Gliding Through D-Day....Part II

A few years ago I paid homage to my Uncle Buck for his service to our country during the very early morning hours of June 6, 1944 by writing Gliding Into D-Day.  Feel free to obtain a little background if you wish by clicking through and reading it first.

My uncle….Flight Officer Cyrus S. Carson…. was a glider pilot.

Gliders were actually the first stealth aircraft used by the military. The Gibson Refrigerator Co. received contracts from the U.S. Army Air Force for the production of CG-4A troop carrying gliders, and was one of 15 companies to do so. Each glider was made up of 70,000 individual parts.  Gibson built over 1,000 of the nearly 14,000 CG-4A gliders constructed during the war.

On the morning of June 6, 1944, Cyrus S. Carson was flying as pilot in command and John Winkler was flying co-pilot in a WACO CG-4A glider similar to the one I’ve posted below. Both men had graduated as second lieutenants from advanced flight training in 1943 from Lubbock, Texas.

A WACO CG-4A glider is pictured below.

 

The mission that my uncle and Winkler flew was serial 2B code name “Detroit” which was a pre-dawn glider borne combat assault in the American airborne landings in Normandy, made by elements of the U.S. 82^nd Airborne Division. It was part of Operation Neptune, the assault port of the Allied Invasion of France, Operation Overlord.

Originally slated to be the main assault for the 82^nd Airborne, the glider operation instead became the first reinforcement missing after the main parachute combat assault, Mission Boston. The landing zone for Mission Detroit was near Sante-Mere-Eglise, to the west of Utah beach.

The 434^th Troop Carrier Group as well as the 437^th participated at the same time.

My uncle and Winkler, pictured below, were flying the 82nd Airborne as the other group flew the 101st Airborne. Each group consisted of 52 gliders, making a total of 104 gliders to cross the peninsula of Normandy.

On D-Day my uncle and Winkler were flying glider number 6. Their mission was to carry field artillery and hook up with glider number 5 which had a jeep. Their tow plane was the C-45. The WACO CG-4A was 48 feet long with an 84 foot wingspan and weighed 3,790 pounds empty, 7,500 pounds normal load, and 9,000 pounds overloaded; made of plywood, canvas and steel tubing. There were no flaps, although spoilers above the wing were used to steep the glide.

From my uncle’s own account of the mission he writes, “Every odd numbered glider transported a jeep and five men counting the pilot and co-pilot. Every even numbered glider transported an anti-tank gun, five men and a stack of ammo.

….Our men took a map of the Normandy peninsula and located the beach that the troops would be using to land ashore. Straight across the peninsula on the south shore were [the two Channel] islands named Guernsey and Jersey. The navigator decided that if we positioned a ship about 40 miles straight south, with a spot light point straight up, we could head from England into the direction of Spain and pick up that spot light and go north [and get us in the position regarding where we wanted to land our gliders].

What we didn’t know …was that these two islands were the heaviest fortified places in all of Europe.”

Around 1:00 am in the morning my uncle and Winkler along with three soldiers from the 82^nd Airborne took off from Ramsbury, England. The weather was so bad the mission should have been cancelled, but that had already happened once before.

My uncle remembers, “We assembled over England and when we reached the Channel, we dropped down to 100 feet over the water and flew until we found our spotlight, then headed north. As we crossed between the two islands, we could see thousands of shells going up just in front of every tow plane and glider. The only thing that saved us was the eight Air Force P-47s, P-51s, B-25s, and B-26s that flew at speeds between 250 and 275 mph.  We came along at 140 mph and the guns on the ground couldn’t adjust their lead.  Not a single C-47 or glider was shot down.”

They could not see the tow plane, although they could tell if they were high or low depending on which way the tow rope pointed looking out from the cockpit. There is no engine noise, although the glider does make a whistle noise from the various protruding rigging that is exposed to the slip stream.

My uncle continued, “At 2,000 feet over land we were flying in a cloud, solely on instruments. A glider’s instruments consist of keeping the three to four feet of tow rope pointing in the same direction. We were supposed to drop down to an altitude of 700 feet for glider release. We were approximately six to eight minutes from the release point when the C-47 pulling me made an 85 degree diving turn to the left. This caused the rope on my glider to break.”

My uncle’s co-pilot, Wilkerson recollects that something must have spooked the pilot in the tow plane as he ran into a thick cover of clouds.

