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US airborne forces made a number of combat drops

in 1942 and 1943. The first were by 509th Parachute

Infantry Battalion who made an uncontested drop

near Tarfarquay airport outside Oran, before

dropping on Youks les Bains airfield (also inAlgeria) to reinforce its French garrison and staging

a platoon-strength raid on a bridge at El Djem in

Tunisia.

The first large-scale combat jump was made by the

82nd Airborne Division’s 504th and 505th Parachute

Infantry Regiments on 10 July 1943 over Sicily.

They later jumped over Salerno, but this time they

dropped into the beachhead behind friendly lines

as reinforcements and marched into battle on foot.

The 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion made the

final mid-war combat jump at Avellino, near Salerno

in Italy, where they jumped behind enemy lines to

disrupt reinforcements and supplies.

This document allows you to recreate these epic

battles using your Parachute Rifle Company from

Stars & Stripes. You will also need the Death From

Above mission from Diving Eagles and the Night

Fighting special rules from Desert Rats. If you do

not have these two books, the mission and special

rules can be found on the Flames Of War website

(www.flamesofwar.com).

Night Attack

Unlike the German airborne forces, the US electedto make their combat jumps at night to minimise

casualties.

When a Parachute Rifle Company attacks in Death

From Above, the game starts at night with the night

fighting rules in effect. At the start of turn three,

the defender rolls a die. On a score of 4+, morning

has broken. On any other roll, the defender rolls

two dice at the start of turn four, three dice at the

start of turn five, etc, until morning breaks on any

roll of 4+. The turn that morning breaks, the night

fighting rules are no longer used and it is daylight

for the remainder of the game.

Airborne Assault Forces

When creating a force for air assault missions you

cannot take any Support platoons except a Parachute

Field Artillery Battery, a Parachute Engineer

Platoon, and an Anti-aircraft Artillery Platoon.

If you take an Anti-aircraft Artillery Platoon, you

must replace all M1Bofors guns with M2 .50 cal

AA guns and lose all vehicles for +5 points for the

HQ Section and +5points per Automatic Weapons

Section. The Anti-aircraft Artillery Platoon is rated

as Fearless Veteran though.

Also remember, if you are playing the Death From

Above mission, you receive 25% more points as

the attacking force.

AIRBORNE ASSAULTS

Airborne assaults require a little more preparation

and work than a normal battle, but you wouldn't

have passed jump school if you were afraid of hard

work! 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 Line

With so many aircraft trying to drop troops in the

same area, they must all follow the same route to

avoid collisions. Since they are only over the

battlefield very briefly, you don’t need to model

your transport aircraft.

You must choose a line running across the table as

your flight line. All of your aircraft will fly parallel

to the flight line. Place an arrow or a pencil on the

table to mark the flight line.

2. Wind Direction

Although you can plan your flight line beforetakeoff, you can't control the wind. The strength

and direction of the wind is one of the least

predictable aspects of an airborne assault. However,

since your parachutists will drift down wind while

descending, the way the wind is blowing has a

major impact on your airdrop.

To determine the wind direction, the airborne player

chooses either long table edge as their own, then

rolls a die and checks the Wind Direction diagram

on page 86 of the Flames Of War rulebook to

determine where the wind is blowing from.

3. Organise Your Sticks

To fit in a pair of Douglas C-47 Dakota transport

aircraft, each platoon is split into two ‘sticks’, each

containing an officer.

Normally a parachute platoon operates as a single

entity with the second command team operating as

a normal Rifle/MG or Carbine team unless the first

is destroyed. However, if the sticks are widely

separated on landing, they operate independently

until they join up again.

At the start of an airborne attack, divide each platoon

into two evenly-sized sticks, each containing aCommand team. Treat each stick as a separate

platoon until they are landed and in Command

Distance 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 been

selected, roll a die for each platoon.

• On a roll of 3+, the pilots have found the right

drop zone and the command teams and their

sticks will land as normal.

• On a roll of 1 or 2, the pilots drop the platoon far

from the drop zone. Remove the command teams

and container from the table. You still need to rollfor casualties on landing.

Roll a die at the start of each turn. On a roll of

6, the platoon finds their way back to the table

having found the correct drop zone having

recovered their container.

