The paratrooper drops were particularly confusing to German soldiers on the ground. There were some operations that were highly targeted and went off exactly as planned--the attack on Pegasus Bridge at the extreme left of the battle by the British is the classic example. However, most of the paratroopers were scattered by faster than planned transport craft (who went faster than planned due to heavy anti-aircraft fire) and planes that had their troopers jump nowhere near their drop zone (again, motivated by anti-aircraft fire.

This led to a confusing situation on the ground. Paratroopers were scattered all over the place, and a number of different approaches were adopted. Where there were officers, groups were formed from whatever soldiers were available and these groups tried to accomplish their pre-planned objectives. Some of these groups were large and able to act as platoon or larger units. Others were just a handful of men trying to sneak to their targets. Still others were individuals, pairs, or groups of men without officers that did the best they could in the situation.

These groups stumbled into each other and the Germans in the dark. The paratroopers set up ambushes and were ambushed themselves. The result for German commanders was that there seemed to be paratroopers both everywhere and nowhere. To compound this, tiny fake paratroopers were dropped as well. German commanders had reports of large groups of paratroopers attacking here and there, other reports of handfuls of paratroopers at other locations, and still more reports of dummy paratroopers filled with firecrackers that sounded like gunfire. Figuring out what was actually going on--that this was the invasion instead of a raid or spoiling attack--was nearly impossible for both German command and the soldiers on the ground.

So how that night was viewed by Germans varied greatly, especially due to the haphazard way that the American paratroopers were dropped into combat.