You Are There… Graphic History Series.
Historical Backdrop
On the night of June 5–6, 1944, more than 13,000 American paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions jumped into Nazi-occupied Normandy hours before the seaborne D-Day landings. Their job was to seize roads, bridges, and villages behind enemy lines so the troops landing on the beaches at dawn could push inland. The small town of Sainte-Mère-Église sat right on the main road from Cherbourg and had to be taken fast.
Our subject is Private John Marvin Steele, age 31, of F Company, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. A quiet farm boy from Metter, Georgia, he had already jumped into combat in Sicily and Italy.
June 5, 1944 — 18:20 hrs — RAF Spanhoe Airfield, Northamptonshire, England
You wake up in a damp Quonset hut in England with the taste of metal in your mouth wondering if this will be the day you die. You sit on the cold concrete near the C-47 that will carry you across the Channel. Chaplain Matthew Connelly moves down the line giving last rites to Catholics and prayers to the rest. You smear burnt cork across your cheeks and forehead. Your stomach is tight from the breakfast of powdered eggs and Spam you forced down hours ago. The air smells of aviation gas, wet grass, and tobacco. Around you, men check straps for the tenth time, scratch initials into helmets, write last letters in pencil on K-ration boxes. A sergeant shouts the time. Nobody laughs.
June 5, 1944 — 22:48 hrs — Boarding the C-47 “Miss Carriage”
You waddle to the plane under 90 pounds of gear, your reserve chute strapped tight against your gut, a leg bag stuffed with ammo, grenades, rations, and a Hawkins mine. A Pathfinder helps push you up the metal step. Inside the fuselage it smells of hot oil and sweat. You sit on the aluminum bench, hooked into the static line. The jumpmaster, Lieutenant Harold Cadish, walks the aisle counting heads. The engines cough, then catch with a roar that shakes your teeth. Through the open door you watch the green of England slide away below.
June 6, 1944 — 01:14 hrs — Over the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy
The plane bucks hard. Cloud banks have scattered the formation and now flak is reaching up for you in slow yellow streaks. You hear it first as a popcorn rattle, then a heavier crack as a shell bursts close enough to make the C-47 lurch sideways. Red light flashes on. “STAND UP! HOOK UP!” You snap your static line clip onto the cable. The man in front of you, Ken Russell, just turned 17. He looks at you. You nod. The plane is going faster than it should, the pilot panicking. Green light.
June 6, 1944 — 01:19 hrs — Jumping Over Sainte-Mère-Église
