GP B. Ellington recalls drop into Normandy

Hello researchers. I must apologize for such a large post to the forum but, I hope you will find this interesting. I found this in some archived newspapers. I did some editing to cut it back some, but the narrative of the landing is intact.

The High Point Enterprise (High Point, North Carolina) May 31 1964 (pages 33 and 34)

By ROBERT MARKS
Enterprise Staff Writer

High Pointer Bickett Ellington will always remember the first night and the next two days in that June 20 years ago, when Allied forces stormed the-beaches of Normandy against Nazi Germany's Wermacht - and won. Ellington was one of the first American soldiers to land in France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

At 8:30 on the- night of June 5, he was a lieutenant at the controls of a huge British made Horsa glider. The glider and its tow-plane, a C-47 transport, were circling, waiting for other planes in formation to begin the journey toward France.

With Ellington in the glider were his co-pilot, Lt. Joe Gilreath of Fort Worth, Texas, seven other American soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, a jeep trailer, and 3,500 pounds of ammunition. The weather was rough. Circling, the glider bumped and yawed in the turbulent air. "If this had been a training exercise, I would have cut the line and landed," Ellington recalls.

Moment
This, however. was the moment for which Ellington and thousands of other Americans had been trained. A native of High Point, Ellington volunteered for service as a glider pilot in June 1942. He trained.in Texas and in Kentucky, learning to fly small aircraft first, then practicing to land then dead stick before taking over a glider. He also received training as an infantryman, for glider pilots often had to fight, once they got their plane and its cargo of men and supplies on the ground.

Ellington was a member of the 436th Troop Carrier Group, 80th Squadron. The unit was stationed- at Laurinburg-Maxton Air Base in North Carolina before it was sent to England. There, he trained with the Horsa, large and heavier glider than those being used by the American army. These were the gliders to be used in the airborne assault on France. In formation, heading for the French coast, the glider flew more smoothly through the' turbulent air. The planes were to fly a specified air corridor to France. "We had fighter planes below us and above us," Ellington says. "They really had us protected."

When the coast was reached the planes were to fly straight ahead for seven minutes. Then, the gliders were to cut their lines, and swing away at a 9O-degree angle toward their designated drop zones. "They had told us it would be a milk run," Ellington recalls. But 'we didn't: believe them. I put strips of sheet metal over the bottom, of my glider for protection against small arms fire. As we passed over t:he coast, the skies 'were streaked with tracers from German guns shooting at us."

Seven minutes after crossing the coast. Ellington saw the glider in front of him turn sharply to the left and start down. He cut his glider free from its tow line and. also turning sharply. headed down. Pathfinders 'were supposed to have marked the drop zones but Ellington saw nothing in the darkness below. Losing altitude quickly ,he suddenly discerned in the in the darkness a small field among the hedgerows, He brought the glider down into the field. The front wheel snapped off. The nose tilted to the ground and braked the glider to a stop.

In Ditch
The Axnericans quickly got out of the plane and into a ditch along the edge of the field. In the darkness. they heard other gliders crashing among the trees. Occasionally. machine gun fire swept across the field. Off in the distance Came the sound of more firing. Ellington and a group of other Americans remained in the ditch. They did not: know where they were. The soldiers had orders to move on specific targets. but did not know where these targets were now nor in what direction to move toward them. Shortly before dawn. the group heard the sounds of motors. Two, tanks appeared near their ditch at the edge of the field. As the day brightened. they saw the tanks were American.

Near Village
The tankers told them where the glider had come down. Ellington had landed near St. Mere Eglise, a small village several miles inland from Utah Beach. where the 4th Infantry Division was to have landed. As glider pilots. Ellington and Gilreath 'Were under orders t.o return to the beaches and get back to England as quickly as they could. During June 6. they made their way through the French country-side. dodging Germans. toward the beach. On June 7 they Were at the beach; by June 8. they were back in England new stories and pictures described them as the first Americans to return from France and related their experiences in the invasion.

Ellington piloted gliders in two other airborne assaults -an Eindhoven jn Holland and at Wesel. during the Rhine crossing. “That was even worse even worse than the invasion,” Ellington remembers. “ I lost a lot of friends at Wesel”.

Lt. Ellington is shown heading back to England with FO Joe Gilreath and FO Kenneth "Ray" Ensor. in Philippe Esvelin's book,"D Day Gliders" (page 131). Lt. Ellington is also in a photograph (page 104) shown in "Green Light" by Martin Wolfe. Mr. Wolfe may not have recognized these GPs for Mr. Wolfe was with the 81st Sq. It is Lt. Ellington shaking hands wit Col. Williams.

RIP "Smoky" Ellington..

 

Thank you Neil. Do you feel more strongly that the chalk numbers for the 436th had a dot under the number?
Great Facebook page!

Be Well
Dave

 

Thank you Neil

Be well