My uncle states, “I made a driving turn to the right. If I had remained on course, and slowed down to 70 mph, there was a real good possibility that the C-47 behind me, would have collided with the rear of my glider.

I reduced my speed to 70 mph and at about 100 feet I broke out from under the clouds. This gave me a very short amount of time to find a suitable place to land my glider. I selected an open field to my right. This field had one large tree about one foot in diameter.

I positioned my glider so that the tree would contact the center of my right wing, causing the right wing to be shred off and causing the glider to drop about five feet to the ground with enough force to break off the right landing gear. The left side of the glider came down slower and the left wheel remained on the glider. This caused one terrific ground loop. Nobody was injured and the equipment was not damaged.

Glider number 5, carrying a jeep was supposed to join up with us. This would have given us a 10 man anti-tank crew.”

Co-pilot Wilkerson reported that all five crew members were covered with dirt from the glider plowing up the field with the landing gear.

My uncle continues, “With hopes that the crew with the jeep would find us, we hid on a wooden knoll about 900 feet away from where we landed where we had a clear view of the glider. The first thing that came by was a truck load of about 20 German troops.”

Sadly two hours after John and Cyrus landed and while they were waiting next to their glider hoping to meet up with the crew from glider number 5, deputy commander of the 101^st Airborne, Brigadier-GeneralDonald F. Pratt landed about 0400. His glider was over-loaded with a command jeep, radio set, and jerry cans of gasoline. In order to avoid stalling the glider, the pilot, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael C. Murphy, came in over the hedgerow at about 90 mph and skidded on the damp grass and crashed head-on into a tree in the middle of the hedge. Murphy survived the crash with two broken legs, although Pratt died in the seat of his jeep with a broken neck.

Pratt was the highest ranking officer killed on D-Day.

At a family reunion a few years before my uncle died he told me about the glider crash that killed Pratt with tears streaming down his face.  He wrote “They overshot the landing field. The Jeep shifted when the glider hit a hedgerow causing it to move forward, severing the pilot, Tom Seward’s right shoulder.  He died instantly. The co-pilot received a broken back. They were surrounded by Germans fairly quickly. The co-pilot was taken to a German field hospital.  All they could do for him was roll up a blanket and put it under his back while lying face up.

Thankfully, the American front line overtook the hospital four weeks later.”

The glider crash that killed Pratt was fictionalized in the movie Saving Private Ryan.

My uncle and his crew waited as long as they could, but the area was full of Germans. I’ve posted a picture below of one of the gliders being inspected by the Germans soon after it landed below. 

At this point my uncle’s crew decided getting back to friendly territory was their prime objective. Unknown to them at the time, there was a total of 8 gliders that landed off course in the same area within about a 2 mile radius of them and there were also two German divisions there at La Chevalerie near Saint Germaine-le-Gaillard.

The men decided to split up with my uncle taking two of the soldiers with him and his co-pilot took the rest.

Immediately upon splitting up Germans were within eyesight.  My uncle explains, “The three of us were in a wheat field close to hedgerow when a truck of Germans entered the same field in a lower corner. I told them that everything takes time, if we jumped up, it would take time for them to recognize us as Americans, it would take time for each one to decide which one of us to shoot and it would take time to aim and fire. In my theory, before they could fire the first shot, we could be over the hedgerow and be gone.

Agreeing with me I told them we would count to three, at the word three, we would go over the hedgerow. On the word three I sprung up, hit my head and right shoulder on the top of the hedgerow, and pole vaulted to the other side.

Going over I saw three rifles come up, but no shot was fired.

I hit the ground running.

In 500 feet was another hedgerow.  I cleared it the same way. 

Then I stopped to let the other two catch up. 

I was surprised to find I was alone.

This meant that the other two didn’t have a second chance.”

My uncle never knew what happened to the two men.  He checked with headquarters as late as September, 1947 and there was no word as to their whereabouts.

Once alone he heads towards Cherbourg.  He spots another glider crew who has set fire to their glider, but they are hesitant to leave because a member of their crew was injured.  After 15 minutes or so my uncle sets off again alone moving slowly as the area is thick with German surveillance.

