First activated on 25 February 1943, during World War II, it was held in reserve in the United States until June 1944 when it was transferred to the Pacific Theater where it saw combat in the Philippines.

The 11th Airborne, as the attacking force, was assigned the objective of capturing Knollwood Army Auxiliary Airfield near Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

[17] The force defending the airfield and its environs was a combat team composed of elements of the 17th Airborne Division and a battalion from the 541st Parachute Infantry Regiment.

[19] The Knollwood Maneuver took place on the night of 7 December 1943, with the 11th Airborne Division being airlifted to thirteen separate objectives by 200 C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft and 234 Waco CG-4A gliders.

Eighty-five percent were delivered to their targets without navigational error,[20] and the airborne troops seized the Knollwood Army Auxiliary Airfield and secured the landing area for the rest of the division before daylight.

After four weeks of final preparation for its combat role,[22] in April the division was moved to Camp Stoneman, California and then transferred to Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, between 25 May and 11 June.

[22] From June to September the division underwent acclimatization and continued its airborne training, conducting parachute drops in the New Guinea jungle and around the airfield in Dobodura.

The 511th PIR advanced overland with two battalions abreast and the third in reserve,[25] but progress proved slow in the face of fierce Japanese resistance, a lack of mapped trails and heavy rainfall (with more than 23 inches (580 mm) falling in November alone).

As the advance continued resupply became progressively more difficult; the division resorted to using large numbers of Piper Cub aircraft to drop food and ammunition.

The first attempted to deploy a small number of Japanese airborne troops to occupy several key American-held airfields at Tacloban and Dulag, but failed when the three aircraft used were either shot-down, crash-landed or destroyed on the ground along with their passengers.

[29][30] Six L-5 Sentinel reconnaissance aircraft and one C-47 transport were destroyed, but the raiders were eliminated by an ad hoc combat group of artillerymen, engineers and support troops led by Swing.

[32] It was during this period that Private Elmer E. Fryar earned a posthumous Medal of Honor when he helped to repel a counterattack, personally killing twenty-seven Japanese soldiers before being mortally wounded by a sniper.

[35] The regiment moved rapidly to secure Nasugbu, after which its 1st Battalion advanced up the island's arterial Highway 17 to deny the Japanese time to establish defenses further inland.

The 188th's 2nd Battalion was relieved and the regiment continued its advance, reaching the River Palico by 14:30 and securing a vital bridge before it could be destroyed by Japanese combat engineers.

[38] At 09:00 on 1 February the glider infantry launched their assault, and by midday had managed to break through the first Japanese position; they spent the rest of the day conducting mopping up operations.

Entrenched heavy anti-aircraft weapons, machine-gun nests and booby-traps made of naval bombs completed the defenses, which were manned by around 6,000 Japanese soldiers.

[45] During the advance on Manila, the division's Chief of Staff, Colonel Irvin R. Schimmelpfennig III, was killed by Japanese small arms fire on 4 February and posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

[47] The following day the division thrust towards Fort William McKinley, the headquarters of Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi, commander of the Japanese defenders on Luzon.

This was an extremely heavily fortified position featuring the same defensive measures as the Genko Line, and it would take six days of hard fighting, multiple airstrikes, and the frequent use of napalm and heavy artillery, before the point was secured.

[55] On 20 February, Swing was finally able to release sufficient troops for a raid on the Los Baños camp, and a four-phase plan was devised by Vanderpool and the divisional staff officers.

[56] The divisional reconnaissance platoon would travel across a nearby lake and move to the outskirts of the camp, securing a large adjacent field as the drop zone for a company of paratroopers.

[62] On the day that the Los Baños internees were freed, the headquarters of Sixth United States Army assigned the 11th Airborne Division the task of destroying all Japanese formations in southern Luzon, south of Manila.

The 188th GIR was detached from the main advance by Swing; it was to eliminate all Japanese units still operating in the Pico de Loro hills along the southern shore of Manila Bay.

[64] It would take until the end of April for the 11th Airborne Division—often acting in conjunction with Filipino soldiers, the recognized guerillas and elements of the 1st Cavalry Division—to subdue the Shimbu Group.

[71] On 21 June, a detachment of pathfinders from the division was flown in to secure Camalaniugan Airfield, and two days later the transport aircraft carrying the troops of Gypsy Task Force were escorted by fighters to the area.

At 09:00 the pathfinder detachment set off colored smoke to mark the drop-zone, but fierce winds and uneven ground around the airfield proved hazardous to the parachutists, causing two deaths and seventy injuries during the drop.

[78] The 11th Airborne remained on Okinawa for several weeks before,[79] on 28 August, it was ordered to land at Atsugi Airfield outside of Yokohama, on the main Japanese home island of Honshū.

Its instructions were to secure the surrounding area, evacuate all Japanese civilians and military personnel within a radius of three miles (4.8 km), and finally occupy Yokohama itself.

The published purpose of that drop was to capture members of the North Korean Government fleeing Pyongyang and also to free American POWs being moved towards the Chinese border, however, neither objective was realized.

The 187th and 188th tested helicopters during various exercises, ranging from command and control maneuvers to scouting, screening and aerial resupply, to assess their ability to perform as combat aircraft.