D-Day Squadron Prepares for Massive Flyover Honoring Normandy Anniversary

July 26, 2018 - With the 75th anniversary of the Normandy D-Day landings approaching in 2019, a nonprofit organization, D-Day Squadron, will honor fallen Allied soldiers from the invasion in a big way.

D-Day Squadron is helping to organize a mass flyover of vintage Douglas DC-3s and C-47 Skytrains over the beaches of Normandy in France in June 2019 to commemorate the thousands of soldiers that died during D-Day. C-47s led the Allied invasion during D-Day, dropping paratroopers behind enemy lines late at night to help prepare for the beach landings that took place on the morning of June 6. The flyover will be part of the larger Daks Over Normandy event, which will feature DC-3s and C-47s from other countries.

D-Day Squadron, which is organizing the American fleet of airplanes participating in the Daks Over Normandy flyover, will depart and travel across the North Atlantic on what’s known as the Blue Spruce Route. The squadron will gather in Connecticut for the lengthy journey, which will have stops at Goose Bay, Newfoundland; Narsarsuaq, Greenland; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Prestwick, Scotland, before finishing up at Duxford Airfield north of London. Finally, they will traverse the English Channel on June 6, 2019, for the Daks Over Normandy event.

“We have 22 aircraft currently signed up to go across the North Atlantic,” D-Day Squadron chief pilot Eric Zipkin, EAA 1060293, said. “This really is a joint effort with the Commemorative Air Force, who are joining us with some of their aircraft, most notably That’s All, Brother. The logistics and the entire effort really is a joint effort, akin to what happened in 1944 with the liberation of Europe through the D-Day invasion. … We figure (the trip) will be about 15 hours of flying for each aircraft.”

For more information about the D-Day Squadron, visit www.DDaySquadron.org.