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Impossible Target – Why did so many paratroopers miss the drop zone on D-Day?

Doug Rozendaal pilots a Douglas C-47 Skytrain owned and operated by the Commemorative Air Force, Central Texas Wing, over the Iowa countryside. Dressed in the scheme of “That’s All, Brother,” the lead aircraft on the D-Day invasion, this C-47 is based out of San Marcos, Texas. (Photo by David Leininger)

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On the airfield at Barkston-Heath (USAAF Station AAF-483) near the city of Grantham in Lincolnshire, 72 Douglas C-47 Skytrain transports from the 61st Troop Carrier Group sat waiting. Soon they would carry 1,230 paratroopers from the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment to Normandy as a part of Mission Boston, the code name of the operation to move the 82nd Airborne Division to France on D-Day. Just seven miles away on...

PARDON THE INTERRUPTION

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