French resistance fighter, Valentin Lebatard picks him up on the afternoon of June 9^th and drops him off with a small group of American soldiers. After 48 hours my uncle sets off alone again

He explains, “Two days later I thought I was three or four hedgerows from the American front line, when a German medic found me. The American medics go into battle with a first-aid kit and a stretcher; the German medics went into battle with a first aid kit and a rifle. I was taken to German headquarters which was about three blocks away where I was interrogated giving name, rank and serial number only.  Apparently the Germans had never heard of the rank “Flight Officer” before.”

While being held at the German headquarters my uncle met up with Second Lieutenant James Bowley.  Per Uncle Buck Bowley had “come ashore on the third day of the invasion at Utah Beach, and had been injured in the right hip by a German hand grenade.   He was just coming to when the Germans searched him finding his pockets full of German insignias that he had taken from dead German soldiers.  

Three hours later they were on a truck….three feet deep with ammo and about 8 German soldiers. The truck was pulling an 88 mm anti-aircraft gun.”

Basically, they were riding in a half-track which is a cross between a tractor and a tank. The ammo the Germans were carrying was shells about 5 feet across and about eighteen inches in length. They could bring down a B-17 bomber at 30,000 feet as the flak from these shells brought down hundreds of bombers during the war.

My uncle and Lt. Bowley knew exactly where they were headed. When the Germans captured Allied soldiers they would march them or transport them to Paris where they would be loaded on box cars for the trip to Berlin and on to a concentration camp deep inside Germany. 

The Germans had their prisoners ride on top of the ammunition. At one section of the road which led to Paris, there was an area that was barren of any hedgerows and trees and was vulnerable since the American Air Corp had orders to not let anything go in or out of this area. When they would see any German vehicle it would be fair game.

By this time, a couple of P-47s were patrolling the road looking for German transports.  One of the fighters made a low pass and came around for the bomb run.

My uncle states, “On his last pass the pilot decided to drop a 500 pound bomb.  The bomb hit the pavement in front of me, dug through the pavement about one foot, rose back into the air clearing the gun and the truck and going about 200 feet into the living room of a French house. The bomb did not explode. We had about 20 minutes of fireworks as all the ammo in the truck exploded.”

Since the bomb did not detonate, the wing-man for the other P-47 was going to finish off the job with a strafing pass. As the fighter made its pass, the half-track was hit with 50 caliber machine gun rounds and it exploded in flames.

The Germans along with their prisoners took shelter at a farmhouse. The location was identified as “La Detrousse” in the town of Saint-Nicolas-de-Pierreport near La-Haye-du-Puits. At some point the German Lieutenant leaves the prisoners with a guard while he and the other men go in search of other transport.

While they were alone the Americans were able to talk more directly with the German soldier and even shared pictures of their families. My uncle and Bowley attempted to persuade the German soldier that they were all just pawns in the war.

Later, when the German Lieutenant returns he orders the prisoners to dig their graves.  The prisoners had become a liability and had to go.  The officer left with the other men and ordered the guard to kill the solders and catch up to them.

The guard took my uncle and Bowley to a bedroom and showed them how the mattresses were stuffed with straw.  He indicated the men should hide in the mattresses and not come out.  

A few minutes later they heard gun fire.  A couple of shots sounded a few seconds apart.

Then quiet descended on the place.

The German guard had left to rejoin his group now that the American prisoners had been “killed.”

My uncle and Bowley hid out on the farm for almost a month with the farmer providing them food and wine.  Around the first of July two French women arrived at the farm accompanied by a B-17 pilot who had been shot down in the area named Kenneth N. Haugard.  By this time my uncle was suffering from a high fever and Bowley’s hip injury was getting worse.

Thankfully within a few days the Americans were in control of the area and the men were had reached their goal – friendly territory.

Once in friendly territory my uncle learned that his co-pilot Wilkerson had also been captured by the Germans, but managed to escape through the hedgerows when a passing American plane distracted their captors.  His group was able to reach friendly territory by July 8^th.

This story had had a happy ending because both my uncle and Wilkerson made it back to England in one piece. More than one-third of all glider troops were killed or wounded during the time between June 6^th, 1944 and May, 1945.

Both men never flew another mission, although my uncle stayed on as a glider instruction in England as the glider was used in a few more missions including the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of Holland and the crossing of the Rhine into German. The Army Air Corp glider program was phased out in 1947, although one of the keys to the success of D-Day was the use of the glider.

 

Both men went on to have successful professions after the war.

My uncle, Cyrus S. Carson had a career with Lockheed Martin and one of his jobs was in the photography department. Cyrus retired after 30 years in 1982. An interesting note is that both Cyrus and John built a dark room together in England, and Cyrus used it to make a career profession.

