Captain Wylie Cooper
|
The 82nd Parachute Maintenance Company
Unit History
 he 82nd Parachute Maintenance Company was composed of Riggers from the 504th PIR, 505th PIR, 376th PFAB, 456th PFAB and the 307th Airborne Engineers under the command of Captain Marin.
By mid-February 1944, the company moved to Cottesmore, Rutland County, England and assigned "A" hangar at the Cottesmore Airdrome as a packing shed. The line riggers (504th & 505th PIRs) were stationed at Quorn near Leicester. Captain Marin was eventually reassigned to Division and Captain Griffin assumed command.
Captain Marin's reassignment was short-lived when Captain Griffin, Captain Wylie Cooper
(picture left) and Lieutenant Anderson were injured in a jeep accident near Leicester.
After D-Day a parachute jump school was initiated by the 82nd Airborne Division at Ashwell to qualify jumpers in order to replace the losses suffered during the Normandy campaign. Experience riggers were assigned to instruct the new recruits and a training course similar to Fort Benning was established. From mid-summer until October, Ashwell was never without the sight and sound of yelling instructors, sullen students, rumbling transports and a sky filled with parachutes.
Eventually, Captain Griffin returned to command after his release from the hospital. The Riggers, meanwhile, were preparing to move to France from Ashwell. However, the German offensive in the Ardennes cancelled the move temporarily and the Riggers were sent back to southern England and attached to various airfields around Reading and Oxford to pack equipment parachutes.
82nd Parachute Maintenance Company - Pictures 
- 505th PIR Riggers
- Photo of 505th PIR Riggers before D-Day jump. (Photo includes names.)
books
R E L A T E D B O O K S
Astor, Gerald
A Blood-Dimmed Tide: The Battle of the Bulge by the Men Who Fought It.
Mass Market Paperback, 1994 ISBN: 0440215749
Badsey , Stephen & Chandler, David G (Editor)
Arnhem 1944:
Operation "Market Garden" (Campaign No.24) 1993
96p. ISBN: 1855323028
Black, Wallace B.& Blashfield, Jean F. Battle of the Bulge
(World War II 50th Anniversary Series). Crestwood House, 48 pp May,1993 ISBN: 0896865681
Breuer, William B Geronimo! American
Paratroopers in WWII. New York: St. Martin Press, 1989 621 p. ISBN: 0-312-03350-8
Breuer, William B Drop Zone Sicily:
Allied Airborne Strike,July 1943. Novato, CA: Presidio, c1983. 212 p. ISBN: 089 141 1968
Breuer, William B
They Jumped at Midnight Jove Publishing, (P) c1990 ISBN: 0515104256
Burriss, T Moffatt
Strike and Hold: A Memoir of the 82nd Airborne in WW II Brasseys, Inc, 256 pp August,2000 ISBN: 1574882589
D'Este, Carlonbsp;
Decision in Normandy William S Konnecky Assc(P), 560 p. ISBN: 1568522606
D'Este, Carlo
Patton: A Genius for War 1024 pp ISBN: 0060927623
Falerios, Kenton J.
Give Me Something I Can't Do: The History of the 82nd Military Police Company, WW 1 to Iraq
Nov 2007, Authorhouse, 192 p ISBN: 1434337197
Gavin, James M.
On to Berlin : Battles of an Airborne Commander, 1943-1946 ISBN: 0670525170
Hastings, Max Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy Simon and Shuster(JUV), 396 p.
ISBN: 0671554352
Keegan, John The Second World War Penguin
(P), 708 p. ISBN: 014011341X
Keegan, John Six Armies in Normandy: From D-Day to the Liberation of Paris Penguin USA(P), 365 p.
ISBN: 0140235426
MacDonald, Charles B A Time For
Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge Wm Morrow & Co
(P), 720 p. ISBN: 068151574
Messina , Phillip Anzio: Song of
Destiny A.G.Halldin Publishing Company, 1992. ISBN: 0 935 64838 0
O'Donnell, Patrick K. Beyond Valor
Free Press, 2001, 384 p. ISBN: 0684873842
Ryan, Cornelius
The Longest Day Touchstone Books (P), 350 p. ISBN: 0671890913
Ryan, Cornelius
A Bridge Too Far 670p. ISBN: 0684803305
The Center of Military History
The War in the Mediterranean: A WWII Pictorial History Brasseys, Inc.,
465 p. ISBN:1574881302
Verier, Mike
82nd Airborne Division in
Colour Photographs (Europa Militaria, No 9) ISBN: 187 200 4857
Wildman, John B All Americans 82nd
Airborne. Meadowlands Militaria, 6/83 ISBN:091 208 1007
|
