D-Day is celebrating its anniversary today, 75 years after the 1944 landing in Normandy. The official name for the event was Operation Neptune and was the largest scale seaborne invasion in history. The effort from more than 200,000 heroic allied soldiers on June 6, 1944, unclasped Adolf Hitler’s hand from Europe. In celebration of their brave efforts today, the Imperial War Museum will release a fleet of aircraft which will take a route over England and towards the English Channel with a final descent on France.

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Approximately 280 paratroopers, made up of 130 UK troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade and 150 from the French Army’s 11e Brigade Parachutiste, will carry out a commemorative parachute descent onto fields on the outskirts of Sannerville, Normandy.

In the early hours of 6th June 1944, the same fields served as Drop Zone ‘K’ for the 8th (Midlands) Parachute Battalion, tasked with the destruction of bridges to restrict German freedom of manoeuvre.

Following the military parachuting The Red Devils, the Army and Parachute Regiment freefall display team, will do a display, including a tandem jump with D-Day veterans Harry Read and Jock Hutton. On D-Day, Mr Read, now 95, was a 20-year-old wireless operator and Mr Hutton, now 94, was a 19-year-old in 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalion.

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-Dakota Mk.III, ZA947 , Built by Douglas in the United States in 1943 it was delivered to the RAF in February 1944. The aircraft served with 233 Squadron at RAF Blakehill Farm until September 1944 when it was transferred to 437 Squadron RCAF. FZ692 was painted olive drab green all over and shortly before D-Day had the black and white ‘invasion stripes’ added for identification purposes. The stripes on the rear fuselage covered the ‘5T-UK’ squadron code letters so the aircraft’s individual letters ‘UK’ were transcribed onto the nose. (This is not, therefore, an indication of the aircraft or unit’s nationality!) FZ692 was named ‘Kwicherbichen’ and this was painted on the port side of the nose under the cockpit. Just behind the port cockpit window was a block of symbols detailing the ‘ops’ it had flown. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Dakota (ZA947) is painted to represent Kwicherbichen.

- This aircraft was adopted by Strike Command and issued to the BBMF in March 1993. In 2004, an original and authentic floor and interior was re-fitted to the Dakota, returning the cabin to the original, wartime specification. As there are now no other multi-engine tail wheel aircraft in RAF service outside the BBMF, the Dakota is an important training asset used for initial training of aircrew for the BBMF multi-engine aircraft and for renewing the currency of the Flight’s Lancaster pilots each year. In addition to this role though, the Dakota is a sought-after display aircraft in her own right and, as such, she appears regularly on the air show circuit either on her own or as part of a BBMF formation. She continues to be capable of para-dropping and is used in that role for special commemorative events.

ZA947 is now painted to represent Dakota FZ692 of No 233 Squadron, around the D-Day period in 1944. This aircraft, which was named ‘Kwicherbichen’ by her crews, was involved in Para-dropping operations on the eve of D-Day and subsequently in re-supply and casualty evacuation missions into and out of forward airfields in the combat areas.

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