Max Gurney, 102, of San Diego is a proud member of the small contingent of surviving veterans who will witness the historic event.

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(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Richard Moore/The Epoch Times, Public Domain, Uberstroker/CC) By Allan Stein | May 27, 2024  Updated: May 30, 2024   OXFORD, Conn.—High above the muddy Hudson River, the D-Day Squadron had flown nearly 100 miles in tight formation to reach the towering spires of New York City.   Straight ahead, the mirror-blue One World Trade Center—Manhattan's tallest building at 1,776 feet—rose majestically above a drab sea of skyscrapers.   Just beyond was the Statue of Liberty, with its torch of freedom reaching toward the clouds.   The five World War II-era aircraft banked left to get a better look at Lady Liberty perched on its island pedestal in the New York Harbor just before the return flight to Connecticut.   Eighty years ago, the view from the squadron's C-47 troop transport aircraft, named That's All, Brother, looked much different as it flew into a world war raging about 3,500 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.   The massive airborne operation took place in the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944—D-Day. That's All, Brother was the first of hundreds of paratroop transport planes to deliver their human cargo over the heavily fortified beaches of Normandy, France.   At least 10,000 Allied soldiers (nearly 4,500 Americans) were killed or wounded during the land, air, and sea invasion on D-Day, and at least one-quarter of these casualties were airborne troops. Germany's losses were between 4,000 and 9,000 men, either killed or wounded.   The military operation was the beginning of the end of the war in Europe.   The May 17 flight over New York City was a trial run for the D-Day Squadron's 2024 Legacy Tour, which will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the historic invasion and the 75th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift in Wiesbaden, Germany.   On May 18, the squadron took to the skies once again from Oxford, Connecticut, this time on a transatlantic flight across the "Blue Spruce Route" used during World War II.   According to the D-Day Squadron, the Blue Spruce Route "refers to the ferry and refueling navigational path from North America to Europe that was leveraged during the war."   "The significant undertaking aims to honor the courage and sacrifice of the Greatest Generation, promoting the enduring legacy of freedom and democracy they fought for," it stated.   Five of the 11 aircraft in the squadron will complete the 3,000-nautical-mile journey to England and France in six days. Each plane will consume 36 gallons of oil and more than 1,600 gallons of fuel. The entire journey will require 80 crew members. Two C-47 Dakotas flying over New York State on May 17, 2024. (Richard Moore/The Epoch Times) A collection of DC-3-type aircraft will lead the way with scheduled stops in Canada, Iceland, the UK, and France.   About 60 World War II veterans will be honored with a symbolic flight of these aircraft during ground ceremonies in Normandy on D-Day, June 6.   Max Gurney, 102, of San Diego is a proud member of the small contingent of surviving veterans who will witness the historic event.   "I'm very thrilled," he told The Epoch Times in a phone interview. "I hope to meet some of these other veterans. For the time being, I don't know who they are. It will be a return to the past."   Mr. Gurney was among thousands of young men who enlisted in the Army right out of high school following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.   He said that at the time, anti-war sentiment in the United States had been running high. However, Pearl Harbor quickly galvanized public opinion in favor of entering the conflict in Europe.   "There was a complete change of mind, particularly with the students," Mr. Gurney said. "It was on a Sunday morning. As of Monday and Tuesday, there was a fantastic unity in the country—particularly among the young people.   "It was a pivotal moment for the country. The reasoning changed. The necessity to support the war against the Germans and the Japanese was very sharp. There was no dissent.   "As you can imagine, my mother was particularly taken aback by the events. She always encouraged me to be as careful as all mothers today toward their sons and children." Max Gurney, 102, of San Diego served in the U.S. Army in North Africa during World War II. (Courtesy of Max Gurney) Born in Germany, Mr. Gurney grew up in New York City and served with the U.S. Army signal corps in North Africa during the war.   He considers himself a "lucky survivor."   "The Germans had been extremely active, although we believed they couldn't win the war," he said. "They fought to the very end."   After the war, Mr. Gurney spent the next 45 years working at Pan American World Airways. He said the DC-3 (the civilian version of the C-47) ranked as one of the most reliable aircraft during peacetime.   In war, it was a dependable workhorse.   Piloted by Lt. Col. John Donalson, That's All, Brother led more than 800 C-47s that carried more than 13,000 paratroopers to drop zones on D-Day in 1944.   The airplane served in other large-scale operations, including Dragoon, Market Garden, and Varsity, before returning to the United States to be sold to the commercial market in 1945 after the war ended.   The airplane had many owners over the decades that followed, and its historical significance was lost.   Two U.S. Air Force historians eventually rescued the airplane from a scrap yard in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. A few years later, the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) acquired the airplane and restored it to its original 1944 khaki-green paint scheme and working condition.   "How do you put a price on history like this—the lead plane on the D-Day invasion?" CAF member and head of maintenance Ray Clausen, of San Antonio, said.   "This is physically the first [aircraft] of the actual paratroop invasion."   Built by the Douglas Aircraft Co., the DC-3 began its long and storied career as a civilian aircraft in the 1930s. The company made more than 600 DC-3s before converting to military production of the C-47 Skytrain in the United States and the Dakota in the British Royal Air Force in 1943.   The propeller-driven airplane has two 1,200-horsepower engines and can reach a cruising speed of more than 200 miles per hour. The range of the DC-3 is nearly 1,500 miles on a single tank of fuel. Continue reading the full story here>> Subscribe to The Epoch Times to read the rest. Become a paying subscriber of The Epoch Times to get access to this article and other subscriber-only content. Upgrade to paid >> Try for just 25¢ a week! 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