D-Day: Eisenhower and His Paratroopers

Self | June 6, 2014 | Self

[llevrok]

I am just reading “D-Day with the Screaming Eagles” by George Koskimaki (c.1970). An excellent read - the voices in letter and interview of those who jumped.

God Bless them all.

[dfwgator]

[Servant of the Cross]

Thanks for sharing ... and the ping.

[ken5050]

Thanks for the ping. You write very well. Love the imagery that this was only 17 years after Lindberg's flight..

My dad piloted a C-47 on D-Day...actually D-Day minus 1...he dropped the Pathfinders...the select paratroops who went in blind to mark the landing zones for the first wave. His plane was shot down..he jumped...luckily..landed amid American troops..got back to England 3 days later...and was back flying the next day...

I thought the losses were worse..the real problem was that moist of the paratroops that did jump successfully were dropped miles from their targets..

[donozark]

My understanding is that most of the men in that pic were KIA/WIA within hours of it being taken....

[Covenantor]

Great post. Still trying to imagine 1250 C-47s in three streams 300 miles long roaring across the English Channel at night. Add the towed gliders and my circuit breakers shut down.

[Servant of the Cross]

At the same time he was devoted to the men. The evening before D-Day, Eisenhower left SHAEF headquarters at 6 PM and traveled to Newbury where the 101st Airborne was boarding for its first combat mission. Ike arrived at 8 PM and did not leave until the last C-47 was airborne over three hours later.

"... God was an ally in this great cause."

In his memorable speech 30 years ago today, commemorating the 40th Anniversary of 'the Boys of Pointe du Hoc', President Reagan also mentioned how Ike's officers followed his lead and prayed with their paratroopers before they boarded the planes ...(begins at the 7:10 mark)

"So the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer, he told them, 'do not bow your heads but look up, so you can see God and ask his blessing in what we are about to do'."

[Ophiucus]

The numbers are big but it breaks down that it wasn't a constant stream.

1250 c-47s would be about 16 miles if laid end to end. Three columns, just over five miles each. That leaves 294 miles of space for gliders and group separation,

Still a big bunch of planes though.

[Retain Mike]

That is great. I think I have Reagan’s speech as one of my links. I would love to work that into my narrative.

[ansel12]

At jump school in 1972, we were still in some of the old wooden barracks.

[Retain Mike]

The English had been using this technique for their night bombing for years, so they must have taught the Americans. They accomplished this with no radars, no warning buzzers, and no lights. In the Tonkin Gulf I stood OOD watches at night in a formation of amphibious ships when we shut down our radars and lights. Cruising about on random courses at only 10 knots was enough of a pucker factor for me.

[ArmstedFragg]

Many of those C47’s made three round trips.

[Retain Mike]

I had not realized that. But of course if each has a stick of 11, then at most 13,350 are dropped on the continent the first time around.

[TADSLOS]

Affectionately known as Splinter Village. They were still using them to house junior NCOs when I was there from 79-82.

[ansel12]

Splinter Village, that’s pretty good, is there any history for them?

Benning was also where I saw my first concrete barracks I guess it was the last week, or last few days or something. I preferred the old open bay wooden barracks.

[Future Snake Eater]

Splinter Village is now home to the various post facilities like housing, finance, etc. A mini-mall of Army bureaucracy, basically, but at least it’s all in one place.

[TADSLOS]

The Infantry Museum at Benning may have one of the old wooden barracks on display. I know they have several of the old Ranger squad huts from Camp Merrill (Dahlonega, GA) on display. You can still see the Ranger student names and class numbers carved in the walls. The Ranger Department was still operating out of a section of wooden barracks and admin buildings at Harmony Church up until the mid-eighties. I was there from 80-82. My office was in one of those. We still used coal to heat it in the winter.

I stopped by there in 2002 after watching my son graduate from Airborne School. All of those old barracks are gone now- nothing left but a few bricks from the chimney stacks. The company street was even pulled up. A damned shame. That place has some real history attached to it. It's the same locale where Infantry OCS was based during WWII.

[ansel12]

I would lay on my bunk in those wooden barracks and think about the history of what we were doing.

I can get a little lost in my thoughts on history at times, and was shocked when our bus pulled up to the black hats for the jump part, and they all seemed to have heavy German accents, it was pretty funny for me, being barked at by Krauts, you “vill leeve” the bus, now!!!.

[TADSLOS]

LOL. Well, they did have the mannerisms down for that. I remember them popping out of nowhere from the scrub on Fyrar DZ and yelling at us to double time off the drop zone.