On October 8, 2005 Uncle Buck finally managed to have a reunion with Wilkerson and talk over their experiences.

 

Both men provided interviews with the Palm Springs Air Museum in association with the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress and their glider experiences during D-Day were included in the book Forgotten Wings by Phillippe Esvelin.

 

Is Napoleon's Hat at the Village of Perros-Guirec?

Before we begin, please listen to some personal messages.

Jean has a long mustache.

There is a fire at the insurance agency.

The rabbit is going down his hole.

The door should be left open.

Are the nonsensical sentences I’ve written above part of some strange grammar exercise?

Are we going to diagram sentences?

As much as I like diagramming….no, I won’t do that to you.

Hmmm…..has Elementaryhistoryteacher finally lost it? Well, the answer to that question could morph into a huge debate, but no….for the most part I’m in complete control of my faculties…for now.

The sentences I’ve listed above are what you might have heard if you were part of the French Resistance during World War II and you were listening to the BBC. What seemed to be nonsensical sentences were actually coded phrases that contained pre-arranged orders for the hundreds of French Resistance groups across France.

Time and time again the nonsensical messages played a part in Allied victories across France. The people of France were alerted that the beginning of Operation Overlord, or the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, would begin in 24 hours when the first stanza of Paul Verlaine's poem…Chanson d’Automne or Autumn Song…was broadcast.

Resistance groups were made up of men, woman and sometimes children who heeded General Charles de Gaulle’s words after the fall of France to German occupation: But has the last word been said? Must hope disappear? Is defeat final? No!...Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished. Tomorrow, as today, I will speak on the radio from London.

When teaching World War II events it’s very easy to discuss D-Day and then slide into a quick wrap-up of the war in France. I’ve seen teachers do that time and time again, but D-Day wasn’t the only invasion into western Europe via France, and we are doing students a disservice when we create the perception that all was well and things were merely mopped up after the hit the beaches at Normandy.

This week my wordless Wednesday mystery invovled a rock formation. My clues included Europe, west, and hat. Go take a look at the image again, and THIS TIME think about Napoleon and his bicorn hat. See the resemblance?

Homeschooling Granny came the closest in her guess that the formation was called Napoleon’s Rock. She asked if the formation was in Morocco. Well, I discovered in my research that there are many rock and geographic formations called Napoleon’s Hat all over the world. I know the image I posted is not the one in Morocco, but can I testify in court it is truly the one the coded messages refer to? No, I can’t. Here is another link to an image of the Napoleon’s Hat in Brittany....it could or might not be the one the coded message referred to.

So what does a rock formation have to do with coded BBC messages to the French Resistance?
Well…..first you need to know that the rock formation referred to as Napoleon’s Hat is located near the village of Perros-Guirec in Brittany. The area is known as the Cote de Granit Rose (the Pink Granite Coast). While pink granite can be seen all along the coast from Tregastel to Brehat, the rock formations in Perros-Guirec are exceptional and visitors have fun analyzing what the formations resemble.

Second….it would helpful to know that following D-Day the Allied operations became bogged down among the hedgerows of the French countryside.

Finally….the significance of the Napoleon’s Hat rock formation….French Resistance members in Brittany listened day after day for the message that would alert them that their position had changed and that they could finally exert all out war and revenge on the Germans occupying their villages and towns. The nonsensical question they longed to hear was Le chapeau de Napoleon, est-il encore a Perros-Guirec? Translated the question means is Napoleon’s Hat where it has always been – at the village of Perros-Guirec?

The question signaled the impending second D-Day invasion. Yes! There were two D-Day invasions. The second one took place on July 25, 1944 eight weeks after the first one and it was referred to as Operation Cobra.

Once members of the French Resistance heard the coded message regarding Napoleon’s Hat they were able to enter into the third phase of their work. The first phase consisted primarily of identifying and attacking sabotage targets – [they] cut railways, block[ed] roads, destroy[ed} telecommunication systems – which would cause delays for the Germans. The Second phase was keeping their original targets out of order while arming themselves and training for the mass uprising that would occur in the third and final stage. The third stage would not commence until the Napoleon’s Hat message was heard signaling the beginning of Operation Cobra. The difficulty was in maintaining the careful balance between too little action, which would allow the Germans to advance to Normandy, and too little action, which would force them to retaliate and wipe out the Resistance groups before the third phase began.

