"Hill 110 was designated as the drop zone for the 508th Parachute Infantry.

Then followed a careful and painstaking study of the enemy activity and dispositions in and around the Hill area.

First the Hill had 3 windmills on it.

Intelligence reports showed that these were now in use as radio towers.

A small German caretaking detachment was always at these stations.

Next, the quarry began to show signs of occupation.

From the air photos it appeared that weapons were emplaced in or near the quarry.

These might be light Ack-Ack weapons, it was impossible to tell.

On the lower slopes of Hill 110, where it blended into wooded hedgerows, parking bays for vehicles began to appear, a sure sign, as we learned late, of a command installation.

At several points on the lower slopes of the Hill the hedgerows were cleared away.

We couldn’t understand this, and although we watched each new photo very closely for weapons emplacements, none showed up.

Finally, about 3 weeks before D-day, small black specks in a regular geometric patterns began to show up all over the Hill.

They continued to grow in number until the entire Hill was covered with them.

They were simply specks, apparently holes, for they didn’t throw shadows on early morning photos as objects above the ground do.

Some of us were sure now that the Germans knew of our landing plans and were taking some measures to counter them.

We had already heard of Rommel’s Asparagus.

Sure enough, after we spent several days of worry over Hill 110, the tell tale shadows of the Rommelspargel began to appear.