Post Combat Jumps

(The wreckage shown above may be the C-47 that crashed at Reims, 14 March 1945)

   The aircraft was part of a 42-plane formation for a standard qualification jump.  As the sky blossomed with parachutes, one of the C-47s lost a propeller.   Already at decreased airspeed necessary for the parachutists, the C-47 was unable to maintain lift with just  one engine.

   As it plummeted to earth it snagged a number of parachutes with its wings.  Seven of the dead were men of the 508th.