This Date in Aviation History: June 5 - June 7

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 06/07/2019 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, planelopnik history, Planelopnik

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Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting of you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from June 5 through June 7.

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(Author unknown)

June 6, 1944 – A huge airborne armada carries Allied troops across the English Channel to begin the D-Day invasion of Europe. On the morning of September 1, 1939, the German army unleashed its !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! warfare with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of Poland and beginning World War II, a global conflict that eventually claimed the lives of 70-85 million people. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on June 25, 1940 left Germany and Italy in control of almost all of Europe, and the Nazis ruled France through the puppet !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! until 1944. While the Russians strongly advocated the creation of a second front in Europe to fight the Germans and relieve pressure on the Eastern Front, Allied leaders balked, saying that they had neither the men nor the materiel to make an effective invasion.

The western allies opted instead to invade North Africa ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) and then Italy ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ), what British prime minister Winston Churchill the “soft underbelly” of Europe. That underbelly turned out to be much harder than Churchill imagined, and though the invasion of Italy eventually bogged down, the Allies gained valuable experience with amphibious landing operations that they would put to use in the eventual invasion of mainland Europe. At the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Washington, DC in 1943, Allied leaders decided that the time to invade Europe had come, and the beaches of Normandy in Northern France were selected as the point at which the Allies would try to gain a foothold in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

(UK National Archives)

Getting the troops from England to Normandy would be a mammoth undertaking, involving thousands of ships, transport aircraft, and gliders, as well as the bombers and fighters that would soften up the enemy and protect the invasion. To disguise their planes and preserve the element of surprise, the Allies went to elaborate extents to confuse the German defenders. As a result, the Germans were convinced that the Allies would attack at the Pas de Calais, the narrowest point of the English Channel between England and France. The Allies did nothing to disabuse the Germans from this idea, and even littered the English countryside with dummy tanks and aircraft to confuse German reconnaissance flights. On the night of June 5/6, aircraft and ships were sent against Calais in the north, while others steamed slowly towards Cap d’Antifer to the south. At the same time, aircraft circled over the Channel to tie up the German coastal radars and shield the actual airborne invasion. When the airborne troops and gliders arrived over France, not a single Luftwaffe aircraft rose to meet them.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe, speaks with First Lieutenant Wallace C. Strobel and men of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment on June 5, 1944. Strobel’s battalion was the first to drop into Normandy. Strobel survived both the Normandy invasion and the war. (US Army)

In the predawn darkness of June 6, airborne troops descended over the Normandy countryside to pave the way for the airborne invasion forces. These pathfinder companies were tasked with deploying ground beacons for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! system which directed following planes loaded with paratroopers and equipment. The pathfinders were followed by a force of airborne soldiers which included 13,000 troops from the US Army !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , along with 6,000 British troops of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and 500 paratroopers from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . These paratroops were dropped behind the invasion beaches to block German reinforcements from coming forward, capture causeway exits from the beaches, and establish river crossings so troops on the beach could fan out across the countryside. They also marked out landing zones for the nearly 4,000 glider-borne troops to follow.

At first light, the British launched a glider-borne assault against the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! across the Caen Canal. In an amazing feat of airmanship, six Horsa gliders brought 181 airborne soldiers to within 50 feet of their objective, completely surprising the German defenders. Capturing the bridge helped protect the eastern flank of Juno Beach from German armor. The British were followed by paratroops brought across the Channel by a fleet of over 900 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (RAF designation Dakota). Flying from England, the aerial armada was arrayed in consecutive V-formations, nine planes wide in a line that stretched nearly 300 miles. Once over the drop zones, thousands of soldiers rained from sky, while others descended in gliders that were, at times, more dangerous than any enemy fire. Many paratroops were scattered, and it took many hours for units to form up, while others joined whichever soldiers they could find and moved toward their objectives. By the end of June 6, US Army Air Forces and Allied aircraft flew roughly 15,000 sorties in support of the D-Day invasion. Despite the difficulties, most of the pre-invasion objectives were met, and the airborne soldiers helped open beach exits and provide cover for the nearly 160,000 Allied troops that came ashore at dawn on D-Day, the first successful invasion of a defended European mainland in over 800 years.

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Short Takeoff

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June 5, 1989 – The Antonov An-225 Mriya sets a world record for the greatest maximum takeoff weight ever flown. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was originally designed to transport the Russian space shuttle !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , though with the end of the Buran program following the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1991 Mriya was converted to a super heavy-lift strategic airlifter. As part of a demonstration for the 1989 Paris Air Show, Mriya flew from Kiev to Paris-Le Bourget airport carrying Buran on its back with a combined weight of 1,234,600 pounds, a record that still stands.

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June 5, 1983 – The death of Kurt Tank, Born on February 24, 1898, Tank was a German aeronautical engineer and test pilot who headed the design department of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from 1931-1945. After working for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! following WWI, Tank joined Focke-Wulf when Albatros went bankrupt and the two companies merged. In 1931, Tank oversaw the development of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a long-range airliner that was developed into a maritime patrol bomber, but he is best known for his development of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , one of the preeminent fighters of WWII. Following the war, Tank moved to Argentina where he worked at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and later worked in India, where he designed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the first jet developed in India and the first Asian jet fighter to enter production.

