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The weirdos i reckon !So, to conclude the section on the Merville battery, here's the final two images, showing Karl and me outside the gates, and the 9 Para Memorial at the crossroads RV, where Col. Ottway gathered his small assault force.
When we were being photographed by Mick, a small group of French visitors were giving us respectful looks - or maybe they just thought we were sad, knackered weirdos !
As with Pegasus Bridge, there are a few videos on-line describing the battle for the battery, including one in the Al Murray/James Holland "Walking the Ground" series.
The book shown below provides very good overall coverage of the planning, the drops and the assault and aftermath, with detailed info on the various actions, maps, diagrams and photos, and is another in the "Battleground, Normandy" series which includes battlefield tour directions and information.
Details :- "Merville Battery & The Dives Bridges", by Carl Shilleto, Pen & Sword, (updated 2024 edition), ISBN 978 1 84884 519 0, price around £16 (Euro 18, $21US).
The final section of the British 6th Airborne actions will be next, with a brief coverage of Ranville.
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What a superb restoration Terry!Thanks Andy and yes, Longues sur Mer was a "must see", and will be covered later in this thread.
I'm attempting to cover our tour in a rough chronological order of events (and geography) on D-Day and beyond, hence starting with the Airborne element first. The beaches and immediate inland areas will be covered later, running from Ouistreham in the east, to Port en Bessin in the west, and also looking at some of the areas further inland, particularly those involving Canadian forces.
We only had a very brief look at the American sector, at Omaha, due to various factors, but I'll post a little of this much later in the "tour".
Some detail shots of the beautifully restored C-47, showing the "para pack" racks and fairings, and the antenna for the radio altimeter, beneath the rear fuselage.
The racks operated in a similar fashion to bomb racks, and the "steady" arms can clearly be seen. Heavy stores were packed Into specially-designed packs or metal containers, which had a parachute attached to the top end, with a static line anchored inside the rack fairings. The stores packs were normally dropped in "mid stick", that is, when around half the paras had jumped, the containers would be released, so that they (hopefully) landed in the middle of the line of landing parachutists.
Various colours of parachute canopy were used to indicate the type of stores in the containers.
Containers, parachutes and loaded racks will be shown later.
The final two shots show the restored interior, authentic and accurate in every detail, and these were taken on my behalf by Karl.
Note the dished, metal para seats, with lever-latch lap straps. The seats can be folded back, vertically, against the fuselage sides when not in use and for cargo carrying.
The static line cable can be seen running the length of the fuselage, under the ceiling on the port (left) side, to the left of the overhead lighting trunking. The red and green jump lights are visible, just to the right (forward) of the door.
On C-47s (Dakotas) operated by the RAF, the static line cable ran down the length of the cabin on the starboard (right) side, and was mounted just a couple of inches above the level of the seats, close to the fuselage wall.
British and US parachutes used different "hook up " styles, with the US type having the clip-fastener on the static line of the parachute, attaching directly to the cable, whereas the British "X" Type parachute used a "D" ring on the parachute static line, which "hooked up" to a double-lock hook clip, attached to a strop which was permanently attached to the cable by another "D" ring.
Parachutes were also different in the way they deployed. The American parachutes deployed canopy first which, although this provided a (slightly) faster full deployment, resulted in a much greater opening shock, and higher risk of entanglement or twists in the rigging lines. British parachutes deployed rigging lines first, followed by the canopy being smoothly pulled from the deployment bag, which remained attached to the static line and the aircraft.
The British "X" type harness also had the great advantage of a quick-release system, with a box on the front of the harness, fitted with a twist disk on its front face. Lugs on four harness straps locked into the box, and to release the harness, the disc was rotated half a turn clockwise and then thumped, releasing the lugs, and the harness fell away - simple, and quick.
American harnesses used two leg straps with a spring hook and ring fastening, and chest strap with similar fastening. Later in 1944, the British harness system began to be adopted in US service, possibly as a result of losses sustained by drowning, when men couldn't release their harnesses quickly enough.
Much more to come from the Merville battery, with exhibits in the hangar, and interior scenes of the casemates, the latter courtesy of Karl.
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