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D-Day +80 Years. Eighty years ago, Paratroopers jumped onto the beaches and countryside around Normandy, France. The 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions were part of Operation Overlord. We are beyond blessed that we still have Airborne men who still are able to travel to France to commemorate their heroic activities that saved the world from the tyranny of the Third Reich and its sick ideology. Modern Paratroopers took part in reenactment jumps. Without the bullets and flak.
It’s hard to find words to find words that measure up to the debt we owe these men. Some were not old enough to bea high school senior. In many cases, their parents helped them to lie about their age in order to join the Army. When you look at the photograph with General Eisenhower, at age 54, even he looks young. He at least had the courage to come in person to speak to the men he was sending to their deaths.
What did men think of that day? From Politico:
Pfc. Carl Howard Cartledge, Jr., Intelligence and Reconnaissance Section, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne: I was in plane number 44 on the 5th row. There would be 20 serials, 15 miles apart. The first 10 would be the 101st Airborne Division, the second would be the 82nd Airborne, 13,400 paratroopers in all, and on an armada of 300 miles long, nine planes wide, flying in 3Vs and at altitudes from 7,000 to 500 feet. We would be parachuting down into France from 12:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. on six drop zones, each one mile long and a half-mile wide. The Welford Serial would land on “DZ [drop zone] C” along the numbers one and two causeways, leading to Utah Beach. As we took off and circled into our rows of Vs, I saw for the first time a C-47 aircraft painted solid white out in front of us. It was the mother ship that was to lead us in.
“Stand up, Hook up, Shuffle to the door. You jump right out and count to four”
They didn’t all land on the DZ (Drop Zone). Ed Shames describes what it was like after, “Green light, go!”
First the Germans were shooting at Mr. Shames and then he lands in Herman Goering’s cow pasture. Poor Ed. Oof. I would have walked home. Airborne types are a different breed of human. I have never been around more than two Paratroopers when “Gory, gory, What a helluva a way to die” wasn’t sung. To understand the heroics and sacrifices made by these young men, it is of paramount importance that our young folk learn this history. Last year, our Deanna posted some hot ideas for education about D-Day.
Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne have been doing jumps over Normandy all week and commemorating the great men like “Jumping” Jim Gavin.
Our retired military personnel like Tim Kennedy and certain members of Congress took part in reenactment flights for jumps from a C-47 rather than from the more “comfortable” C-130.
About to jump into Normandy for #dday pic.twitter.com/Aq4tIJBGeb
— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) June 5, 2024
Hooah!
I spoke w Cory Mills, Jason Crow, & Ronny Jackson abt parachuting out of a WWII-era C-47 to mark D-Day
All called it an honor — & also acknowledged the risk
“This is either going to be a great jump or we might not be the majority any longer,” Mills joked https://t.co/9bPjmm96sX
— Liz Elkind (@liz_elkind) June 6, 2024
From Fox News:
The 10 legislators – nine Republicans and one Democrat, all veterans of the armed forces – will don World War II military uniforms and jump into Normandy from a U.S. C-47 military transport plane that was extensively used during the war.
“The fact that we’re in Normandy, and you’re wearing that uniform … and you’re jumping from that plane that isn’t what we’re used to from our [service], you’re stepping back in time in a way, and you’re really trying to think about how many sacrifices that were made,” Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., one of the lawmakers participating, told Fox News Digital.
“This is one of the greatest opportunities that I’ve had since I’ve been in Congress: to be able to literally recreate and reenact what they had done in 1944,” he said. “And so, [what is] really going to be one of those things I think about is how many we lost and then also how lucky we truly are as Americans.”
Great opportunity to jump without the annoying fire and bullets. Thank you to the 101st and 82nd Airborne Division for your faithful service on D-Day.
Featured Image: U.S. Army via Library of Congress/cropped/Creative Commons
GWB says: I remember lots of stories about the pilots not being quite as ready for that night (they jumped in the night before the amphibious assault). Some of the pilots were fighter pilots or attack aircraft pilots who had been pulled over for this duty. So, when they started taking flak and machine gun fire, they dove for the deck. And their paratroopers jumped anyway – sometimes barely above the tops of the trees.
War is hell, and it’s not always the enemy’s bullets and bombs that gets you.
Toni Williams says: They were all babies. And, by that I mean young, not cowards.
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Bucky says: Notice how plain is the uniform of the Supreme Commander of the ETO in the photo above. Compare to today’s strutting peacock general officers with all the braid and bling they have on their uniforms so that everyone will know how important they are. Also Ike actually won a war unlike our modern generals who turned tail in Afghanistan and left billions of $$ of military equipment to the Taliban along with abandoning our so-called Afghan allies to their fate.
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