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Barquette to be opened at high tide in order to flood the area and closed at low tide to hold the waters in. The entire lowland of the Douve and Merderet rivers was thus a constant marsh.

The objective of the 101st Airborne, Major General Maxwell Taylor commanding, was to seize the inland sides of the four causeways leading from Utah Beach in order to allow the 4th Infantry Division to exit the beaches during the dawn invasion. In addition, they were to destroy two highway bridges and a railroad bridge north of Carentan of the only good routes across the swamp that the Germans could use to move to the flank of the invasion area. Finally, they were to seize and hold the lock at La Barquette.

To the west, the objective of the 82nd Airborne, under Major General Matthew Ridgway and Brigadier General James Gavin, was to destroy two bridges on the Douve, capture the crossroads town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and secure the west bank of the Merderet River and hold a bridgehead there.

Beginning at 2215 hours on D-1, more than 900 C-47 aircraft began to transport 13,000 men of the two divisions from England to the Cotentin Peninsula. The drops of both divisions suffered from scattering, owing to a lack of navigational aids as well as enemy ground fire, which forced transport pilots to take evasive action. Many paratroopers were killed by fire before they hit the ground, and many more were drowned upon landing in the flooded zones. Those who survived were forced to find one another on the ground and then move and fight in small groups, many unrelated by unit, rather than in organized battle formations as planned. Many men fought under strange leaders for unfamiliar objectives. Despite such setbacks, the scattering of the paratroopers had the one advantage of confusing the Germans, who had great difficulty in determining the size and scope of the force and then moving to counter it.

By the end of D-Day, few objectives had been seized, though the four exits from Utah Beach were held by the 101st Airborne, and a link-up with the 4th Division had been achieved. The locks at La Barquette were in American hands, as was the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise--but the Germans were counterattacking there, and control was tenuous. The road and rail bridges over the Douve were still in enemy hands, and the 82nd Airborne had made not contact with forces from the beach. The right flank of the invasion therefore was anything but secure. Losses had been heavy, each division having suffered some 1,200 casualties.