The wide stretches of sand that comprise the beaches of Normandy normally fill now with sunbathers and people en vacances on a June day. But for the 78th anniversary of what we know as D-Day, those same boundaries between ocean and land fill with those who honor the memory of soldiers and civilians who perished here. Similar memorial events take place across the U.S., the U.K., and Europe—including very special flyovers of the aircraft that carried and supported those soldiers.
On June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord launched mostly from England’s southern airfields to cross the English Channel at low level and under cover of darkness and cloud. The roughly 13,000 aircraft flown on that encompassing mission included Douglas C-47s and other variants of the DC-3, as well as Lancasters, Hawker Typhoons, and the B-17 Flying Fortress built mostly by Boeing. Some of the C-47s towed gliders for an initial sortie to land near Pegasus Bridge, among other locales. Those Waco CG-4 Hadrians and Horsas played a critical part in the operation, to threaten the Axis forces in place and catch them off guard. Those plans largely worked—though the casualties from those specific missions were high.
