LANDING ZONE A
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Taken from a B-25 as it makes its pass high
above Battery Wheeler, this picture shows paratroopers
sprinkled throughout the photograph gathering together in
small groups. Some can be seen in the crater (left
foreground). A single figure can be seen walking across the
athletic ground, as if out for a Sunday stroll. One of the
most amazing things about this photograph is the almost
casual way the groups are appearing to form up. Fortunately
for the paratroopers the Japanese defenders did not make
themselves obvious on Topside in any significant manner
until after the first wave were well assembled. Had they
simply been sitting around in the bomb proof areas of
Topside, instead of anticipating a sea-borne invasion,
catastrophic casualties would have been inevitable.
That
was not to say that the landing was unopposed - those
troopers who had jumped early, or who had been blown short
of the landing zones, fell into Japanese controlled areas,
many with fatal results.