the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

The DC-3/C-47/Dakota is one of the great airplanes. It figured prominently in the D-Day invasion and a gaggle of them returned to Normandy to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the invasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AZ1wvK7mYM




Amazingly, quite a few of this old model are still in use; the last ones were built in 1946.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9SDagZt5i4

Dropping off the pax:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cga2Bv_fkno



Inside view of deplaning, though not from this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMgD0VaYms4



Much quicker and more orderly than getting off the airliner these days.

My father went to Normandy to watch this. I decided to pass on it, it didn't seem right. It didn't feel like a celebration or honouring the dead, it felt like a weird fetish. If you want to see DC-3/C-47s together, then just organise a meet, like a classic car meet. Anyway, my 2 cents.

In the 50's the Dakota was still around, while in the RAF I travelled several times on it. It was noisy, broke your bones but always got there with minimum delay. As for D Day, it should be a reminder of the carnage of war, the chickenhawks and cowards are very good at sending young men to die where they would not go. This may have been the last 'good' war the ones since then are about commerce and politics