The minimum weight of the gear carried by a 101st Airborne paratrooper was approximately 32 kg. Aplenty of them died by snapping under the weight during landings, drowned, suffered compound fractures. As it is jokingly said, they were more of a light infantry than paratroopers.
Following are some images that partially highlight some of the constituents of the gear, except the main weapons.
The most infamous was the ‘D Bar’ – a ration bar supposedly made of chocolate.
“The D bar was a rectangular-shaped, hard, non-melting, moldy-tasting chocolate har. One bar would last a man all day-if he could stomach an entire bar in a single day. The damned thing was so hard a dog couldn’t gnaw it. It could hardly be broken up, even with a rifle butt. It couldn’t be shaved down with a trench knife, and it absolutely refused to melt even in boiling water. What kept a man going all day was trying to figure out how to get the damned thing inside. Even if he did, I’m convinced it would have passed clear through his body without changing form of shape. But I’ll never know for sure. I never was able to eat one”.
Donald R. Burgett-A Company I Battalion
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101 Airborne Division
Life is about being kinetic 