I have two thoughts in mind here.

1 To bring forth all in one place some of the more interesting historical records of the Troop Carrier D Day flights

2 To revive and collect some of the more representative stories of dedication bravery and accomplishment of Troop Carrier and Airborne forces serving together We were indeed a great team. There are tales a plenty about this but only those that can be fully documented and accurately labeled as history are included in this chronicle.

What This Is All About

There are two versions of the Troop Carrier D Day flights into Normandy still circulating among us today The first is based on the works of recording historians like Dr John Warren Col Charles H Young Donald van Reken Harvey Cohen Martin Wolfe Robert Callahan Neal Beaver Arthur Een Michael Ingrisano Joseph Harkiewicz and others There are also official records of the 82 nd Airborne Division debriefing sessions and excerpts of reviews from high level commanders like Generals John Galvin James Gavin Mathew Ridgway and Paul Williams And this only scratches the surface.

The second version is based on relatively recent oral reports gathered by pop historians writing best sellers or producing TV documentaries. They appear to be working from limited research and at least one has leaned heavily on the memories of a relatively small number of airborne troops telling what they remembered the way they remembered it 50 or more years earlier. These are sincere reports but very few of these oral histories appear to be documented. Sometimes whole segments are left out In researching the book D Day for example author Stephen Ambrose chose not to interview any of the 821 Troop Carrier flight crews even though access was offered.

Everyone who has studied the D Day flights even casually knows that the mission didn't come off exactly as planned. Fifty Nine years have passed since the event and we all need to be very careful about who we listen to and what we accept as history The first version the one from the early historians speaks of superb planning and a flawless execution of the flights right up to the French coast. The second the one from the pop historians tends to overlook the effects of the weather and blames individual Troop Carrier pilots for almost everything that went wrong with the whole mission.

It is right to honor the paratroopers and glider soldiers as most everyone does but it is also right to honor the Troop Carrier crews who risked and sometimes lost their lives to deliver their troopers to their assigned drop zones. They salvaged the mission as best they could on their own initiative in weather conditions that took away much of their visibility and they did this without regard for personal safety. This is what they were ordered to do and it is well documented by the professional historians that this is what they did.

I hope to encourage everyone involved here to think of the Airborne forces and the Troop Carrier forces as brothers in arms serving together in a common cause We were all in this together fighting the same enemy in the same war

Lew Johnston
WW II Troop Carrier Pilot and Recording Historian, 61st Troop Carrier Squadron, on re supply mission to Thiensville France winter 1944

Questions and Comments

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