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327th GIR in landing crafts?


duarte1223
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I talked to a veteran of the 327th GIR today who landed on D-Day in a landing craft, due to a lack of planes to tow gliders. Has anyone else heard of this?

 

Adam

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Johan Willaert
I talked to a veteran of the 327th GIR today who landed on D-Day in a landing craft, due to a lack of planes to tow gliders. Has anyone else heard of this?

 

Adam

 

 

Yes, lots of 327th troops crossed the channel on boats...

 

Look at the DVD series 'Color of War'... It has color footage of them boarding the landing craft in a British harbor...

 

Scroll down halfway this page to see 327th troops in a British harbor with a handcart:

 

http://www.theliberator.be/handcart.htm

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Johan Willaert
Interesting site Johan...I paid no attention to those carts previously...thanks!

 

Thanks Dave.... It's a page of my site :lol:

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I talked to a veteran of the 327th GIR today who landed on D-Day in a landing craft, due to a lack of planes to tow gliders. Has anyone else heard of this?

Hello,

 

Michel De Trez wrote about it and showed it in his "American Warriors" book. See the last Chapter under the title of "Force 'C' - The Seaborne Troops", page 209. The Chapter dedicated to the 327th GIR transported to Normandy via assault boats.

 

Best regards

 

Greg

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Thanks guys! The paratrooper in question, a Mr. Dickinson, was the man who went to get the Germans that discussed the surrender of the 101st in Bastogne. He was the only person who went to receive and blindfold them, and was supported by a BAR gunner hidden in a thicket.

 

After the fact, the press interviewed a man by the last name of Butler, who said that it was him, 2 others, and Dickinson, who did it, just to get his name in the newspaper. He didn't know about it until he was in the hospital in Normandy and the nurse brought him a copy of Stars and Stripes with the article in it.

 

The story, and a letter from him to the author, is included in "The Battered Bastards of Bastogne" in the Dec. 22 chapter.

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Greg Robinson
I talked to a veteran of the 327th GIR today who landed on D-Day in a landing craft, due to a lack of planes to tow gliders. Has anyone else heard of this?

 

Adam

 

Yes....they didn't have sufficient C 130's to tow all the gliders. My uncle was a communications officer in Regimental HQ Company of the 327th GIR and he came ashore at Utah beach.

 

Greg

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Johan Willaert
they didn't have sufficient C 130's to tow all the gliders. My uncle was a communications officer in Regimental HQ Company of the 327th GIR and he came ashore at Utah beach.

 

Good Morning :lol:

 

Imagine if they would have had them.... and a couple of gunships as extra's.....

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:blink:hapy0004.gif

Don't forget the Hueys hovering over the beach ....

 

Erwin

 

Good Morning :lol:

Imagine if they would have had them.... and a couple of gunships as extra's.....

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:blink:hapy0004.gif

Don't forget the Hueys hovering over the beach ....

 

Erwin

Hueys? w00t.gif What about good old M-1A1 Tanks with curtains on the side!!!! :blink::lol:w00t.gif

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Yes....they didn't have sufficient C 130's to tow all the gliders. My uncle was a communications officer in Regimental HQ Company of the 327th GIR and he came ashore at Utah beach.

 

Greg

 

Could you perhaps mean C-47's (or possibly C-46's) instead of C-130"s?

 

G

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  • 2 months later...
Greg Robinson
Could you perhaps mean C-47's (or possibly C-46's) instead of C-130"s?

 

G

 

 

Yeah.....I was having a senior moment when I wrote that :D

 

Greg

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Neat picture, anyone know which company these guys were in?

 

Got to be 2nd Battalion by the helmet markings, making it E, F or G companies in the 327th's odd company numbering system (no D, no H).

 

Cheers,

Glen.

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  • 5 months later...

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