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(US Air Force)

June 5, 1944 – The first combat mission of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Deployed to bases in southern China and India in April 1944, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flew its first combat mission against Japanese targets in Thailand. Of the 77 bombers launched on that first raid, five were lost, though none to enemy fire. Then, on June 15, 68 Superfortresses attacked Yahata, Japan in the first attack on the Japanese homeland since the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of 1942. Operations from China and India proved difficult, so the decision was made to capture the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for the construction of airstrips that were close enough to attack the island of Japan. Superfortresses carried out bombing raids, fire bombing raids, and mine laying missions from these forward bases, culminating in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Later, the Surperfortress saw action in Korea, and the airframe was modified into reconnaissance and aerial refueling tankers before finally being retired in 1960.

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June 6, 1942 – Aircraft from the carriers USS Enterprise and USS Hornet sink the Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma . In one of the final actions of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , American !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! dive bombers from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (CV-6) and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (CV-8) sighted !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , along with her sister ship !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both of which had been damaged early in the battle when they collided with one other. Mogami was struck by at least six bombs, while Mikuma was hit by five. The bombs struck the forecastle and amidships, setting off numerous explosions inside the ship and rendering her forward guns inoperable. Mogami was able to limp back to port, but Mikuma sank, taking 650 sailors down with her. The attack also marked the final combat action of the obsolete Devastator.

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(Author unknown)

June 6, 1915 – Zeppelin LZ 37 becomes the first Zeppelin destroyed in air-to-air combat. During WWI, the Germans used !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to carry out strategic bombing missions against France and England. On the night of June 6-7, LZ 37 of the German Imperial Navy ( Kaiserliche Marine ) took part in a three-airship raid on Calais and was attacked by Royal Naval Air Service pilot !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flying a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter. Warneford climbed above the Zeppelin and dropped bombs on the airship, setting it on fire and causing it to crash. The explosion caused Warneford’s fighter to roll and lose power and he was forced down behind enemy lines, but was able to restart his fighter and return to base. Eight members of the nine-man Zeppelin crew were killed, along with two people on the ground. For his actions, Warneford was awarded the British !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and French !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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(Israeli Defense Forces)

June 7, 1981 – Israeli fighters destroy the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. As part of a program to develop what they maintained was a peaceful nuclear power program, the Iraqi government, with the help of French engineers, constructed a nuclear reactor at Osirak near the capital city of Baghdad. Following attempts at sabotage, including the assassination of a French scientist working on the program, the Israeli government carried out !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , sending six !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , each carrying two 2,000 pound unguided bombs and protected by six !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , to destroy the Iraqi facility. Ten Iraqi soldiers were killed in the attack, along with one French civilian. Iraq vowed to rebuild the facility, but it was finally completely destroyed by the US in 1991 during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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Connecting Flights

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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. And if you missed any of the past articles, you can find them all at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . You can also find more stories about aviation, aviators and airplane oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > ttyymmnn 06/07/2019 at 12:53

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people always talk about how cool the paratroopers were but jesus christ do i give the glider-borne troops credit. basically flying into battle in pinewood box with wings with little in terms of a plan B if the glider lost control

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero 06/07/2019 at 12:56

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Same. And did actual pilots land those things, or grunts with some special training?

The Ghost of Oppo > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/07/2019 at 13:04

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At least for the British, they had an entire regiment specifically for glider pilots  

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/07/2019 at 13:36

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The success of German glider-borne forces early in World War II catapulted the Air Corps into a glider program in February 1941. Glider pilots were unique in that they had no parachutes, no motors and no second chances. In December 1941, plans called for training 1,000 AAF glider pilots, but eventually about 5,500 received their wings. Most glider pilots came from enlisted ranks — all were volunteers. Upon graduation, enlisted men would be promoted to staff sergeant (or would retain present grade if higher) while officers would train in grade. But after Nov. 21, 1942, all enlisted graduates were appointed as flight officers upon completing advanced glider training.

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196148/glider-pilots-silent-wings/

It sounds like these guys only received training in gliding or dead-stick flight. Click the link, it has photos from the glider display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

ttyymmnn > Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero 06/07/2019 at 13:40

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There’s a reason they called them “flying coffins.”

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > The Ghost of Oppo 06/07/2019 at 13:48

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Ugh.

Shamoononon drives like a farmer > ttyymmnn 06/07/2019 at 13:51

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My grandfather started his Military career in WW2, was at D-day. Was a bomber pilot by the Korean war.  Then off to Vietnam where is son, my father joined him and spent the next 25 years in the Military.  Two great men.  

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 06/07/2019 at 13:53

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Grim.

ttyymmnn > Shamoononon drives like a farmer 06/07/2019 at 13:58

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Was your father a flyer also?

Shamoononon drives like a farmer > ttyymmnn 06/07/2019 at 14:59

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No, Special Force officer, on the ground.  USMC

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero 06/09/2019 at 20:42

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rommel%27s_asparagus

Not to mention poles placed to slice wings/flip  on landing.