 507th had fought in Normandy under command of the 82nd Airborne Division and remained in England as a theater reserve during Market Garden. The 507th continued to remain in England as the Allied armies continued their advance towards Germany.
Battle of the Bulge On 16 December 1944 the Wehrmacht launched an offensive in the Ardennes region of Belgium, breaking through Allied lines and rapidly advancing towards Antwerp.Flanagan, p. 265 On the afternoon of 17 December, Eisenhower decided to commit his theater reserve to the Ardennes in an attempt to halt the German advance; this consisted of the 17th, 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions under the control of XVIII Airborne Corps. The three divisions were to be attached to Courtney Hodges's U.S. First Army and were ordered to concentrate around the town of St Vith.Flanagan, p. 268 However, while the other two airborne divisions were able to immediately make their way to the Ardennes as they were already stationed in France, bad weather prevented the 17th from flying in from where the division was stationed in Britain for several days. On 23 December the weather cleared and the division was finally flown to France by emergency night flights. It moved to an assembly area near Rheims. On Christmas Day, the division was attached to George Patton's U.S. Third Army and ordered to assume a thirty-mile long defensive position that ran along the Meuse River near Charleville.Flanagan, p. 281