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D-Day Glider Landing



I went into Normandy by glider, transporting a jeep. Luckily, my glider
landed without any damage. We landed in an area
just outside of St. Mere Eglise. The Germans planted
poles in the fields.  This ripped the wings off many gliders causing
several causalities in our group.

Berkut’s glider (my CO) landed in a nearby field crashing into a tree in a
hedgerow.  On D-Day, paratroopers had landed in the same field and
said upon our arrival, they said they were really glad to see us landing.

I was Lt. Berkut’s driver the battalion S-2, Berkut liked to be near the
frontlines and I remember him saying "let’s go up
to the front." On our way to the front the Germans typically
shelled the intersections of a road. If I had to go through one that
was being shelled I would stop a short distance back
and see what their pattern of fire was. They might drop
three rounds, one right after the other then hesitate.
I would check that pattern a couple times then after that third
drop I would go through.

One day we were in an area that had a lot of stone in the
soil and we needed to dig in for the night. I dug a shallow
trench near a hedgerow that was about three feet high with about
a foot of dirt width at the top. I parked the jeep over the top
of it and crawled under. Next morning there was dirt and pieces
of bushes all in the jeep. Some time during the night a shell had
landed on that hedgerow right by the jeep. If it had landed a
few inches closer to the jeep it would have slid in the hole with
me.

Source: Wriiten by Tom Kent
Editing by PKO

 

 


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Copyright © 1998 Patrick O'Donnell