I’m 4 chapters into Antony Beevor’s “D-DAY The Battle for Normandy” and I highly recommend it so far. Yet another wonderful output from the man, does he know no limits?
He comments about the immense weight the Allied paratroops carried and also touches on the famous Mohawk haircuts … apparently a fair number shaved their heads to facilitate easier bandaging etc. in the event of a head wound, and some modified that into a mohawk.
Anyway, I was searching the web for images of the same and found this movie, allegedly of 82nd Airborne Paratroops gearing up and emplaning, but commented by someone that in fact its the 101st. I don’t know on that point.
But there’s some fascinating detail not only of the troopers themselves and their gear (they’re carrying weight all right, look at them heaving themselves into the aircraft) but also of the C-47s.
At 3:25 you get a close up of a C-47 … showing just how roughly applied the invasion stripes were. I have this mental image of neat lines … wrong.
Early in the movie and then again at 3:35 you see troopers fixing packages to fittings underneath the aircraft. And at 5:40 you see a C-47 taxiing, again with detail of those mounts. Can someone please explain what that was, and how it worked?
I notice that most of the aircraft have internally fitted sliding doors (sliding to the rear) but at 7:49 there’s a C-47 with a forward/external opening door. How’s that supposed to work?
All in all, a great film. Take a look. All the young faces!
D
Sign In
July 28, 2010 at 5:57 am