US 101st Airborne Division Paratroops assembling at Royal Air Force base Exeter.
In World War II RAF Exeter (South West England) was an important RAF Fighter Command airfield during the Battle of Britain. RAF Exeter was used by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Ninth Air Force as a D-Day troop transport base with Douglas C-47 Skytrain transports dropping paratroops near Carentan to land on the Normandy Beachhead. It was known as USAAF Station AAF-463.
Exeter met the requirement of basing USAAF troop carrier groups close to where units of the 101st Airborne Division were located and within reasonable range of the expected area of operations.



US Airborne troops

American GIs take a break during a lull in the fighting in Italy

They need a rest, too

Advance guard of the US 29th Infantry Division entering the heavily damaged town of Saint-Lô, in north-western France; June 1944.