Daks Over Normandy

Heard from Gary today (Geedee), that the departure for Normandy had been delayed until approx 15.30 (UK time), so arrival over the Ranville DZ would be about 18.00 - 18.30 (French time). I hope the drop is / was OK.
Amused at some of the (expected) inaccuracies in the British Press, with Duxford being called the International War Museum, rather than Imperial War Museum, and also being described as a disused airfield !!
Ah well, I suppose if journalisst had brains, they'd be bloody dangerous - but I wish they'd take the time to do some simple research before publishing garbage !!
I'm still at the campsite a few miles north west of DX, with better weather than yesterday, but should be back home tomorrow afternoon, when I'll sort and post what pics I have, in a new thread.
Looking forward to the pics from Grant, of the Normandy drop.

Didn't see the Dak's but did see the rest of the UK commemorations which were good. The send off of the Boudicca especially. As many people if not more as there were for HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Gnomey said:

The send off of the Boudicca especially.

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Gidday Gnomey

The Boudicca event did not make it down under to any of my usual news sources so I had to search the BBC. Thanks for the heads up.

Well, yesterday was an interesting day, for good and not so good reasons. Because of a certain presidential state visit to the UK, bizarrely, authorities were told that a maximum of only 14 Daks were going to carry out parachute drops! This left us reeling in incredulity and sure enough, the day was scuppered to a degree by VIPs and their plans. To begin with, the drop zone was changed from Ranville to Sannerville, a few kilometres from Caen, then, after visiting Arromanches and the Mulberry harbour installation, the drop time was altered from around 2-ish to "well, nobody knows when". So we get to Sannerville, the DZ being in a random farmer's field and after a Spitfire solo display, 2 RAF Hercs, a French Transall and a CN-295 are doing para drops, which was impressive to watch. The place was mobbed and cars were jam packed along a narrow road and clearly the French authorities didn't give a toss, since there was no traffic control, no infrastructure to support such a large volume of people, but oddly there were Gendarmerie everywhere who didn't have a clue about anything.

While watching the para drops, around 4pm, word got round that the Daks had yet to depart DX and the departure time was still uncertain, until someone said that it would not be until after 6pm that the Daks would be arriving. Turns out they didn't arrive until close to 7pm. In total, there were 22 Daks that left DX and of those, the first 12 went straight to Caen Carpiquet. We could see them from the field putting their gear down and turning into the circuit. After a little while however, the remaining 10 Daks began circling the fields. Then the para drop started.

Despite the waiting, it was worth it to watch. 10 Daks disgorging parachuters on masse and circling round to do so again is a sight to behold and I'm certain everyone who was there enjoyed themselves despite everything. One pleasant surprise was that the Hungarian based Lisunov Li-2 was one of the troopships. You could just faintly hear the difference in tone of its engines as it roared overhead. Yesterday the weather was overcast and by the time the Daks arrived light was fading and the promised rain held off, thankfully.

Today is the 6th June and already our plans have changed. A visit to the D-Day memorial in Caen has been cancelled because of the arrival of VVIPs and its off to Juno Beach and the D-Day 360 experience.

Glad to hear the jump went ahead, after the poor weather in the UK on Tuesday caused a 'scrub'.
Each parachutist had to pay £625 for the event, which included two jumps (with their own rigs), two nights accommodation, meals and access to DX etc.
Hope you got some pics of the Dak drop.
The Lisunov certainly sounded different when taking off at DX - a bag of spanners comes to mind !
I'm still near DX, possibly home tomorrow, so pics then.

Glad you got to see them guys. Was it always the plan to have only the 10 make the drops or were there supposed to be more?

The planned number was 37 aircraft, with I think around 15, cleared for para dropping, doing the actual drop. However, 23 were at Duxford, one of which went 'sick', and some din't make it.
Gary informed me that 10 launched initially, followed by a further 12, all delayed due to 'VIP issues '.
The only (amateur) video I've seen so far, filmed at Eastbourne on the south coast, showed a formation of three, with fighter escort, then pairs and single aircraft, in trail, around a mile or two apart.

So jealous I couldn't be there, glad for those of you that did get to attend though!

Earlier in the thread I saw Irish say that Weeks had something else on his schedule and could not attend or send his C-47, I get it, high level commitments and all, but it's not like the 75th anniversary of D-Day is something that should sneak up on you, especially in the Warbird community. I hope his 'previous commitment' was worth it, after all, I'm sure there were several hundred thousand guys 75 years ago that would have loved to have a previous commitment to be somewhere else.