Though Operation Cobra began with several friendly fire incidents due to the large number of bombs dropped from Allied airplanes the operation was a success. French Resistance groups were no longer invisible, and they excelled in their methods to frustrate the Germans in any way they could.

By July 30th, and in less than a week after the second D-Day began, a breakthrough of 60 kilometers had been made along with the taking of 18,000 prisoners. The stalemate had come to an end and the war of attrition had suddenly and dramatically been replaced by a war of movement.

My inspiration for posting the Wednesday Mystery and this article came from a fantastic book by Colin Bevan titled Operation Jedburgh - D-Day and Americas First Shadow War…..I’ll be writing more about it later.

This page has links to BBC broadcasts with personal messages

You can hear actual recorded messages here.

This web article details one of the transmitters used to send some of the nonsensical messages.

Remembering D-Day...

Today is D-Day….another day that does live in infamy. Over the last three years I’ve posted various things about D-Day and/or WWII in general.

We need to NEVER forget the sacrifice Americans made during WWII as well as any war before or any war after.

Here are the links:

Gliding Into D-Day….a look at how some Americans spent their morning on D-Day including one of my uncles

13 Facts Concerning the D-Day Invasion…just as it says 13 facts with some links

Other World War II articles of mine:

Razzle Dazzle and All That Jazz….covers our entry into the war a bit and discusses the unique way camouflage was used

Balloon Bombs….Did you know Americans were killed on our own soil by Japanese weapons?

Beach Red…a post regarding Tarawa…a very important but often forgotten battle during WWII and how garbage can often serve as poor reminder of a war

Fleet Problem 13....Pearl Harbor Foreshadowed…..Pearl Harbor was foreshadowed?!? Yes, yes it was

Timberwolf Up!... A very special post I wrote to remember an uncle and his war experience as he served in the 104th…..

I’ve also placed Eisenhower's D-Day Letter over at American Presidents Blog and General George S. Patton’s very colorful speech over at Georgia on My Mind.

Have a great Saturday and thank a solider or veteran today!

Gliding Into D-Day

Yesterday the alarm went off, the television popped onto the local news, and my husband rolled over to say…..”You know D-Day is tomorrow, don’t you?”

“Yes, yes, I’m painfully aware,” I responded as I rolled over to lull myself back to sleep trying hard not to think of all the many, many things I needed to accomplish during my fourth day of summer… mainly because it will be all over before you know it.

Yes, I’ll admit it….it does seem strange for my husband and I to begin our day discussing D-Day of all things. It wasn’t the only thing we discussed, however. I also mentioned the durn birds had already started belting out their chirps, chortles, and whistles to each other, and our cat, (actually a small child disguised in a cat’s body) was already at the bedroom door meowing to be set free to the confines of the back yard. Dear Hubby and I bantered back and forth regarding who would let the cat out. It seemed fair to me that he should let the cat out since he had to get up anyway. He argued that the cat wasn’t his. She isn’t mine either, and anyway,I didn’t have anywhere to be…..anywhere but my soft, warm bed.

I tried to divert the sporadic conversation away from the cat. “Hey,” I said, “have you noticed that the top six news stories so far this morning have all involved murder? Sheesh!”

Hubby ignored Atlanta’s murder rate and said, “Hey, if you go let the cat out you can make the coffee before you come back.” He gave my shoulder a rub as an attempt to convince me.

“No, no, no, no….”

We bantered back for a bit. The cat’s meow eventually developed into a cry that might as well have been nails on a chalkboard. I gave in and flipped the covers back, “Ok, ok,” I said, “but I’m NOT making your coffee.” I half expected the cat to have her back legs crossed. She didn’t, but she did make a quick path to the door.

Hubby chuckled as I stalked off. As a parting shot he reminded me once more, “Hey, it’s D-Day tomorrow.” I grimaced.

So, it’s D-Day again. Another D-Day and I don’t have IT prepared. Another D-Day and I have failed yet again to get my research together to honor my paternal uncle….Cyrus “Buck” Carson, a glider pilot during the D-Day invasion.

Earlier in the week it dawned on me D-Day was almost upon us. I got busy and began looking for the order of service from Uncle Buck’s funeral a few years ago. I had saved it because Uncle Buck’s wartime exploits were detailed on the folded brochure along with his picture. For the past two years I have let D-Day come and go and have not written a thing about Uncle Buck because I was depending on that elusive paper.

