US airborne forces made a number of combat dropsin 1942 and 1943. The first were by 509th ParachuteInfantry Battalion who made an uncontested dropnear Tarfarquay airport outside Oran, beforedropping on Youks les Bains airfield (also inAlgeria) to reinforce its French garrison and staginga platoon-strength raid on a bridge at El Djem inTunisia.

The first large-scale combat jump was made by the82nd Airborne Division’s 504th and 505th ParachuteInfantry Regiments on 10 July 1943 over Sicily.They later jumped over Salerno, but this time theydropped into the beachhead behind friendly linesas reinforcements and marched into battle on foot.

The 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion made thefinal mid-war combat jump at Avellino, near Salernoin Italy, where they jumped behind enemy lines todisrupt reinforcements and supplies.

This document allows you to recreate these epicbattles using your Parachute Rifle Company fromStars & Stripes. You will also need the Death FromAbove mission from Diving Eagles and the NightFighting special rules from Desert Rats. If you donot have these two books, the mission and specialrules can be found on the Flames Of War website(www.flamesofwar.com).

Night AttackUnlike the German airborne forces, the US electedto make their combat jumps at night to minimisecasualties.

When a Parachute Rifle Company attacks in DeathFrom Above, the game starts at night with the nightfighting rules in effect. At the start of turn three,the defender rolls a die. On a score of 4+, morninghas broken. On any other roll, the defender rollstwo dice at the start of turn four, three dice at thestart of turn five, etc, until morning breaks on anyroll of 4+. The turn that morning breaks, the nightfighting rules are no longer used and it is daylightfor the remainder of the game.

Airborne Assault ForcesWhen creating a force for air assault missions youcannot take any Support platoons except a ParachuteField Artillery Battery, a Parachute EngineerPlatoon, and an Anti-aircraft Artillery Platoon.

If you take an Anti-aircraft Artillery Platoon, youmust replace all M1 Bofors guns with M2 .50 calAA guns and lose all vehicles for +5 points for theHQ Section and +5 points per Automatic WeaponsSection. The Anti-aircraft Artillery Platoon is ratedas Fearless Veteran though.

Also remember, if you are playing the Death FromAbove mission, you receive 25% more points asthe attacking force.

AIRBORNE ASSAULTSAirborne assaults require a little more preparationand work than a normal battle, but you wouldn'thave passed jump school if you were afraid of hardwork! The steps to follow are:

1. Select your flight line.

2. Determine the wind direction.

3. Organise your platoons into sticks.

4. Select your drop points.

5. Roll to find the landing zone.

6. Deploy parachute platoons.

7. Roll for casualties on landing.

After that it’s on to the first turn of the game!

1. Select Your Flight LineWith so many aircraft trying to drop troops in thesame area, they must all follow the same route toavoid collisions. Since they are only over thebattlefield very briefly, you don’t need to modelyour transport aircraft.

You must choose a line running across the table asyour flight line. All of your aircraft will fly parallelto the flight line. Place an arrow or a pencil on thetable to mark the flight line.

2. Wind DirectionAlthough you can plan your flight line beforetakeoff, you can't control the wind. The strengthand direction of the wind is one of the leastpredictable aspects of an airborne assault. However,since your parachutists will drift down wind whiledescending, the way the wind is blowing has amajor impact on your airdrop.

To determine the wind direction, the airborne playerchooses either long table edge as their own, thenrolls a die and checks the Wind Direction diagramon page 86 of the Flames Of War rulebook todetermine where the wind is blowing from.

3. Organise Your SticksTo fit in a pair of Douglas C-47 Dakota transportaircraft, each platoon is split into two ‘sticks’, eachcontaining an officer.

Normally a parachute platoon operates as a singleentity with the second command team operating asa normal Rifle/MG or Carbine team unless the firstis destroyed. However, if the sticks are widelyseparated on landing, they operate independentlyuntil they join up again.

At the start of an airborne attack, divide each platooninto two evenly-sized sticks, each containing aCommand team. Treat each stick as a separateplatoon until they are landed and in CommandDistance of one another at the start of a turn. At

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DEATH FROM ABOVEALL-AMERICAN STYLE!

After all of your parachute drop points have beenselected, roll a die for each platoon.

• On a roll of 3+, the pilots have found the rightdrop zone and the command teams and theirsticks will land as normal.

• On a roll of 1 or 2, the pilots drop the platoon farfrom the drop zone. Remove the command teamsand container from the table. You still need to rollfor casualties on landing.

Roll a die at the start of each turn. On a roll of6, the platoon finds their way back to the tablehaving found the correct drop zone havingrecovered their container.

