Tag Archives: Douglas C-47 Skytrain

5 June 1944

Aviation, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
General Dwight D. Eisenhower talking with Lieutenant Wallace C. Strobel and paratroopers of Co. E, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, United States Army (the legendary “Band of Brothers”), at Greenham Common, 2030 hours, 5 June 1944 (U.S. Army)

5–6 June 1944 (D-Day -1): Beginning in the late evening, 821 Douglas C-47 Skytrain twin-engine transports, and 516 Waco CG-4A and Airspeed AS.51 Horsa gliders of the IXth Troop Carrier Command, airlifted 13,348 paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, United States Army, and another 7,900 men of the British Army 6th Airborne Division and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion.

C-47 Skytrains in Vee-of Vees formation.
C-47 Skytrains in Vee-of-Vees formation.

The airplanes flew in a Vee-of Vees formation, nine airplanes abreast, 100 feet (30 meters) from wing tip to wing tip, 1,000 feet (305 meters) in trail, stretching for over 300 miles (483 kilometers). They flew in darkness at an altitude of 500 to 1,000 feet (152–305 meters).

Their mission was to drop the paratroopers behind the invasion beaches of Normandy during the hours before the amphibious assault began on D-Day.

Stand up, hook up, shuffle to the door. . . .

Allied air assault on Normandy, 5–6 June 1944. (Army Air Forces in World War II)
A restored Douglas C-47A-80-DL Skytrain, serial number 43-15211, of the 92nd Troop Carrier Squadron, 439th Troop Carrier Group, 50th Troop Carrier Wing, IX Troop Carrier Command, United States Army Air Force, in its original markings and invasion stripes, with re-enactors at USAAF Station AAF-462 (RAF Station Upottery), 28 July 2007. © Mac Hawkins

© 2018, Bryan R. Swopes