Dakotas over Sannerville parachute drop 05-06-2019

Hi

Simply an awesome experience.

I had decided a while ago to view the drop from a typical French rest area on the D675 road just a few hundred meters from the south and west of the official drop zone so that the sun would be behind me. The villigers of Sannerville where responsible for the ground organisation and it appears there have been small parachute drops here in the past.

Viewing the drop was free but you had to pay to park in the village. In addition, the D226 road to the north of was closed for safety reasons as it was too close to the drop zone. However, whilst the drop by the military earlier in the day dropped within the zone, all the planned precautions became pointless when the Dakotas from Duxford arrived.

At first everything looked like it was going to proceed as expected with the first view Dakotas dropping the parachutists within the zone, but then one of the started dropping them in the field to the left of the zone and then as some or all came round for a second or third drop, a few of them headed straight for us accept this time I thought it was just a flyby. To my complete astonishment and to gasps from the people around me, they started dropping parachutists again as they flew overhead, over the D675 and in to the field behind me.

It was cloudy and the light was dull all day. The sun never came out. Well worth waiting for. Even the two and a half hour delay of them arriving was well worth the wait.

I will add the military drop later which took in a couple of RAF Hercules, the BBMF Dakota and two French Air Force aircraft, a CN-235 Casa and C160 Transall.

Thanks for looking,

Martin Eames