I had saved the paper because I knew I could use it in someway with my World War II unit. As a history teacher I feel it is very important that my colleagues and I not only know our content backwards and forwards, I also feel we need to know and understand how the event has impacted our own family….our lives. We are then so much better prepared when one of our students asks the inevitable question, “Why is this important?” or the more popular “So what?”

By connecting to events in a personal way I am able to help my students connect in their own way. Maybe their grandmother or grandfather served during World War II or the Korean War. Perhaps their father was a POW during Vietnam? Perhaps their grandmother has hung onto a ration book from World War II. What a great way to bring history up close and personal.

I’ve looked everywhere for my papers regarding Uncle Buck and his wartime exploits. I mean everywhere. I know I saw it just six months ago. I know because I remember saying to myself, “Self…..stick this where you can find it come the first of June. You’re going to need it.” Guess I stuck it somewhere really good. Now, I’ve run out of time. I can’t even call my cousin to say send me something……I’m out of time.

But I’ve made a decision…I’m not going to let not having the paper I need stop me from writing about Uncle Buck. Much like our forefathers who were members of our “Greatest Generation” I will plow on ahead and look my foe straight on win or loose. Afterall, I call always write a follow up post when I come upon the paper, can’t I?

Growing up my Uncle Buck was at my house quite a bit. My aunt would stay inside and talk to my mom while Uncle Buck would get involved in some outside project with my dad…..usually something mechanical. I would enjoy their conversations popping back and forth between the men and the women taking it all in. My Uncle worked for Lockheed back then. I knew he had an important job working with the C5A Galaxy plane. Family lore says that when a wheel came off one of the planes during the 70s upon landing, and the wheel went bouncing across the runaway, my uncle was very involved with figuring out why the wheel fell off in the first place.

During all the times I spent with my uncle he would always engage me in grown up conversation regarding current events, mechanical things, and even a bit of history. I’m not sure what Uncle Buck loved more…..talking to people, or having them listen to him talk. You didn’t get a lot of words in….

Yes, my uncle was involved in aviation, but I didn’t give it much thought. I mean lots of my relatives had worked for Lockheed in Marietta, Georgia at some point in time. It never even crossed my mind he had ever done anything else but go to work or wait on my aunt, a woman that my Uncle Buck simply adored.

It wasn’t until later in his life that it dawned on me he had served during World War II and had been involved in the D-Day invasion. I was floored…simply floored. During one reunion visit I got him to talk (this was Uncle Buck….it wasn’t hard) and his story was amazing. I had recently watched the movie The Longest Day and was really intrigued by the gliders and the men they carried in prior to the invasion by sea. Just a few days later I’m sitting with my own relative telling me things about flying a glider and some of the horrible things he witnessed that day. He cried as he related some of his memories, and I welled up with love, respect and pride…..so much pride for this man who was simply my Uncle Buck.

When we think of the he Normandy D-Day invasion our mind often rests on images on of the amphibious landing craft heading into the beach and waves of men wading up out of the water while being assalted by thousands of bullets, but the invasion actually began with overnight parachute and glider landings. Had it not been for my Uncle Buck and the other members of the US Army Aircorp Glider Pilot Corps the first wave of soldiers would not have gotten to the shores of Normandy as they did. The soldiers who were carried on the gliders had the very important job of securing the right and left flanks of the beach prior to the advance of the larger invasion force on the beach.

So, what’s it like to fly a glider? At this website I found a vivid description from a veteran American glider pilot. He said: “Imagine”, he said, “flying a motorless, fabric-covered, CG-4A glider, violently bouncing and jerking on a 11/16 inch thick nylon rope 350 feet back of the C-47 tow plane. You see the nervous glider infantrymen behind you, some vomiting, many in prayer, as you hedge-hop along at tree-top level instinctively jumping up in your seat everytime you hear bullets and flak tearing through the glider. You try not to think about the explosives aboard. It’s like flying a stick of dynamite through the gates of Hell.”

Uncle Buck told me the hardest part of flying a glider into an invasion situation was at the moment of release from the tow plane. At that moment the pilot was committed to landing no matter what. There was no way for him to gain altitude. This means that many gliders had little wiggle room if the landing zone was under fire, mined, or if there was large equipment, buildings, etc. blocking the way.

