Soldiers of the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army, photographed walking through the fog to a new position, in Ardennes, Belgium, on 20 December 1944. by Major General James Gavin, U.S. Army The 82nd Airborne Division, still awaiting reinforcements and much re-supply at its base camps in the general area of Rheims, France, moved 150 miles with its first combat elements going into position in less than twenty-four hours and the entire division closing in a new combat area in less than forty hours from the time of the initial alert. It fought, stopped, and held against the best divisions the German leader, Field Marshal Von Rundstedt, could pit against it, protecting the north shoulder of the Allied line, preventing the German breakthrough from turning north to Liege, Belgium, and providing a safe area through which trapped Allied units could withdraw from the breakthrough area. This it did despite the fact that its lines at times stretched more tha...