This is a multi-part series with additional history being added. For readability we have broken down the story into geographical parts

HISTORY OF THE 505th PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT

1942 – 1945

PLEASE NOTE:
As of December 2019, we are "again" working on the completion of this history.

we are determined to complete this task, unfulfilled since the website's inception in 2003.

“…early on I learned that when I gave the 505 a job to do, it would be done and with little or no direction on my part. I have no doubt that, based on its record, the 505 was the best parachute regiment to come out of World War II.”

– General Matthew B. Ridgway

THE BEGINNING
NORTH AFRICA
SICILY
ITALY
NORTH IRELAND
ENGLAND
NORMANDY
HOLLAND
ARDENNES
CENTRAL EUROPE
BERLIN

Sources:
1) Bradley Biggs, Gavin, A Biography of General James M. Gavin (Hamden, CT: Archon Press, 1980)
2) Clay Blair, "Ridgway’s Paratroopers": The American Airborne in World War II (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1985)
3) James M. Gavin “Personal Diaries”, James M. Gavin Papers, U. S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, PA.
4) James M. Gavin, "Airborne Warfare" (Washington, DC: Infantry Journal Press, 1947)
5) James M. Gavin, "On To Berlin": Battles of an Airborne Commander, 1943-1946 (New York, NY: The Viking Press, 1978)
6) James M. Gavin, "War and Peace in the Space Age" (New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958)
7) Allen Langdon, “Ready”, The History of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, World War II (Indianapolis, IN: Western Newspaper Publishing Co., Inc., 1986)
8) "U.S.A. Airborne 50th Anniversary" (Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Company, 1990)
9) Phil Nordyke "Four Stars of Valor" The Combat History of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment in World War II (Zenith Press - 2006)
10) Peter Turnbull "I Maintain the Right" The 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion in WW-II (AuthorHouse Publishing 2010)
11) Frank Miale "Stragedy" Story of the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion (Trafford Publishing 2005)
12) John McKenzie "On Time On Target" A World War II memoir of a forward observer for the 456th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion.
13) Dennis G. O'Loughlin "Fierce Individualists" U.S. Paratroops in WW-II (Pfc.O'Loughlin served in E Company 505-PIR)