NORMANDY
I flew in the Normandy and Market Garden missions.

On both missions, the pilot was John P. Otte, Jr., and I was co-pilot. We were both first lieutenants.

On the Normandy mission we took off from Aldermaston, England at about 1:30 a.m. On June 6 (D-Day) and landed in our assigned landing zone in Hiesville, France at 4:00 a.m. As you know, the weather was fairly clear. The field we landed in was owned by the Bouffard family. It was the field in which the first American glider landed. That glider was piloted by Lt. Col. Mike Murphy, who unfortunately hit the trees at the end of the field, as a result of which his co-pilot and the assistant division commander of the 101st Airborne, General Pratt, were killed. Upon landing we rolled to the end of the field to make room for any following gliders and thus hit the tail of the second glider to land in that field. Our glider number was 25.

We carried an anti-tank gun and its crew of three. I do not know who the tow pilot was. In as much as we landed on a farm field, the landing was very bumpy, but without damage until we hit the other glider, as a result of which we caused some damage to its tail, and we had to pull our glider back in order to raise the nose in order to get the gun out.

We spent the next two days on the grounds of the Chateau de la Colombiere, where the first American field hospital was established,leaving on the 8th for Utah Beach, which I think was about 15 kilometers away. There we were loaded onto a Duck and taken to an LST for our trip back the England. While at the Chateau we guarded the hospital and went on a burial detail of some 12 or 15 or so American soldiers.

HOLLAND
We flew to Holland on September 19. The weather was so bad that the fighter cover which was supposed to accompany us was told that our flight would not be made. We came to land at Ostend, Belgium, I believe, and landed at the town of Son at about 1:30 p.m. Fa

ther Gerard Thuring, who in 1983 lived in Groesbeek, had an extremely detailed record of the gliders, tow pilots, and other details of the Holland airborne invasion. Our tow pilot was Col.Whitacre. Father Thuring told me his co-pilot was Lt. Col. Parkinson. He also wrote me that we carried Lt. Col. Cox, 1 Lt. McCormack, Tech Sgt. Klintwoth and Pvt. Heston. I did not not know who they were. We also carried a Jeep. He also informed me that our chalk number was 1 B.

We were at Son for about three days, and somehow got to Brussels for a flight back to Aldermaston.

My training was at a number of bases, starting at Big Spring, Texas, in September, 1942 and ending at Victorville, California in February, 1943. We were at several bases after that until we shipped to England in late March or early April, 1944. We at first flew small 65. h.p. aircraft, first flying gliders at 29 Palms, California, and then flying the CG-4A's at Victorville.

When we were stationed at Grenada Air Force Base in Mississippi, one of our pilots , David Ihrig, was killed in a crash while being towed for a demonstration in Texas.

I will be turning 90 years old next week, but I think what I have told you is quite accurate, and hope it will be of some help to you.

Regards,

S. Robert Winer