Night Drop (1)

FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2009 NORMANDY - COMMEMORATIVE NIGHT DROP
It was Friday, June 5th and 11 p.m.; the night air was cool and quiet as a group of us sat around the dining table in the B&B la Bataille de La Fiére adjacent to the Merderet Causeway. Suddenly Don van den Bogart shouted. "You guys are going to think I'm nuts, but do you hear that!", as he rushed outside, camera in hand. Now we heard it too, the quietness shattered by the sound of loud aircraft engines, unmistakably those of the C-47 (Dakota). Rushing outside, we all could plainly see the lights and silhouette of the aircraft circling a couple of miles away near Amfreville, perhaps over Timmes Orchard. Then, eyes straining in the twilight of the Norman night skies we watched as men reenacting the drop of Pathfinders took place. Twice the 'Gooney Bird' lumbered about in an arc, each time dropping an abbreviated stick of five jumpers. Until this moment I had always thought of a night jump as just that, a leap into utter darkness. But, summer skies in this northern latitude, are in various twilight stages, never quite achieving full darkness, or at least not for long. It is easier (for me) to understand now how opposing fire was directed against incoming aircraft and the parachutists descending from them.
	Taking photos in that diminished, almost hushed, lighting is difficult (especially when unprepared for the event) although images can be discerned. The photo at left is the same as the "Landing Lights" image directly below it which has been digitally enhanced to bring out the aircraft. All photos below have been similarly treated to let you share those exciting moments. For us, it was a magical moment to witness something that had looked just like this, exactly 65 years earlier.
Landing Lights were not as part of a D-Day flight but useful for ground observers tonight and perhaps for air traffic control as well.	Spotlighted in a lens reflection, some D-Day aircraft may have found themselves in an actual searchlight beam	Navigation Lights Too were on, note the lights at wing tip and mid belly on the fuselage	First Two Into Normandy whoever they may have been, certainly looked like this	Four Floating Pathfinders aim for Norman soil	Full Squad as five men in this abbreviated stick head down
Easily Seen the chutists were well above these cloud threads	Silhouetted just above low hanging clouds	Drifting Lower the team begins to be screened by treetops	Cloud Backdrop still enables the men to be seen	Nearing Tree Level from this vantage point	Almost Down the team nears the ground
All Normandy 'D-Day Plus 65' trip photos are a multi-national mixture of work by Hervé Argoud, Hans DeBree, Gene Garren, Fred Hoek, Herbert Lahout, Randy Lewellen, Cyndi Mathews, Bill Nation, Dick O'Donnell, Dominique Potier, Vivian Roger, Zane Schlemmer, Donald van den Bogert and Nelly van Loo-Polley. Individual credits have not been given.