All American, All the Way

On Sunday, September 17, 1944, the 82nd Airborne Division jumped into history with the First Allied Airborne Army in a daring daylight parachute and glider-borne assault to capture key bridges at the start of Operation Market Garden. Following weeks of heavy combat in Holland, the All Americans (the name of the division in World War I when Sgt. Alvin York was one of its soldiers) were withdrawn from the frontlines for a well-deserved rest, which was almost immediately interrupted by the Battle of the Bulge, where they once again found themselves in the thick of the action, a position that remained familiar to them for the rest of the war. Following VE Day, the 82nd became part of the Allied forces occupying Berlin.