The third week of May was a busy one for the D-Day Squadron as it was
the kick-off week of their transatlantic crossing back to Normandy to
celebrate the 75th anniversary of D-Day. The jumping-off point for the
trip was the Waterbury-Oxford Airport located in central Connecticut.
The goal of the expedition was to fly as many C-47s as possible across
the pond, following the Blue Spruce Route to the European Theater of
World War II. A fleet of 10 made the trip to Oxford for a week of brief-
ings, training and public events.
The ultimate plan was for the American contingent to meet up with
other C-47s from Europe and Australia for Daks over Normandy, a
flyover of more than 30 aircraft to drop 250 paratroopers over the
shores of Normandy on June 6, 2019, commemorating the 75th anniver-
sary of the Allied Invasion.
Also attending some of the weeks events were two distinguished
WWII pilots, Lt. Col. Dave Hamilton, a pathfinder pilot on D-Day and
104-year-old Captain Peter Goutiere, a former pilot for CANAC (China
National Aviation Corporation).
Lt. Col. Hamilton flew as Chalk #14 in Serial 6 of Mission Boston on
D-Day, dropping Pathfinder paratroopers from the 507th Parachute
Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division into Normandy.
It was incredible to listen to him describe his trip across the channel,
taking hits from flak and getting his magneto panel shot out. He told us
that on the return trip over the channel at 1:45am, his radar looked like it
had a case of the measles. What he was viewing on the scope was the
fleet preparing to hit the beaches at 6:30.One of the requirement to be a pathfinder pilot, he said: “was that he
had to make one jump with the paratroopers he would be dropping in
Normandy. He said, on D-Day “this time he would be staying with the
airplane in a nice, comfortable seat.”Captain Goutiere was reunited with one of his old mounts from the war.
He delivered the Pan Am C-47, now owned by the Historic Flight Foun-
dation, from Miami to Kolkata, India when he worked for Pan Am Ferry
services. A trip that took 90 flight hours and 14 days to complete.This particular airplane was known as ship 100, as it was the 100th
airplane delivered to CNAC. Douglas specifically built it for flying “the
Hump”, the treacherous route from India over the Himalayas to China.The airplane was constructed with long-range fuel tanks and super-
charged engines for performance at altitude, ideal for the seven hour
round trip.