on the second day of operations, but the advance of the ground forces was further delayed while engineers erected a Bailey Bridge at Son replacing the destroyed bridge. XXX Corps then continued its advance into the 82nd Airborne area of operations where it was halted just shy of Arnhem due to German counterattacks along the length of the deep penetration. The 101st Airborne continued to support XXX Corps advance during the remainder of Operation Market Garden with several running battles over the next several days.
The other significant operation for the 506th in WWII was its participation in the Battle of the Bulge between December 1444 and January 1945. Following Operation Market Garden, while resting and refitting in France, General Eisenhower called upon the 101st Airborne on 16 December to occupy the Belgian town of Bastogne by December 18th 1944, in order to deny the Germans access/control of its important crossroads. The short notice move left the unit ill supplied on essential items necessary for combat such as food, ammunition, arms, men, and winter clothing. German forces encircled the 506th, along with the rest of the 101st Airborne, almost immediately. In initial exchanges between combatants, approximately one third (about 200 men) of the battalion were killed in action, but likewise inflicted up to 1,000 German casualties and destroyed 30 enemy tanks. The 506th’s 1st battalion was put into reserve and the 2nd and 3rd battalions were put on the front lines. A supply drop on December 22nd helped to alleviate the hardships of troops to some extent, but the winter landscape still proved challenging. After the Third Army broke the encirclement, the 506th stayed on the line and spearheaded the liberation of Foy and Noville in January 1945, until being transferred to Haguenau. They were pulled off the front line in late February but still participated in the assault against the Ruhr Pocket and capture of Berchtesgaden. Lastly the 506th occupied Zell am See before preparing to deploy to the Pacific theatre, but the war ended in August 1945 negating the need for the 506th redeployment.
Over the next two decades the 506th would undergo a series of reorganizations as the unit moved from its post-war role to a mainstay of the US military. In addition, the 506th moved out of and back into the responsibility of the 101st Airborne Division and changed garrisons to its current home at Fort Campbell, Kentucky by 1964. The next time the 506th participated in major US military action was for combat in Vietnam.
Beginning with the Tet Offensive in early 1968 the 506th would go on to be involved in a variety of operations and actions;
- The Battle of Hamburger Hill in May 1969
- The Battle of FSB Ripcord
- Counteroffensive Operations, Phase III between Jun 1st, 1967 and January 29th, 1968
- The Tet Counteroffensive between January 30th and April 1st 1968
- Counteroffensive, Phase IV between April 2nd and June 30th, 1968
- Counteroffensive, Phase V between July 1st and November 1st, 1968
- Counteroffensive, Phase VI between November 2nd, 1968 and February 22nd 1969
- The Tet 69/Counteroffensive from February 23rd and June 8th, 1969
- The 1969 Summer-Fall Offensive between June 9th and October 31st 1969
- The Winter-Spring Offensive of 1970 from November 1st, 1969 and April 30th, 1970
- The Sanctuary Counteroffensive between May 1st and June 30th, 1970
- The Counteroffensive, Phase VII between July 1st, 1970 and June 30th, 1971
- Consolidation I Operations from July 1st, 1971 to November 30th, 1971
- Consolidation II Operations between December 1st, 1971 and March 29th, 1972
Immediately following the 506Th participation in the Vietnam conflict the unit was inactivated on July 31st, 1972 and responsibility was transferred to the 101st Airborne. From that point on the unit’s lineage is quiet until a short time after the 9/11 attacks when the US Army was again spinning up for the various conflicts in the Global War on Terror for both Operation IRAQI and ENDURING FREEDOM (OIF and OEF). The first elements of the 506th to deploy in suppo