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The 17th Airborne Division was an airborne infantry division of the United States Army during World War II, and was commanded by Major General William M. Miley. It was officially activated as an airborne division in April 1943 but was not immediately sent to a combat theater, remaining in the United States to complete its training. During this training process, the division took part in several training exercises, including the Knollwood Maneuver, in which it played a vital part in ensuring that the airborne division remained as a military formation in the U.S. Army after the poor performance of American airborne forces in the invasion of Sicily. As such it did not take part in the first two large-scale airborne operations conducted by the Allies, Operation Husky and Operation Neptune, only transferring to Britain after the end of Operation Overlord. When the division arrived in Britain, it came under the command of XVIII Airborne Corps, part of the First Allied Airborne Army, but 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 for the operation. However, after the end of Operation 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 The 17th gained its first Medal of Honor during its time fighting in the Ardennes, and was then withdrawn to Luxembourg to prepare for an assault over the River Rhine.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 first, and only, airborne operation, dropping alongside the British 6th Airborne Division as a part of Operation Varsity, where it gained three more Medals of Honor. The division then 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. There, it was officially deactivated 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 M. Miley. 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 Eldridge G. Chapman, overall commander of Airborne Command and of all American 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 United States 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 82nd Airborne Division and the British 1st Airborne Division.〔Devlin, p. 204.〕 The commanding officer of the 11th Airborne Division, Major General Joseph M. Swing, had been temporarily assigned to act as airborne advisor to General Dwight D. Eisenhower for the invasion of Sicily, and had observed the airborne assault, which went badly. The 82nd Airborne Division had been deployed by 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.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「17th Airborne Division (United States)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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