Buckeye67
06-06-2006, 04:35 AM
I'd been planning to post something about D-Day for the past few days. I'd searched for photos and have been re-reading books about it. Then I popped over to Mark Bando's fantastic website about the 101st Airborne in WW2 - Trigger Time (http://www.101airborneww2.com/). While checking the forums, I found THIS POST (http://p198.ezboard.com/ftriggertimeforumfrm1.showMessage?topicID=6627.topic):
June 05, 1944, we awoke at sunrise. The wind and rain had ceased and the sun was coming up like a fireball out of, where - ever.
We began burning all that could not or would not be carried with us on the jump. We were ordered to write several post dated letters home which would be mailed later to our families, or who-ever addressed. Then we had breakfast, a mirror of what we had the day before. "Why are they feeding us so good"" a trooper asked me in the chow line. "A last meal." I replied.
That evening we had steak with real potatoes and trimmings, all we wanted, topped off ith ice cream again.
A second time we marched across the airfield, found our chalk marked plane, recovered the equipment we had left there, checked the pararack bundles, helped ourselves to more ammo and to morphine syrettes from an open wooden box and began the laborious task of chuting up again.
The chore was much easier this time. We lined up and received the anti-motion pills (verified as such since then) then went through getting our chutes on again as before. We were issued a pair of gloves each, a metal cricket and a yellow neckerchief approximately 16 X 16 inches square before loading on the plane.
England was on "Double Standard daylight savings time" whatever that was, but we had much more sunlight later in the day than we would have had back home. Again we loaded on the plane, the pilots fired up the engines, port engine, then starboard engine. The engines were revved up, mags and oil pressure were checked, the engines idled back then the planes began moving.
Each plane made a right turn following the one ahead to the take off end of the runway, we waited our turn, the engines were full throttled a hard left turn and we went bouncing for take-off. We left the ground, climbed a little, I could hear the engines straining, we were loaded above capacity. Looking ahead I could see a row of trees, it looked as if it would be close. The pilot nosed down to gain airspeed, at the last possible moment he pulled up, we cleared the trees and climbed to join our brothers airborne. The last thing I recall seeing on the ground was a haystack, then sky as we climbed out.
We circled over England for some time, allowing later planes to gather in formation, then made our way in the night sky to a point to circle around the end of the Continton Penninsula, then over the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. Lt. Bill Muir of Saginaw, Michigan, our Pltn. Leader, ordered the door taken off and stored in the after part of out ship. this was the first time ever we had flown with the door in place and shut.
We received heavy anti-aircraft fire from Jersey and Guernsey Islands, the plane bounced and rocked but returned to level flight under the working hands of our experienced pilot. All winglights had been turned on because our aircraft were of a vast number and flying very close formation. We again went over open water and could see fires burning on the mainland of france. Bombers had preceeded us, bombing everything in sight to give the enemy the impression this was just another bombing raid.
As we flew over the mainland the anti-aircraft fire entensified. We entered a raincloud bank. The pilots were obliged to take evassive action, some going higher, some lower, some right and others to the left; our flight fragmented. Only the lead plane of each flight had a homing device compatible to the Pathfinders equipment who had jumped in an hour ahead of us. When the flight fragmented that left the bulk of the invsion flight without any guidence system what so ever. Our pilots were on their own, and we were at their mercy.
Fires burned on the ground, anti aricraft artillery and tracers filled the air so one thought he could walk on the tracers alone. We were hit more than once but no one in my plane was hurt. We had received the order to "Stand up and hook up," on the removal of the door over the Channel. We "Stood in the door." Lt Muir ordered Leon Jackson with mortar in a leg bag and Thomas with a leg bag also and our machinegunner, Paul Carter, to stand in the door ahead of our stick and himself, to be first out.
We got the red light, Green light, and we cleared that plane, 17 men in about 11 seconds. I found myself in pitch black night after my opening shock. I parted my risers, checked the canopy saw tracers passing through the canopy and came in backwards, hitting the ground much sooner than I expected. The time lapse between opening shock and hitting the ground gave me the impression that I had jumped at around 300 feet, more or less. I later learned from a copy of my aircraft's manifest that my stick went out at 01:14 Hrs. 06 June 1944.
After getting out of harness, no easy chore, I met up with Prentice Hundley, then we two met up with "Red" Knight and "Slick" Hoenscheidt. Again after orienting ourselves with a church steeple, which turned out to be the church in Ravenoville, we ran into Lt. Bill Muir who had gathered several troopers on a road, some of whom were of the 82nd, the others a mixed bag of A Co. 506 and a couple of 2nd Bn. 506. Again I learned while writing my books that I had landed less than one mile from the shore of the English Channel. At our airspeed if I had jumped less than one minute later I would have landed in the channel. Death by drowning would have been positive.