Yeah, the jumps were very impressive and we were told that the number of aircraft that could take place in the jump was 14, which is dumb. We saw 22 of them arrive. Today is the 75th anniversary of the landings and we ended up on the hill above Arromanches, where we were the day before, as there was the unveiling of a new memorial and there were a few vets there, too. We were there for three hours because the roads were blocked and there was so little access to the coast because of the VIPs.

Not wanting to spend my day at the same place as we had the day before I went for a walk to Asnelles at the edge of Gold Beach. I thought that on the 75th anniversary of the landings I had to go to the beach, but because of the road closures I had to walk. Surprisingly I was the only one wandering about on Gold Beach, very odd, but there was a trio of Chinooks that flew over while I was on the beach, which kind of made it for me.

Tomorrow we go to Caen Carpiquet Airport to get up close and personal with the Daks and also to go for a flight in one of them.

Grant, out of the total of 22 aircraft, not all were cleared for parachuting, and some didn't have the para door, being either DC-3s, or modified with 'airstair' doors at some point in their life.
However, the majority, either in 'civvy' colours or in camouflage, were actual wartime veterans, with most having done the D-Day drops.

I've always thought: There are re-enactors
and then
There are AIRBORNE re-enactors!

Not only re-enactors:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2421145901239178

Yep, and there was a former British Para veteran, 95 years old, who also jumped (tandem) into Normandy, with the 'Red Devils', the Parachute Regiment Free Fall Display Team.
I wish I was still current, as I would have gladly paid the asking cost to do the jump, arthritis or no arthritis. Heck, my legs are already knackered, so a hard landing wouldn't make much difference, and where there's no sense, there's no feeling !!!

Peter Gunn said:

So jealous I couldn't be there, glad for those of you that did get to attend though!

Earlier in the thread I saw Irish say that Weeks had something else on his schedule and could not attend or send his C-47, I get it, high level commitments and all, but it's not like the 75th anniversary of D-Day is something that should sneak up on you, especially in the Warbird community. I hope his 'previous commitment' was worth it, after all, I'm sure there were several hundred thousand guys 75 years ago that would have loved to have a previous commitment to be somewhere else.

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I was somewhat taken aback, myself. Kermit has the largest collection of classic aircraft in the world and his connections in the warbird community are just about unmatched. For the last significant anniversary which any of the veterans will be able to attend, it hurt my heart to know he didn't plan on his plane to be part of the community effort to salute those vets.

Airframes said:

Yep, and there was a former British Para veteran, 95 years old, who also jumped (tandem) into Normandy, with the 'Red Devils', the Parachute Regiment Free Fall Display Team.
I wish I was still current, as I would have gladly paid the asking cost to do the jump, arthritis or no arthritis. Heck, my legs are already knackered, so a hard landing wouldn't make much difference, and where there's no sense, there's no feeling !!!

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AND there was a 97 year old American veteran of the 101st Airborne who jumped as well.


If ever I could have made a trip to Europe, this would have been the time. *sigh* C'est la vie.



S!

-Irish

That Hungarian Li-2 sounds like the Ansett Airlines of Australia Wright R-1820 powered Daks.

The event at Caedn Carpiquet was a disappointment. There was no flying display at all. It was well attended, lots of people, between 5 and 10,000 but only 8 portaloos and two food vendors and neither of them sold hot drinks and it rained and as blowing a howling gale. None of the Daks flew any sort of display; only one or two took off and the Dutch Dakota Association Dak took joy fights that were booked out for weeks in advance. Most of us ended up inside the Carpiquet terminal. Two Mustangs from Duxford turned up, but they didn't fly until the end of the day when they taxied out and left. The only positive was that I got some nice photos of the Daks on the ground.

Yes, Terry I know that some had the side doors but some of those did carry out drops, but that doesn't explain why only 8 to 10 did drops while the others circled round and landed at Caen instead of partaking in the drop.

Yesterday there was an unveiling outside of Ste Mere-Eglise and there was a mass para drop, which five of the Daks took part, but it was mainly Hercs and a single Transall. That was impressive; mass drops for some time. Very impressive. Went to Utah Beach yesterday.

Shame the weather spoiled things, as it did at Duxford. At least you got to see the drop which, as you know, was cancelled at DX due to weather.
From what I've seen on the 'net regarding the parachutists, there were around 220 to 250 of them, so 10 Daks would be about right.
That said, I would have thought all of the Daks would have flown over the DZ, with or without paras, although I realise that not all crews had formation flying experience.

ODonovan said:

*SNIP*


If ever I could have made a trip to Europe, this would have been the time. *sigh* C'est la vie.



S!

-Irish

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Agree wholeheartedly, as close as I got to Normandy on June 6 was Tampa General, but it was a grueling 20 minute drive from Clearwater...

Very cool! Was great to see the veterans jump too.