L is for The Longest Yarn - Airborne Invasion

From late in the evening of the 5th June 1944, wave after wave of airborne troops left the UK for Normandy, led by the Pathfinders, and with tactical goals or specific jobs to do, either to prevent German reinforcement later in the day, or to seize and hold important pivot points for the breakthrough troops ,who would hopefully relieve them in the afternoon of the 6th, they were also to sow confusion behind the landing-beaches and tie-down any nearby German troops.

Many died without firing a shot, landing in floodwaters created by the Germans for exactly that purpose, hitting obstacles, natural or man-made, in the dark or being killed by the Germans before they'd extricated themselves from parachutes or gliders, one, American paratrooper John Steele, had the most peculiar of 'lucky' escapes and can be seen below, hanging from the woollen steeple of the church at Sainte-Mère-Église.

 

I can't express adequately how worthwhile a visit to this exhibition is, and there are plans for at least one venue in the US, Cape May, New Jersey, from the end of next April, but one would hope with more support and more donations, it will travel further with more dates, and maybe make it to Canada or elsewhere? I also hope a permanent home is found for it, perhaps in Bayeux, the first major town liberated (on the 7th of June 1944), and already home to a tapestry of another famous amphibious invasion, going the other way!