The first day

The 435th Troup Carrier Group of the nineth airfore drops the 101st on September 17. The 435th drops the paratroopers in 424 sticks. It has to fly through heavy flak over the drop zones and but the majority of the division is dropped in the right spot. Four pilots go down with their aircraft, although their aircrats are burning at the time of the drop they keep their aircrafts steady in order to drop the paratroopers over the dropzone before they go down in flames with their aircrafts. Sixteen aircrafts are lost during the drop on the first day.

The 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment jumps over dropzone A with two thousand fifty men. (See the story of Jack Yerkes)

Around 16.00 hours the 501st has reached it's objectives for the first day. The two bridges across the Aa and the two bridges across the Zuid Willemsvaart Canal in Veghel have been captured by the Regiment.

The 1st Battalion of the 501st was sheduled to land north of the Canal so it could attack the bridges from the north side. This battalion was misdropped and it landed near castle Heeswijk Dinther, which is several miles north of their sheduled drop zone.
They do however land with no opposition and organize quickly and advance towards Veghel.
Some men get injured at the landing and they stay behind in the castle. The get captured on the first day when a German collomn arrives at the castle. At that time the rest of the Battalion is on it's way to Veghel.

The Screaming Eagles (nickname for the soldiers of the 101st Division) are being faces with a major setback when the Germans blow the bridge at Son at the moment that a company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment makes it's move towards the bridge.

The smaller bridges across the Dommel at Son had been blown in the days prior to the operations which ment that 30rd Corps did not have a crossingpoint across the Dommel.

Engineers started to work on a small footbridge in order to get the 506th across. The engineers also constructed two rafts from wood and empty drums which they found in the area. The rafst where just big enough to pull a jeep across the river. The rafts had a rope attached on each side so that they could be pulled across the river manualy.

The jeeps had arrived on the same day when two flights of 35 gliders arrive on the drop zone near Son. Of the 70 gliders only 53 arrive safely on the drop zone, carrying men from HQ, a reconnaicance unit, a British Phantom unit and the 326th Medical Batallion. Several gliders have gotten lost on the way in and others crash on the drop zone.