Reportage photography from RAF Duxford as over 30 Douglas Dakota aircraft gathered ahead of a memorial parachute drop as part of the D-Day75 anniversary.
The events of D-Day have a poignant meaning for me.
My father served in the RAF during WWII having volunteered to join up in 1941 until enforced demob to help ‘rebuild Britain’ in 1945.
Whilst he did not take part directly in Operation Overlord, it was when I was on a trip to the Normandy beaches in 2008 when he suffered a tragic accident falling off a ladder picking apples at 86. He was unconscious on my return and died 10 minutes after I got to the hospital.
To mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019, I went to Imperial War Museum Duxford; ironically with the friend I was in France with in 2008. They were staging a special exhibition and global gathering of 35 Dakota C47’s, the planes that flew the first waves of parachutists into occupied France in the early hours of 6 June 1944. A feat that 220 parachutists, from around the world, were planning to recreate.
As in 1944, the days proceeding the event had been beset with bad weather and the planned practice jumps of 4 June had been cancelled. Many of the parachutists, wearing authentic gear and kit, had paid to take part, including many from USA who had travelled with their rig especially to do the commemorative jump. There was a risk it would all be for nothing if cancelled again today and tensions were high.
But the day had arrived and it saw men and machines go through their preparations; the previous day’s abort weighed heavy on reports of variable weather over Normandy where they would drop into that afternoon, after 22 Dakotas had flown in formation to France ahead of the June 6th.
By sheer luck, divine providence or ballsiness, I found myself out on the flight line as a group of US 101st Airborne ‘Screaming Eagles were gathered outside an in-period Dakota, to say some prayers. The emotion of this event, as I stood immediately behind the circle they had formed, with some WWII veterans in the middle, was intense. It really gave a sense of what the young men who were getting ready to face in 1944 for real, and with dire potential consequences, would have been going through.
I also had a walk around (not sure I should have been there but there you go) the pre-drop parachutist gathering in the main hanger. Flushed with my success with asking to take portraits at the V&A (see previous blog post) I had a chat with one young American as he was waiting.
Warren Johnson had been training specifically to take part in this event after he had found out his Great Uncle had parachuted into Normandy on D-Day and he just had to honour that memory. He had found other members of the original crew and had with him mementoes and original dog-tags from them which he was taking on the drop. On top of that, he’d managed to track down the original Dakota they flew on to Sweden and share the story of its history. Whilst converted to an airliner after the war (DC3), Warren would be making his drop from the same plane. Bloody amazing and a testament to what you can learn just by chatting with people…
We were also treated to a flypast of 12 Hercules and Osprey and other WWII warbirds in iconic black and white D-Day livery.
This all added to the anticipation as the crews climbed into the Dakotas and the planes started up to fly to France for a successful, if slightly delayed, drop over Caen, Normandy. Well done Warren.
The place was quite eery after they had all gone in a flurry or noise and activity, leaving me with thoughts of those who went to France and would not see their loved ones again…
