A D-Day Plane Lost for Years Is About to Fly Again (Published 2018)
- ️https://www.nytimes.com/by/jacey-fortin
- ️Mon Jan 29 2018
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
- Jan. 29, 2018
It took two eagle-eyed historians to track down the plane that led hundreds of Allied aircraft into Normandy during World War II.
A few years ago, the historical treasure was languishing in an aircraft bone yard in Wisconsin.
The plane, a twin-engine C-47 called “That’s All, Brother,” carried American paratroopers into German-occupied France on June 6, 1944, or D-Day. It led the main formation that dropped thousands of men into what became a bloody but decisive battle, paving the way for the liberation of northern France from the Nazis.
[UPDATE: A D-Day Plane Is Flying Again; With Photos]
Like many other World War II planes, “That’s All, Brother” was sold for private use after the fighting ended. It cycled through a series of owners and its historical significance was in danger of being forgotten.
But in 2007, the two historians started following a paper trail.
From Normandy to Oshkosh
At the Air Force Historical Research Agency in Montgomery, Ala., Matt Scales, then a member of the Air National Guard, was researching John M. Donalson, who piloted the plane on the day it soared over the beaches of Normandy.
Mr. Scales and another historian in the Air Force Reserve, Ken Tilley, found its tail number and used it to trace the C-47’s postwar path and see whether it had been dismantled. They were relieved to find that it had not.
“It’s so rare to have a plane that was actually there and did what it did,” Mr. Scales said in a phone interview. “This airplane has been a fighter its entire life.”