When the platoon finds its way back to the

table, roll another die as if determining the wind

direction to decide from which table edge or

corner they will arrive. If they arrive from a

corner, they must enter the table within

16”/40cm of the corner, otherwise they may

arrive anywhere on the table edge. Place the

this point the two sticks reunite into a single platoon

and fight on as normal.

4. Select Parachute Drop Points

The next step in a parachute drop is deciding where

you want each platoon to land. Despite the skill of

your transport pilots, this isn’t a precise art. The

strength of the wind and the effects of anti-aircraft

fire or poor navigation can easily result in your platoon landing well off target.

Place each platoon’s command teams side by side

8”/20cm apart on the table to m ark the platoon’s drop

points. Place the platoon’s container half-way between

them. A platoon’s drop points may not be within

8”/20cm of another platoon’s drop points (otherwise

the transport aircraft will collide in mid air!)

5. Finding The Landing Zone

US transport pilots were not given specific training

for parachute operations and frequently had

difficulty delivering the paratroops to the right place, especially at night.

Unlike their German counterparts, US paratroopers

jump carrying their personal weapon (usually an

M1 Garand). However, they still need to drop their

machine-guns, mortars and other heavy equipmentin containers and collect them when they land.

Each parachute platoon has one container marker

dropped with it. Until the platoon recovers its own

container, they only have their personal weapons.

Consequently they shoot as a Rifle team if they are

a Rifle or Rifle/MG team or as a Carbine team in

other cases. The platoon cannot observe for artillery

bombardments until it recovers it equipment.

Recovering Containers

To recover the platoon’s container, a team from the

platoon must start a turn In Command and adjacent

to the container. At that point the team adjacent to

the container and all other teams that are In

Command are armed and immediately revert to

their normal type of team. Remove the container

once it has been recovered.

With two sticks, it is not unusual for part of the

platoon to recover the container while out of command distance of the other part. In this case,

the remainder of the platoon remains Rifle or

Carbine teams until they rejoin the armed part of

the platoon.

Moving Containers

Any Infantry team starting adjacent to a container

may drag it up to 4”/10cm in the Movement step.

The container cannot be moved in the Shooting or

Assault steps (so your opponent’s cannot move a

container with their Stormtrooper movement!) This

allows a team that has recovered its own weapons

to drag another platoon’s container back to it. It

also allows enemy platoons to steal your containers

and make off with them.

Weapons Containers

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Death From Above - American Style



command team at the edge of the table to indicate

their arrival point and move the platoon onto the

table from this point in the Movement step.

6. Deploy Parachute Platoons

The platoons that do find the drop zone now jump

from their aircraft. As the aircraft reaches the drop

point, the dispatchers drop the container and thecommand teams and the rest of the paratroopers

jump in rapid succession.

Roll a die and multiply the result by 6”/15cm and

place the platoon’s container that far down wind.

Roll a die for each command team to find out how

far the paratroops drifted before landing. Multiply

the roll by 6”/15 cm and move the command team

that far down wind.

Each stick deploys in a column along the flight

paths of its transport aircraft. Starting with the

command team, place the remaining teams in the

stick 6”/15cm apart along the flight line from the

command team. The platoon should now be

deployed in two parallel lines.

7. Roll For Casualties

Landing 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 Open

Terrain or 4+ to land safely in Rough Terrain. Any

teams that land off the table or that don’t find the

drop zone need to roll 3+ to survive their landing.

Any roll less than these results in the loss of the

team and its removal from the game. Teams lost

this way do not count as destroyed for platoon

morale, so keep them separate from later casualties.

Being seriously tough, Company Commander

teams, Warriors, and containers are never casualtieson landing, so you do not need to roll for them.

Landing On The Enemy

Any teams landing within 2”/5cm of an enemy

team must move further away from the enemy at

the first possible opportunity. A team that lands

directly on an enemy team is immediately destroyed.

Landing Off The Table

Sometimes, either through misjudgment or

particularly strong winds some or all of a platoon’s

teams or its container will land off the table. In this

case, the airborne player has two options. Either count them as lost (but not destroyed) and out of

the game, or remove the whole platoon (but not

their container) as they search for the missing teams.

If you remove the platoon, place the command

team at the table edge as a marker where the platoon

landed. Move the survivors onto the table from this

point in the Movement step of the first American

turn. If the container landed off the table, the platoon

has recovered it when they return, otherwise they

must still do so.

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Death From Above - American Style

Command teamsdrift with the wind

DropPoints

Flight

Line

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