From flap: "On August 15, 1944, the ten thousand men of the First
Airborne Task Force parachuted into the French Riviera. Their mission
was to draw the Germans back from their defensive positions on the
Mediterranean, to disrupt their communications, to rally any available
partisan elements, and ultimately to guard the right flank of the
northward advancing American Seventh Army.

Known as the "champagne campaign" because the troops commuted between deadly patrols in the field and champagne parties in Nice,"this operation developed into the most successful major airdrop of the war -- suffering fewer casualties, capturing more prisoners and materiel and accomplishing its objectives more completely than any other airborne unit on either side. The FABTF also forged some of the most durable wartime relationships between soldiers and civilians that was created anywhere. [ Furthermore], from the ranks of this unique task force there came after the war an amazing number of generals, successful businessmen, and influential politicians."