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Title: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: AJ1G on May 18, 2019, 04:55:20 PM http://ddaysquadron.org/d-day-squadron-launch-week/
Something not likely ever to be seen again. Twelve C-47 Skytrain (DC-3) aircraft, all in WWII paint including D-Day wing stripes will be departing Waterbury-Oxford Airport in CT for Goose Bay Labrador en-route to the 75th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day invasion. They will joining up with a large number of other C-47s from around the world for an overflight of Normandy where they will drop a large number of paratrooper re-enactors on the original drop zones They will take off at 0700 EDT from Oxford, and join 3 other US C-47s at Goose Bay. On Wednesday 6 of them did a formation flyover of Pratt and Whitney in East Hartford. Son Dave, who works there as a contractor, said it was awesome. They did a formation flyover of the Statue of Liberty around noon today. I’ll be leaving the house here in Stonington at 0330 to get to the airport for the photo session that begins at 0530, just about sunrise. The Brits called them Dakotas. Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: AJ1G on May 18, 2019, 04:59:20 PM https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-dday-75th-anniversary-squadron-trip-oxford-20190518-k535nyev55edna3rjgjhrzt6wy-story.html
Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: AJ1G on May 18, 2019, 06:59:39 PM https://youtu.be/hqdcHmAXCu4
Dakotas over NYC today... Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: K2FW on May 18, 2019, 08:16:15 PM Very very cool Chris.
Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: w8khk on May 18, 2019, 08:22:35 PM Very interesting bit of history. Thanks for sharing!
Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: W1ITT on May 19, 2019, 09:57:10 AM https://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/DC3
Part of the flight just passed over my house in western Maine about 0930 EDT, headed to Presque Isle. There are four more over the western burbs of Boston as I type this. It's fairly cloudy but we saw one through breaks in the clouds and, of course, heard the distinctive sound. Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: AJ1G on May 19, 2019, 10:59:25 AM Thanks for the FlightAware Link. Huge turnout to watch them take off from CT. No public ramp access today , so no close up photos, did get some great video though.
Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: W6TOM on May 24, 2019, 09:39:19 PM Last year the annual West Coast Military Radio Collectors Meet was held at the Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles, Ca. This C-47 was there being restored. At this year's West Coast MRCG Meet this C-47 took off on its way to an air show near Palm Springs and then across the US and over to France for the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: AJ1G on May 25, 2019, 04:45:36 AM Betty’s Biscuit Bomber got that name from her service during the Berlin Airlift, where C-47s air dropped food to people in Berlin during the Soviet blockade of the Ailied occupation zones there in 1949.
One of the other prospective hams in the novice class I was in back in 1966 was an Air Force radio operator on C-47s during the airlift. Bob, WN2ZQV/WB2ZQV was a great CW operator, went SK a few years ago. On this Memorial Day weekend, also thinking of another great now SK CW op and active participant in the Old MilRad and WS-19 CW nets, Vic, W1NU, of Fairfield CT. He was a s Signal Corps radio operator who was on the staff of General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. in the ETO all the way from the start of the Noth African campaign, Sicily, Italy, at Utah Beach on D-Day, and eventually into Germany. Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: WO4K on May 25, 2019, 06:18:49 PM Back in the 1970's and 1980's Lee County Mosquito Control (Florida...Fort Myers Area) had a fleet of DC3's they used for mosquito spraying. They would sometimes fly three of these aircraft wing-tip to wing-tip at dawn at tree-top level. It would not only wake you up, it would rattle your molar fillings.
Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: AJ1G on June 09, 2019, 01:44:45 AM Here are some links to some of the videos now out there following the paratrooper drops over Normandy this past week:
https://youtu.be/oUuWKsRshT8 Above link is of the departure of the planes from Duxford England. Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: AJ1G on June 09, 2019, 02:00:32 AM Formation flypass over Beachy Head:
https://youtu.be/b9sGOLc083o Play this loud...it’ll make your hairs stand on end when multiple planes pass by! Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: AJ1G on June 09, 2019, 02:12:36 AM Drops over the drop zone:
https://youtu.be/cga2Bv_fkno Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: AJ1G on June 09, 2019, 02:21:22 AM Go Pro video of a static line jump from a C-47 into Normandy This jump was made three years back but impressive none the less:
https://youtu.be/BMgD0VaYms4 Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: KK4YY on June 09, 2019, 09:46:57 AM Formation flypass over Beachy Head: https://youtu.be/b9sGOLc083o Play this loud...it’ll make your hairs stand on end when multiple planes pass by! And play this one, softly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hxg3B-1OsA Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: Tom WA3KLR on June 09, 2019, 09:50:43 AM Surfing though some of the TV channels a few days ago I ran across the 1977 movie "A Bridge To Far" about Operation Market Garden, September 1944. Many Dakotas used in filming air drops over Holland.
Title: Re: Dakotas at Dawn Post by: AJ1G on June 09, 2019, 11:21:49 AM And play this one, softly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hxg3B-1OsA [/quote] Thank you.....wife Diane’s uncle Peter has a headstone in one of the Allied cemeteries in Normandy. He was lost on Christmas Eve ‘44 on his way to the Battle of the Bulge when his infantry unit’s troopship, the SS Leopoldville, a Belgian passenger liner, was torpedoed just off Cherbourg at dusk. A huge number a casualties... |