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Mission Eagle

The last "official" mission aims to parachute on August 16th all the equipment needed so that troops isolated on the ground can be able to hold the ground during 7 days. 130 C-47 take off at 7:55 am with 246 tons of equipment and ammunition. The equipment is packed in containers placed in the C-47 cabins or pararacks.

Each aircraft also takes 5 men from the 334th Quastermaster Depot Supply Company for dropping. They arrive in the area between 10h04 and 10h35 for the last ones.

The result of this parachuting is very mixed. Indeed, the awkwardness and the lack of practice of the men of the 334th lead to a parachuting every 2 minutes instead of the 30 seconds required. Nearly 1700 containers of equipment arrive on the ground but the extension of the dropping times results in a large dispersal of the equipment. Moreover, the proximity between DZ A and O causes a mix between American and British material. Very few units are able to quickly find their equipment.

During the drop, Pvt. Thomas Collinson of the 602nd GFAB A Battery is killed on Drop Zone A while he repairs a damaged howitzer pack. The parachute of one of them containing ammunition does not open and Collinson is killed by the explosion of the container having landed close to him.

Mission will be the last "official" airborne operation planned for Operation Dragoon.

However, on 17 August, three emergency missions were carried out for the delivery of 60 tons of equipment. There was first the Flamingo mission, 9 C-47 dropped on the DZ O rations at 1:12. Then the Cull mission, 10 C-47 dropped on the DZ O medical and transmission equipment at 10:49 and finally the Hawk mission, 20 C-47 still for the same DZ.