The actual flights began on June 5th….and what of the glider pilots themselves? George Buckley's account is the closest I’ve found that mirrors many of the triumphs, fears, and tragedies that my Uncle Buck told me. Buckley relives his first few minutes over France:

Shortly after we crossed the coast of France, small arms fire and heavier flak started coming up at the planes at the front of the formation, and intensified the closer we got to our LZ. It looked like fluid streams of tracers zigzagging and hosing across the sky, mixed in with the heavier explosions of flak. One wondered how anything could fly through that and come out in one piece. After the front of the formation had passed over the German positions and woke them all up, we at the tail end of the line began to get hit by a heavier volume of small arms fire which sounded like corn popping, or typewriter keys banging on loose paper as it went through our glider. I tried to pull my head down into my chest to make myself as small as possible; I tucked my elbows in close to my body, pulled my knees together to protect the vital parts of my manhood and was even tempted to take my feet off the rudder pedals so they wouldn't stick out so far. At that point I really started to sweat.

Buckley also recounts what happened to several of the individual gliders that made it into Normandy that morning including Glider No. 1. It crashed into a line of trees and the co-pilot was killed along with Brig. Gen. Pratt, the Assistant Division Commander of the 101st Airborne Division. I remember Uncle Buck telling me about Pratt’s death. The story goes that many felt the glider was overloaded. It also didn’t help that a steel plate had been added to the floor of the glider to protect the flight crew from flak.

Another glider pilot, James Di Pietro, tells of his D-Day glider experience here and a brief history of the combat glider can be found here.

I started off this post with a little mundane morning banter between myself and my husband. It seems a bit out of place, doesn’t it? I mean isn’t this supposed to be a remembrance of my uncle and the other glider pilots that served during the D-Day invasion and during the following days?

I guess the point I’m attempting to make by including the back and forth between my husband and I is the men and women who served with the Allied forces during World War II ensured our right to the mundane. Yes, we have new enemies today to worry about, but my only real worries this morning was avoiding making the coffee, hoping the cat didn’t have an accident on my carpet, and finding some little piece of paper I thought was required to pay proper homage to uncle.

I don’t even have a clue….can’t even begin to fathom what my uncle and the other men at Normandy went through that day and I’m worried about a piece of paper and getting out of a warm bed.

Context and perspective……I need to get a grip.

If you are able to get close to a member of our Greatest Generation today whether they were at Normandy or not….give them a hug and say thank-you.

See many of my other posts regarding World War II here
See my tribute to the war service of my maternal uncle here

13 Facts Concerning the D-Day Invasion

Today is the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, so I thought it would be appropriate to remember those who took part in the amazing invasion.

1. Many disagree about the meaning for the letter D. What did it stand for? Why was it used? U.S. Army manuals dating as far back as WWI used the terms H-Hour and D-Day to indicate the time/date of an operation’s start.

2. The military also used the code name Operation Overlord to refer to the movement of men, planes, ships, supplies, and equipment across the English Channel along a beach front that stretched over 60 miles.

3. Approximately 5,000 vessels transported 150,000 men and 30,000 vehicles across the English Channel.

4. Six parachute regiments including 13,000 men were transported in over 800 planes.

5. Approximately 300 planes dropped bombs along the coast of Normandy immediately before the invasion began.

6. June 5, 1944 was the designated day, but poor weather held the invasion off.

7. Over 7,500 sorties (missions) were made across the channel on June 6, 1944.

8. War planners projected 5,000 tons of gasoline would be needed daily for the first 20 days after the initial invasion

9. Planners also projected 3,489 tons of soap would be needed for the first four months after the invasion.

10. By the time dusk fell on the evening of June 6th more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were dead and wounded. 100,000 soldiers had made it ashore.

11. Within weeks supplies were unloaded at UTAH and OMAHA beaches at the rate of 20,000 tons per day.

12. From D-Day through Christmas, 1944 over 30,000 Germans were captured and sent to American prisoner-of-war camps. Many POW camps were located in the United States….33 detention facilities were located in Texas.

13. FDR offered a prayer regarding the invasion in a radio address to the nation. Michael over at American Presidents Blog has posted the entire speech. It is very inspiring to read. He’s also posted a video from You Tube that has the actual audio from the speech with various pictures from the invasion. (Once the video is activated you might see some images at the bottom of the video screen…leave your cursor off the images or the video will switch and you will be watching something else.)

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