[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..

[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'."

[ansel12]

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

[ArmstedFragg]

Many of those C47’s made three round trips.