Parade of planes carried invaders
Witness says first parachutists met only light fire when they landed in France
The first eyewitness account of the Allies’ invasion of Europe was given in a pool broadcast from London this morning by Wright Bryan of NBC, who accompanied the airborne troops in their landings.
His account said the first spearhead of Allied forces landed by parachute in northern France to the first hour of D-Day.
Mr. Bryan said:
In the navigator’s dome in the flight deck of a C-47, I rode across the English Channel with the first group of places from the United States 9th Air Force Troop Carrier Command to take our fighting men into Europe.
He added that just before he left French soil for the return trip, he saw 17 U.S. paratroopers, led by a lieutenant colonel, “jump with their arms, ammunition and equipment into German-occupied France.”
…