When the platoon finds its way back to thetable, roll another die as if determining the winddirection to decide from which table edge orcorner they will arrive. If they arrive from acorner, they must enter the table within16”/40cm of the corner, otherwise they mayarrive anywhere on the table edge. Place the

this point the two sticks reunite into a single platoonand fight on as normal.

4. Select Parachute Drop PointsThe next step in a parachute drop is deciding whereyou want each platoon to land. Despite the skill ofyour transport pilots, this isn’t a precise art. Thestrength of the wind and the effects of anti-aircraftfire or poor navigation can easily result in yourplatoon landing well off target.

Place each platoon’s command teams side by side8”/20cm apart on the table to mark the platoon’s droppoints. Place the platoon’s container half-way betweenthem. A platoon’s drop points may not be within8”/20cm of another platoon’s drop points (otherwisethe transport aircraft will collide in mid air!)

5. Finding The Landing ZoneUS transport pilots were not given specific trainingfor parachute operations and frequently haddifficulty delivering the paratroops to the rightplace, especially at night.

Unlike their German counterparts, US paratroopersjump carrying their personal weapon (usually anM1 Garand). However, they still need to drop theirmachine-guns, mortars and other heavy equipmentin containers and collect them when they land.

Each parachute platoon has one container markerdropped with it. Until the platoon recovers its owncontainer, they only have their personal weapons.Consequently they shoot as a Rifle team if they area Rifle or Rifle/MG team or as a Carbine team inother cases. The platoon cannot observe for artillerybombardments until it recovers it equipment.

Recovering ContainersTo recover the platoon’s container, a team from theplatoon must start a turn In Command and adjacentto the container. At that point the team adjacent tothe container and all other teams that are InCommand are armed and immediately revert to

their normal type of team. Remove the containeronce it has been recovered.

With two sticks, it is not unusual for part of theplatoon to recover the container while out ofcommand distance of the other part. In this case,the remainder of the platoon remains Rifle orCarbine teams until they rejoin the armed part ofthe platoon.

Moving ContainersAny Infantry team starting adjacent to a containermay drag it up to 4”/10cm in the Movement step.The container cannot be moved in the Shooting orAssault steps (so your opponent’s cannot move acontainer with their Stormtrooper movement!) Thisallows a team that has recovered its own weaponsto drag another platoon’s container back to it. Italso allows enemy platoons to steal your containersand make off with them.

Weapons Containers

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Death From Above - American Style

command team at the edge of the table to indicatetheir arrival point and move the platoon onto thetable from this point in the Movement step.

6. Deploy Parachute PlatoonsThe platoons that do find the drop zone now jumpfrom their aircraft. As the aircraft reaches the droppoint, the dispatchers drop the container and thecommand teams and the rest of the paratroopersjump in rapid succession.

Roll a die and multiply the result by 6”/15cm andplace the platoon’s container that far down wind.

Roll a die for each command team to find out howfar the paratroops drifted before landing. Multiplythe roll by 6”/15 cm and move the command teamthat far down wind.

Each stick deploys in a column along the flightpaths of its transport aircraft. Starting with the

command team, place the remaining teams in thestick 6”/15cm apart along the flight line from thecommand team. The platoon should now bedeployed in two parallel lines.

7. Roll For CasualtiesLanding injuries are not uncommon in airborneoperations and losses of up to 25% are common.

Roll a die for each team landing by parachute,requiring a score of 2+ to land safely in OpenTerrain or 4+ to land safely in Rough Terrain. Anyteams that land off the table or that don’t find thedrop zone need to roll 3+ to survive their landing.

Any roll less than these results in the loss of theteam and its removal from the game. Teams lostthis way do not count as destroyed for platoonmorale, so keep them separate from later casualties.

Being seriously tough, Company Commanderteams, Warriors, and containers are never casualtieson landing, so you do not need to roll for them.

Landing On The EnemyAny teams landing within 2”/5cm of an enemyteam must move further away from the enemy atthe first possible opportunity. A team that landsdirectly on an enemy team is immediately destroyed.

Landing Off The TableSometimes, either through misjudgment orparticularly strong winds some or all of a platoon’steams or its container will land off the table. In thiscase, the airborne player has two options. Eithercount them as lost (but not destroyed) and out ofthe game, or remove the whole platoon (but nottheir container) as they search for the missing teams.

If you remove the platoon, place the commandteam at the table edge as a marker where the platoonlanded. Move the survivors onto the table from thispoint in the Movement step of the first Americanturn. If the container landed off the table, the platoonhas recovered it when they return, otherwise theymust still do so.

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Death From Above - American Style

Command teamsdrift with the wind

DropPoints

FlightLine

C-47 DakotaWind Direction

4”/10cm 4”/10cm

6”/15cm

6”/15cm

6”/15cm

6”/15cm

6”/15cm

6”/15cm

6”/15cm

6”/15cm

Containers driftseperatly