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Oh just my own personal flypast........


Jack

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My morning started like this -

OK, D-Day - just had a call from Neil Stevens - just taking off in a C-47 for Normandy. Thought it would be a good idea to leave his phone on so I could hear the engines. Don't you just hate some people. But listening to a C47 taking off whilst sat at your desk is actually pretty awesome. Have a safe flight Neil......

 

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Hey Jack - I hope your day doesn't end like this:

 

"Went outside to find that Neil had chucked a Red Cross parcel out of the C-47 for me as it went overhead, and that it had completely flattened my Honda Civic".

 

 

 

 

 

Oh no, surely not? :shocked: I was only joking you know....

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Been doing some research on Red Cross parcels, more later. So yopu are now in pocession of

Canadian food parcels

 

The Canadian Red Cross reported assembling and shipping nearly 16,500,000 food parcels during the Second World War, at a cost of $47,529,000.[13] Contents of the Canadian parcel included:

 

  • Sixteen ounces of milk powder
  • Sixteen ounces of butter
  • Four ounces of cheese
  • Twelve ounces of corned beef
  • Ten ounces of pork luncheon meat
  • Eight ounces of salmon
  • Four ounces of sardines or kippers
  • Eight ounces of dried apples
  • Eight ounces of dried prunes or raisins
  • Eight ounces of sugar
  • Sixteen ounces of jam or honey
  • Sixteen ounces of pilot biscuits
  • Eight ounces of chocolate
  • One ounce of salt and pepper (mustard, onion powder and other condiments were also sometimes enclosed)
  • Four ounces of tea or coffee
  • Two ounces of soap.[13]

Probably the sardine tin did it! :-D

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Just spoke to Neil from his hotel room in Caen - Its 23.00 here in Suffolk.

 

What an amazing day he has had...........

 

Took off from Kemble in the resident 9th Troop Carrier Command, 439th Troop Carrier Group veteran C-47 and flew direct to Upottery, Devon - where the aircraft was based in 1944 and from where it flew the original D-Day mission.

 

From Upottery, along the coast (passing Jack's stable) over Dorchester to Poole Harbour and across Swanage Bay. They wanted to fly from Portland Bill (but apparently it was restricted airspace), so across the channel following Neil's original D-Day Mission map donated to him by a Navigator Veteran in the 437th TCG. They slowed down to 85 knots at the drop zone to observe the location of where the Parartroopers jumped back in June 44, and then returned to normal operational power settings and proceeded to buzz St Mere Eglise a number of times before flying the length of the beaches, performing a tribute flypast over the US Cemetery at Coleville and onto Pegasus Bridge. After buzzing the bridge a number of times they flew up to Orne Canal and landed in at Caen.

 

Later in the day they took off again for an air to air sortie with a Uk based Spitfire and then a full 20 minute display over Arromanches, which he describes as absolutely breath-taking and almost total stomach emptying! He has been taking HD video of the trip and has uploaded some of todays flying onto his Facebook page (Neil Stevens Newark, Notts) but i'm not sure if just anyone can view it. That said, it will be available in the fullness of time on his YouTube homepage no doubt.

 

Am I jealous? - You Bet, but I can think of no-one who has done more to perpetuate the memory of the men of 9th Troop Carrier Command whilst stationed in England during WWII that him, so I do genuinely think that this trip of an absolute lifetime is a worthy reward for countless years of time and effort, an awful lot of which has been done firmly out of the limelight where others have basked. As he said to me this evening on the phone "I wasn't alone in the aircraft today when we flew over the cemetery at Coleville" and I know he wasn't referring to the flight crew.

 

More displays and parades to buzz tomorrow morning then back home in the afternoon breaking land at Southampton and North to (hopefully Ramsbury Airfield 7 miles due East of Marlborough, Wilts to perform their own tribute to the men of the 437th Troop Carrier Group) and then back into Kemble.

 

Sadly due to the economic climate the owner has decided to sell the aircraft this summer and it is imaged that it will sell overseas in the US, so this is one of the very last trips the aircraft will do before leaving the European theatre.

 

But what a way to go out.................

Edited by M5Clive
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Have to agree with that!

 

Do I hate him? You bet!!!

 

He sent me a text when they were over Tauton and I said I am in Dorchester high street (erm outside Costas) would you buzz me in Dorchester? Ten minutes later at the end of the high street framed by the buildings there came in low was a C 47. Absolutely stunning and awesome sight.

 

I was jumping up and down and the whole high street stopped and stared.........at me :whistle: I then gained my composure, saluted Neil and his all of his thoughts he most of been having and sat down and finished my coffee - as if it was a normal everyday occurrence :coffee:

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Hold still...I don't like you anymore.

 

Your own flypast...mutter, mumble...>:(

 

As Tony and I were saying on the BBC's lunch time news - you have either got it or you ain't :whistle:

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They are back home now.

 

I got a text to say they were 10 minutes away from buzzing Ramsbury airfield at midday after a 1 hour 20 minute crossing from The D-Day Beaches to Kemble in Glos. They hit low cloud around Andover and he said the last part of the flight from the Hampshire/Wiltshire Border up to Ramsbury and back to Kemble was pretty lumpy and poor visibility.

 

But what a trip eh ?

 

No doubt a full report will appear somewhere along with some photographs in the fullness of time.

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