WW2 American paratrooper memorabilia.

The image below is "borrowed" from the Captains Courageous Collection.

• Captain, US Army 82nd Airborne

The 82nd were maybe not as well known as the 101st but they were just as dangerous to have as an enemy. 

Note the "Double A" shoulder patch. It was one of several variations. 

They're nicknamed "All American" because in WW1 their troops came from all 48 States. 

The Unit is now referred to as "America's Guard of Honor", a name given them by General George S "Blood & Guts" Patton during the Occupation of Berlin. 

It is now the largest paratroop unit in the Free World.

This Captain is ready to lead his men into Operation Neptune, the night attack into France to start proceedings for Operation Overlord, D-Day, 6th June 1944. Because he is battle ready he has discarded his normal headwear for a M1-C paratrooper helmet with special leather chin cup with a first aid kit attached to the front. 

Although para trained he was recently field-posted to the newly formed 507th Glider Infantry Regiment and as a result will later wear the Airborne Glider badge on his dress uniform. Although initially disappointed with the change, he later came to appreciate the courage of men who go into battle in unprotected 'planes' with no engines and he became very supportive of and proud of his men. To this day he proudly marches behind the 82nd Airborne's flag as a "glider man".

Fewer than half of the gliders assigned to the U.S. 82d Airborne reached their assigned landing zones. The rest lodged in hedgerows, struck German obstructions, or floundered in the swollen marshes.

He has already taken part in parachute assaults at Sicily & Salerno in Italy. Here the Germans called them "Devils in baggy pants".  He is wearing an M1 bandolier across his chest for his M1 Garand ammo and a green compass pouch on his utility belt.  His canteen is also visible. He wears the cloth  badges of rank on the shoulder strap, a variation that later became the norm. On his right shoulder he wears his "invasion patch", an embroidered US Flag, "Old Glory".

Some of his men are equipped with the Cushman Auto Glide motor scooter (Airborne version Model 53) to allow them to act as mobile forward scouts and fast moving despatch riders. Others were landed with glider borne Willy's Jeeps. General Eisenhower credited the Jeep, the Bazooka and the Douglas DC3 "Gooney Bird" as the 3 pieces of equipment that "won the war".

As a result, the tow planes were forced to climb and release at a higher altitude - making the gliders even more vulnerable.  No one had seemed to take into account the enormous hedgerows in the countryside and factor this into the glider landings.  As a result, glider casualties were extremely high as they landed.  In addition, the glider troops were, in most cases, also lost when they landed.

The 82nd were among the first soldiers to fight in Normandy, France. By the time the All-American Division was pulled back to England, it had seen 33 days of bloody combat and suffered 5,245 paratroopers killed, wounded or missing. 

The Division's post battle report read, "...33 days of action without relief, without replacements. Every mission accomplished. No ground gained was ever relinquished."

On 17 September 1944, the 82nd Airborne Division conducted its fourth combat jump of World War II into Holland in Operation Market Garden. Fighting off ferocious German counter-attacks, the 82nd captured its objectives between Grave and Nijmegen.  Its success, however, was short-lived because of the defeat of other Allied units at Arnhem, 'A Bridge Too Far', where the British 1st Airborne Division was cut to pieces after the plan to breakthrough to relieve them went terribly wrong.

Suddenly, on December 16, 1944, the Germans launched a surprise offensive through the Ardennes Forest which caught the Allies completely by surprise. Two days later the 82nd joined the fighting and blunted General Von Runstedt's northern penetration of the American lines in the "Battle of the Bulge".