'Operation Tonga'
108 RAF Douglas C-47 Dakotas drop paratroopers of the British 3rd Parachute Brigade into Normandy.
Shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944, the great D-Day invasion got under way with Operation Tonga when 108 RAF Douglas C-47 Dakotas dropped paratroopers of the British 3rd Parachute Brigade into Normandy. Illuminated by searchlights and ‘flak’, Dakotas of 233 Squadron from Blakehill Farm are seen over Drop Zone ‘K’, near Caen. In the foreground is C-47 Dakota FZ692, named ‘Kwicherbichen’ by its crews. All 30 of 233 Squadron’s Dakotas flew to Normandy on Operation Tonga; two of them failed to return, victims of the German flak.