75th D-Day Memorial Airborne Operation

Message from RCPT-EU regarding the 2019 D-Day 75th Anniversary commemoration:

Jumpers!

For the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, RCPT was challenged to create the event Daks over Normandy to celebrate the sacrifices and triumphs of those Paratroopers of 1944. By all reports, it was crowned a great success.

Our 2014 event was an extremely ambitious undertaking, which followed a difficult path including administrative burdens, restrictions and security constraints which our region lives through on the occasion of such large ceremonies.

RCPT, by its persistence, diplomacy and professionalism, proved by the success of the aviation events to be in perfect coordination with aerial, military, and state organized events during that period.

On the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, our association RCPT, with the corporation and partnership of the towns of Carentan, Sainte Mère Eglise, Ranville, the airport of Cherbourg Maupertus and the President of the Normandy region, has the pleasure to announce the creation of our new event, the "D-Day Memorial Airborne Operation".
(For internal reasons and not through choice, we will no longer conduct operations under the name of "Daks over Normandy" )

The 75th anniversary will be on a grand and international scale with a large presence of Heads of State. There will be heightened and more restrictive security in the airspace. A large gathering of aircraft will be extremely difficult to manage during this period and it is plausible that flights or events could be cancelled at any time when or if the reasons of state and security require. For this reason, we have planned our schedule in total coordination and agreement with the governmental planners and civil aviation authorities, at an airport unlikely to be affected by dignitary arrivals.

It is at the outset responsible and realistic to make an event qualitative rather than quantitative.

Therefore, we will differentiate from previous events by only using planes bearing historical 1944 D-Day colors with the number of planes deliberately limited, to ensure the unhindered course of the planned program and with participating jumpers exclusively dressed in 1944 paratrooper uniform.

The program of our "D-Day Memorial Airborne Operation" being fully bound to airdrops of 6 June 1944, we will be exclusively using jump ships in the “invasion configuration” with anchor lines for airborne operations.

Just as during the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, the base of action will be the airport of Cherbourg Maupertus, which we have the guarantee of non-requisition. It is ideally located in the historic sector close to Utah Beach and areas of airdrops of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and not too far from the UK Dz’s. We look at a maximum of 6 C47 - C53 planes.

In this 75th D-day commemoration, all parachute teams are welcome to join on equal status this event, we aim to working together in order to enable all participants to jump in commemoration and honor of our veterans.

Our program is as follows;

Day 1: Monday 3 June, arrival of the aircraft to the RCPT HQ UK at Upottery Airfield, exhibition and commemoration in association with the Heritage Center Upottery airfield. Open Day
Day 2: Tuesday 4 June, arrival of the paratroopers at Upottery Airfield. Open day.
Day 3 : Wednesday 5 June, aircraft departure, in formation across The Channel, mass drop at Carentan, aircraft landing at Cherbourg Maupertus. Dinner and festivities at Carentan
Day 4: Thursday 6 June, FREE DAY
Day 5: Friday, 7 June, formation flight, parachuting mass drop at Ranville, UK DZ « N »- planes return to Cherbourg Maupertus. Evening festivities, Dinner at Pegasus Bridge.
Day 6: Saturday, June 8, FREE DAY
Day 7: Sunday 9 June, formation flight, parachuting mass drop Saint Mère Eglise, La Fière. Return aircraft Cherbourg Maupertus. Dinner and festivities Sainte Mère Eglise.
Day 8: Monday 10 June, Event finishes.

Above all, we look forward to warmly welcoming you in a spirit of camaraderie together in our common passion, - historical airborne operations, honour, memory and remembrance.

Eagerly awaiting in expectance of your participation to this combined effort, we look forward to welcoming you to this official event which will ensure your active participation and jumping during the commemorations of the 75th Anniversary of D-Day.

If you chose to be part of this event, please email at 75ddayops@orange.fr and you will receive the manifest as soon as it opens.

Very cordially,

The D-Day Memorial Airborne Operation Staff