We made our way to Ravenoville and history.
Donald R. Burgett Sgt., WWII
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/2576/donburgettstanding8ix.jpg (http://imageshack.us) http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/884/donburgettorig7kg.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
June 05, 1944, we awoke at sunrise. The wind and rain had ceased and the sun was coming up like a fireball out of, where - ever.
We began burning all that could not or would not be carried with us on the jump. We were ordered to write several post dated letters home which would be mailed later to our families, or who-ever addressed. Then we had breakfast, a mirror of what we had the day before. "Why are they feeding us so good"" a trooper asked me in the chow line. "A last meal." I replied.
That evening we had steak with real potatoes and trimmings, all we wanted, topped off ith ice cream again.
A second time we marched across the airfield, found our chalk marked plane, recovered the equipment we had left there, checked the pararack bundles, helped ourselves to more ammo and to morphine syrettes from an open wooden box and began the laborious task of chuting up again.
The chore was much easier this time. We lined up and received the anti-motion pills (verified as such since then) then went through getting our chutes on again as before. We were issued a pair of gloves each, a metal cricket and a yellow neckerchief approximately 16 X 16 inches square before loading on the plane.
England was on "Double Standard daylight savings time" whatever that was, but we had much more sunlight later in the day than we would have had back home. Again we loaded on the plane, the pilots fired up the engines, port engine, then starboard engine. The engines were revved up, mags and oil pressure were checked, the engines idled back then the planes began moving.
Each plane made a right turn following the one ahead to the take off end of the runway, we waited our turn, the engines were full throttled a hard left turn and we went bouncing for take-off. We left the ground, climbed a little, I could hear the engines straining, we were loaded above capacity. Looking ahead I could see a row of trees, it looked as if it would be close. The pilot nosed down to gain airspeed, at the last possible moment he pulled up, we cleared the trees and climbed to join our brothers airborne. The last thing I recall seeing on the ground was a haystack, then sky as we climbed out.
We circled over England for some time, allowing later planes to gather in formation, then made our way in the night sky to a point to circle around the end of the Continton Penninsula, then over the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. Lt. Bill Muir of Saginaw, Michigan, our Pltn. Leader, ordered the door taken off and stored in the after part of out ship. this was the first time ever we had flown with the door in place and shut.
We received heavy anti-aircraft fire from Jersey and Guernsey Islands, the plane bounced and rocked but returned to level flight under the working hands of our experienced pilot. All winglights had been turned on because our aircraft were of a vast number and flying very close formation. We again went over open water and could see fires burning on the mainland of france. Bombers had preceeded us, bombing everything in sight to give the enemy the impression this was just another bombing raid.
As we flew over the mainland the anti-aircraft fire entensified. We entered a raincloud bank. The pilots were obliged to take evassive action, some going higher, some lower, some right and others to the left; our flight fragmented. Only the lead plane of each flight had a homing device compatible to the Pathfinders equipment who had jumped in an hour ahead of us. When the flight fragmented that left the bulk of the invsion flight without any guidence system what so ever. Our pilots were on their own, and we were at their mercy.
Fires burned on the ground, anti aricraft artillery and tracers filled the air so one thought he could walk on the tracers alone. We were hit more than once but no one in my plane was hurt. We had received the order to "Stand up and hook up," on the removal of the door over the Channel. We "Stood in the door." Lt Muir ordered Leon Jackson with mortar in a leg bag and Thomas with a leg bag also and our machinegunner, Paul Carter, to stand in the door ahead of our stick and himself, to be first out.
We got the red light, Green light, and we cleared that plane, 17 men in about 11 seconds. I found myself in pitch black night after my opening shock. I parted my risers, checked the canopy saw tracers passing through the canopy and came in backwards, hitting the ground much sooner than I expected. The time lapse between opening shock and hitting the ground gave me the impression that I had jumped at around 300 feet, more or less. I later learned from a copy of my aircraft's manifest that my stick went out at 01:14 Hrs. 06 June 1944.
After getting out of harness, no easy chore, I met up with Prentice Hundley, then we two met up with "Red" Knight and "Slick" Hoenscheidt. Again after orienting ourselves with a church steeple, which turned out to be the church in Ravenoville, we ran into Lt. Bill Muir who had gathered several troopers on a road, some of whom were of the 82nd, the others a mixed bag of A Co. 506 and a couple of 2nd Bn. 506. Again I learned while writing my books that I had landed less than one mile from the shore of the English Channel. At our airspeed if I had jumped less than one minute later I would have landed in the channel. Death by drowning would have been positive.
We made our way to Ravenoville and history.
Donald R. Burgett Sgt., WWII
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/2576/donburgettstanding8ix.jpg (http://imageshack.us) http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/884/donburgettorig7kg.jpg (http://imageshack.us)