Night Fright D-Day +77

Today is the 77th Anniversary, a very significant day for the Night Fright team. Honouring and remembering are right at the forefront of what we are about as a project, as well as preserving history for future generations and creating an educational platform.
In this D-Day tribute video Charlie brings you up to date with progress on Night Fright and a few other areas of the project whilst Neil is at Membury talking you through what the build up to D-Day would have looked like.
77 years ago Night Fright would have returned to Membury Airfield after participating in it's first ever combat mission, D-Day. Serial #9 of Operation Albany saw the 82nd and 79th Troop Carrier Squadrons carry the 1st Battalion of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, dropping them over DZ 'A' near St Germain de Varreville in Normandy at 0100.
All 36 C-47's survived and made it back to Membury although Night Fright did get a lucky escape when a German 20mm round entered the navigators compartment missing navigator, 2nd Lt Arthur Thornton by inches. The drop was deemed a success with all paratroopers landing reasonably close to DZ 'A'.
After a full debrief and interrogation by the Group intelligence officer, it was time to have some breakfast before trying to grab some sleep as Night Fright would be back in the air on the evening of the 6th towing a Horsa Glider as part of Serial #32 of Mission Elmira.
Her crew on that night of nights was Lt. William Watson, Lt. James Hardt, Lt. Arthur Thornton, T/Sgt Owen Voss and
S/Sgt Robert McKnight. In the grand scheme of Operation Overlord they played a small role during the invasion but we are eternally grateful to what they did 77 years ago. The same can be said about every allied soldier that fought for the liberation of Europe. Those brave men ensured that we live in a free world and many unfortunately had to pay the ultimate sacrifice to achieve it.
There are a lot of people whom without, doing what we are doing would not be possible. A very special thank you to both Neil Jones for his expert knowledge and Joe Harvey for his skills and time to put together the amazing content we create for you.
#dday #WWII #c47skytrain #nightfright

[@flypawels]

Thanks for the nice update.
Greetings from Canada.
👍♥️🇨🇦🇵🇱

[@stegradon7827]

Thanks for the update. Nearly there.

[@stenalbertsen2440]

Great update and thank you all for sharing

[@thenightfrightc-47restorat43]

thanks! no problem Sten

[@watchfordpilot]

Brilliant video guys, many thanks.

[@sheriffshifty1953]

Thanks for keeping all this :). If i where rich,i would be glad to help

[@dennisporter753]

Wonderful update on Night Fright!.. Totally awesome history lesson of Membry Airfield and the 36 C-47 Skytrains That flown in the Night of Nights and the support missions afterwards.. Wow.. 100 bullet holes damage on the second mission! Says alot right there.. Thank you for this presentation. Cheers from Missouri USA.

[@thenightfrightc-47restorat43]

Thanks Dennis! We're glad you enjoyed the video!

[@dalewilson8159]

Great video as always. Fantastic to get such detailed run down of the history of Membury site, and the future. Good luck with the remainder of the restoration.

[@thenightfrightc-47restorat43]

Thanks Dale! As Neil says, its about sharing the history.

[@Zazu2You]

A very worthwhile endeavor for all involved with the project. Thank you for the update, especially on this important day in history. Keep up the great work!! Cheers!! 😎

[@thenightfrightc-47restorat43]

indeed Paul! thanks for watching.

[@crushingvanessa3277]

Is the final colour going to have the rough finish that the paint did back then? I actually felt a C-46 door that was an original unused part when I worked at Air Manitoba. It did feel like coarse sandpaper. I guess Night Fright was still very new on June 6th.

[@thenightfrightc-47restorat43]

i will see if i can update you on this Vanessa...

[@HarrietsChariot]

Any new updates?

[@downwindchecklist6567]

Thx for sharing. Do you have any new updates? Also, are you still looking for donations? I would be happy to contribute with my little grain of sand.

[@MartynStubbsTBS]

Pity you can't do something with the old runway? The old runway perhaps a tourist attraction

[@thenightfrightc-47restorat43]

It would be a mammoth task but we hope that one day we may be able to do something with the main runway. Watch this space!

[@MartynStubbsTBS]

@@thenightfrightc-47restorat43 looking forward to this , thsnkyou