History: Daks over Normandy

The three-blade propellers turned impossibly slowly at low idle as the nearly 60 gallons of oil on board came up to temperature. You don’t hurry a C–47 Skytrain—a.k.a. Douglas DC–3—into the skies, even on a warm Florida morning during the big Sun ’n Fun air show. But, give the 75-year-old lady a little time to gather herself up and she will take you and some 6,000 pounds of gear and equipment almost anywhere in the world. Come June 6, 2019, this D-Day veteran will return to the skies over Normandy, France, where she first visited 75 years earlier, towing a glider full of troops deep behind enemy lines at the start of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Europe. A member of the 82nd Airborne Division that day, Placid Lassie would have a presence at every major battle in Europe in the coming years.

The Normandy visit will be Placid Lassie's second in recent years. In 2014, for the seventieth anniversary of D-Day, she also made the trip from her Florida home, taking the well-traveled Blue Spruce route across the North Atlantic. But Eric Zipkin, board chairman of the Tunison Foundation, which owns the C–47, was disappointed that only two of the famed birds made the crossing from North America for that event. He and a group of others decided to change that for the seventy-fifth, with the goal of getting a squadron of the beloved Gooney Birds to the event. As of this spring they had surpassed that goal, with some 22 DC–3s scheduled to make the crossing next May in preparation for events leading up to the anniversary. They will be joined by another dozen or so from Europe. Some of the North American airplanes will stay for a few weeks to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the Berlin Airlift.

To assist other DC–3 owners with fundraising and logistics, Zipkin and friends formed the D-Day Squadron, a common brand and website to tell the story of the effort and to commemorate the role the C–47 played on that world-changing day. Another group, Daks over Normandy—referring to the British name for the C–47, the Dakota—is organizing flights over the beach.

Zipkin estimates each DC–3 owner in North America will need to raise at least $80,000 for the crossing, and some will spend much more to get their airplanes into condition for such a journey. Expect to see the various airplanes campaigning around the nation over the next year as they raise awareness of the event and raise funds.

Among the efforts is “100 in Normandy,” a program to recruit and host one veteran and one student from each American state to be on the ground during the Daks over Normandy flyovers in France. As noted on the group’s website, “In the pivotal spot that marked the beginning of the end of the War, past and future generations will stand side by side to observe the significance of this historic event.”

To learn more about the effort, the airplanes, and how you can help, visit ddaysquadron.org or daksovernormandy.com.

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