Calais, France—This year is the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the massive, mind boggling invasion of mainland Europe by the Allies to recapture the continent from the Germans. The day is being remembered in France and the U.S. with parades honoring the surviving soldiers from that catastrophic day.
Part of the D-Day plan in 1944, in addition to the naval invasion, included dropping thousands of paratroopers behind enemy lines several miles inland from Omaha and the other landing beaches. Due to heavy German fire, however, the pilots of many planes decided to significantly increase altitude in an attempt to escape engine damage.
The unusually high winds of the day meant, as taught during training, paratroopers had to wait significantly longer—up to four minutes—to pull parachute chords to better their chances of landing near the rallying point.
A nervous Pr. Albert Peters of the 1526th Airborne Division, however, released his chute only seconds after jumping from the plane. The high winds pushed the soldier to the north over the English Channel in a matter of minutes as he watched the remainder of the 1526th grow smaller as they plummeted towards the intended target.
"I have to admit that I had a great vantage point over the Channel and I was able to see the whole massive invasion. The storming of the beaches, the half-tracks half-tracking off the transport ships, everything," said Peters.
The winds, at that altitude, were strong enough to carry Peters completely over the Channel and back to the coast of southern England to safety, or so he thought.
American and British soldiers, who remained in Britain in preparation for a German counter attack, believed the lone parachuter was a German soldier or spy and quickly opened fire.
"I knew I was approaching England as I could see the Cliffs of Dover very far to my right, which gave me great relief and comfort," said Peters. "That relief was quickly interrupted by bullets and anti-aircraft fire."
Peters followed his training skills and fired a flare into the air. The warning signal was designed to form an American flag upon exploding, but the winds had other plans.
"The winds jumbled the flag to make it appear as a tattered, sloppy Union Jack. They thought I was disrespecting their flag and, for that, I had to be a German," said Peters.
As the winds calmed, and the famous British fog concealed him from the troops below, the soldier began to lose altitude quickly, but not before being carried inland some forty miles where he landed smack in the middle of Stonehenge. "For a split second I thought I had done some time traveling or something."
Some in the 1526th accused the trooper of deliberately releasing his chute early to avoid the invasion, as twenty-five men lost their lives before even landing. One fellow soldier who wanted remain anonymous said that Peters is "a good guy." Three days later Peters reunited with the rest of his division in Caen, France.
"They teased me mercilessly," said the veteran of his fellow soldiers upon meeting on the ground in France. "They gave me a nickname. Let's just say it rhymes with paratrooper, which was better than the first nickname they came up with."
No comments:
Post a Comment