Glider pilot tells of French landing
Flown here wounded, officer says craft hit tree – Nazi tanks did not fire
Washington (UP) – (June 25)
The first two wounded soldiers to arrive in this country from the invasion beachhead in France were identified today by the War Department as Lt. Col. Michael C. Murphy, 37, of Lafayette, Indiana, and Pfc. James A. Lester, 21, of Route 3, Clio, Michigan.
The two arrived last night at Mitchel Field, Long Island, on an Air Transport Command hospital plane and were taken to a nearby hospital. Their names were withheld overnight until the next of kin could be notified.
Lt. Col. Murphy said in New York yesterday, according to the Associated Press, that he landed his glider at Sainte-Mère-Église within 15 feet of a German tank column without being fired upon.
He recalled:
We were caught in a pretty heavy crossfire while still in the air. The pilot of the plane leading us was Col. Whitaker. I called him and told him that they were making a sieve of us back there. He said, “What in blazes do you think they are doing to me up here?”
I received my injury because my glider didn’t stop when I applied the brakes. It skidded on the tall grass and coasted into a tree.
When my glider came to rest, I was within 15 feet of an enemy reconnaissance tank column. I was pinned in and couldn’t move. I told the passengers what was in front of us. In about 15 seconds, the enemy started up the motors on their tanks and moved off. They moved past the other parked gliders and didn’t fire a shot.
Because snipers and machine-gunners were firing on then, Murphy said, the troops took cover in ditches at the edge of the field. He said a Medical Corps doctor risked the fire to reach the gliders and treat the injured.
Lt. Col. Murphy said the trip back to England from Normandy required three days because of snipers and artillery firing on the beach, as well as mines offshore.
He said:
It is interesting that it took twice as long to evacuate us across the Channel to England by boat as it took us to fly across the ocean.
The glider pilot, who formerly operated his own flying service at Findlay, Ohio, trained flight nurses at Bowman Field, Kentucky, before going overseas.
Four months ago, he married the former Mary Louise Neville of Lafayette.