![]() More than 10,000 were built, with most serving with the Army Air Forces as the C-47 Skytrain, the U.S. By the end of the first full day of combat, more than 23,000 paratroopers had landed by parachute or gliders, most of them carried to war by one single aircraft type - the Douglas C-47.Īffectionately known as the "Gooney Bird," the C-47 was the primary military transport of the Allies during the Second World War. Fortunately, the resulting confusion perplexed the Germans even more while the Americans and British secured their objectives and successfully fought off German counterattacks until the beachheads were secured. NARA 111-SC-194399.īad weather and enemy anti-aircraft scattered many aircraft so many paratroopers missed their landing zones. Eisenhower met with members of the 101st Airborne Division just before they took off for France. Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. 4th Infantry Division in the Cotentin Peninsula while the British jumped behind Sword Beach to protect the Allied left flank, silencing a German coastal battery and destroying bridges across the Dives River. The Americans were dropped behind Utah Beach in support of the U.S. Their target were bridges, intersections, and other strategic targets. 82nd and 101st Airborne Division and the British 6th Airborne Division loaded up into their transports, each marked with large black and white invasion stripe around the wings and fuselages, in anticipation of a daring aerial assault behind German lines in the hope of cutting off Nazi reinforcements from reaching the Normandy beachheads. ![]() NARA USAF-C51875AC.įor several divisions of American and British soldiers, the invasion had actually begun the night before. Note the black and white invasion stripes that allowed for the quick identification of this aircraft as part of the invasion force. American paratroopers prepare to board their C-47 for their jump into Normandy.
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