As head of the IX Troop Carrier Command during World War II, he was responsible for the airlift of the airborne landings in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, southern France, the Netherlands and Germany.

Paul Langdon Williams was born in Detroit, Michigan on 16 April 1894 but his family moved to Los Angeles when he was still a boy.

In December 1918 he moved to Gerstner Field, Louisiana, and then, in November 1919, to Calexico, California, for border patrol duty with the 9th Aero Squadron.

Williams served at the Air Corps Primary Flying School at Brooks Field, Texas, from June to October 1927.

[1] The headquarters of the 51st Troop Carrier Wing arrived in Scotland on 1 September 1942 and was assigned to the Eighth Air Force.

On 28 November Williams personally led forty-forty aircraft of the 62nd and 64th Troop Carrier Groups carrying 530 paratroops of the British 2nd Parachute Battalion.

The battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel John Dutton Frost rode with Williams in the lead aircraft.

Williams picked his landmarks carefully and successfully navigated his way to Depienne Airfield, dropping the paratroops nearby.

[7] On 22 and 23 February, Williams attempted to launch an all-out attack on German forces withdrawing through Kasserine Pass, but the weather hampered his efforts.

[12] Williams had not been involved with experiments that had been carried out by troop carriers over the previous months and was therefore not up to speed on the latest pathfinder equipment and tactics, which were neglected during the planning phase of HUSKY.

Moreover, the route chosen for the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing's operation was particularly difficult, involving three sharp turns over water in dim moonlight.

Williams was unable to secure the necessary agreement from the naval commander, Vice Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt for a straighter route.

On 21 May, Williams moved his headquarters from Casablanca to Oujda in order to observe the progress of training of the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing and the 82nd Airborne Division.

The simultaneous American operation, which involved 226 C-47s of the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing carrying 2,781 paratroops, encountered similar problems, resulting in the drop being widely scattered.

The 82nd Airborne Division's commander, Major General Matthew Ridgway, felt that the operation had "demonstrated beyond any doubt that the Air Force... cannot at present put parachute units, even as large as a battalion within effective attack distance of a chosen drop zone at night.

A mission codenamed Operation FUSTIAN, flown on 13 July in support of the British, cost 11 C-47s destroyed and 50 damaged out of 124 participating.

pathfinder training was conducted in Tunisia and encouraging results led to Williams' decision to employ Eureka in upcoming operations.

[18] The Troop Carrier Command moved from Tunisia to Sicily in early September and Williams opened his headquarters at Licata.

Williams planned parachute drops on airfields at Poligono di Furbara and Cerveteri, northwest of the city.

[19] However, in response to the deteriorating situation in the Battle of Salerno, Lieutenant General Mark Clark called for an emergency mission to bring the 82nd Airborne Division.

With so many inexperienced units and personnel, the IX Troop Carrier Command embarked on an intensive training regime as a matter of urgency.

[27] For Williams, who had already predicted that, barring pathfinder failure or heavy flak, over 90% of the paratroops would land in their correct drop zones in Normandy, the exercise affirmed his opinion.

[30] All that remained was the 51st Troop Carrier Wing, albeit at full strength following the return of a detachment from China Burma India Theater.

The planes flew from the United Kingdom to Italy via Gibraltar or Marrakech and moved to recently captured airfields in the Rome area.

They had to be given special priority in order to clear the congested port of Naples, but by 9 August, 327 gliders had been delivered and assembled.

[36] On 10 September Brereton held a conference with his troop carrier and airborne commanders and their staffs at his headquarters at Sunnyhill Park, near Ascot, Berkshire, where they were briefed on Operation MARKET, an airborne operation to seize a series of bridges in the Netherlands to enable the 21st Army Group to cross the Rhine River.

At the conference Williams was given operational control of the Nos 38 and 46 Groups RAF, which he would exercise from his command post at Eastcote.

Daylight not only helped the aircraft to navigate better, but also greatly reduced the time required for units to assemble on the drop zones.

This was achieved with over 5,200 sorties by fighters and bombers devoted to warding off the Luftwaffe and suppressing German flak batteries.

Major General James M. Gavin of the 82nd Airborne Division estimated that collecting all of the airdropped supplies would have required a third of men.